New Orleans Pelicans: Following the Miami Heat’s Zone Defense in 2021

To be a better defensive team in 2021, the New Orleans Pelicans should use more zone defense like the Miami Heat

After watching the Miami Heat go up 2-0 on the Boston Celtics in the 2020 NBA Playoffs, we’re officially witnessing a defensive revolution in the NBA that the New Orleans Pelicans need to follow. The rise of zone defenses.

The Miami Heat are flummoxing teams with their 2-3 zone defense following the trend of zone usage that started in the 2019 NBA Finals by Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. The once illegal zone defenses popular at the NCAA level are now the perfect counter punch needed for stopping modern offenses.

For this piece, I wanted to break down the Miami Heat 2-3 zone defense and why I believe with the right coaching, the New Orleans Pelicans can improve their 20th ranked defense by following Miami’s strategy.

How the Miami Heat’s Zone Defense Works

Unlike Nick Nurse in Toronto or Brad Stevens in Boston who are running exotic zone defenses that take a lot of coaching, Eric Spoelstra is running a standard 2-3 zone defense to success. How it works is pretty simple.

In this defense, Miami sets up two players at the top of the key with the responsibilities of guarding the wings and preventing dribble penetration from ballhandlers. On the back of those two players are three more players who are usually frontcourt players. Those players guard the corners and take away the paint preventing shots at the rim.

I like this scheme a lot because Miami uses it to get rim protection when using a smaller lineup and the scheme puts a lot of pressure on ball-handlers forcing turnovers.

Why the New Orleans Pelicans can run Miami’s Zone Defense well

What I want to start by noting is that the 2-3 zone isn’t Miami’s base defense. In the NBA teams don’t use zone as their set defense the way they do in the NCAA. The teams that are using zone defenses are akin to a changeup in baseball.

What that means is that every playing a standard defense for a lot of the game, teams like Miami will suddenly throw in some zone to disrupt the rhythm of the opposing offense.

I want to see the New Orleans Pelicans give this a try for two reasons. The first being it’s beneficial to their weaknesses and the second being they have the athletism to make this scheme work.

Starting with the beneficial aspect. The Pelicans struggled to defend the paint this past season, giving up the third-most points in the paint in the NBA. Their 3 point defense was okay but they did struggle against wings on the corner. If the Pelicans can play a disciplined 2-3 zone like Miami all those problems get better.

With the New Orleans Pelicans’ length and athletism on their roster, they can be deadly at forcing turnovers in a Miami zone. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson are a few of the most athletic young players in the game and this defensive scheme takes advantage of their abilities.

In the end, it will be up to the Pelicans’ new head to decide what defense the team runs next season, but if they have most of the same roster returning then it might be wise for the team’s new coach to take a page out of the Miami Heat’s playbook.