/ Basketball

Fixing the Miami Heat: How Miami can become unstoppable

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The Miami Heat lost four games!

To all the Heat fans currently drenched in anger and despair, chill out.

The Heat is going to be an all-time great team. Wade will play better. James will play better. Bosh will play better. At the moment, the Heat looks lost, blowing a 22-point lead to Utah & squandering a chance to beat the Celtics on their home floor.

The reason the Heat looks lost?

They are playing out of position.

For the Heat to win against great teams, Dwyane Wade must play point guard. On defense, only Wade can check Rondo & Chris Paul & Deron Williams for the Heat. Wade has the speed to stifle elite point guards, but he must stop gambling on defense. When Wade tries to steal a pass and misses, the Heat consistently get beat on defense.

On offense, the Heat will flow with Wade playing the point. When Wade was a rookie, his game was rock solid. He would take 12 shots a game and make 9.

The reason? He only took money shots.

Otherwise, he found an open teammate with a better look. Now that Wade has LeBron & Bosh & James Jones & Udonis to pass to, he should be penetrating like Rondo & passing when 2 defenders are forced to cover him. Wade’s turnovers are the result of looking to pass a second too late. When Wade starts thinking pass first the whole Heat offense will open up & everyone will shoot a higher percentage.

No one else on the Heat can play the point like Wade. LeBron is not a point guard. You might think he is because he is such a great passer, but in the Heat’s basic set, LeBron should play off the ball, cutting to the basket for a pass from Wade. LeBron is the best small forward in the game & it’s time Wade started letting him play his position. When Wade has to sit, only then should LeBron become the primary ballhandler, because he is the next best option.

The Heat don’t have anyone else strong enough to claim the point guard spot in the games that count. Against the Celtics, Wade should sit when Rondo sits, & then Eddie House should sub for Wade to space the floor for LeBron.  Arroyo & Chalmers don’t add anything to the team, because neither plays great defense or shoots well from 3-point land.

The second major problem the Heat has is the center position. I’m looking at you, Chris Bosh.
Bosh is big enough to D up most NBA centers, and he is the best center on the Heat. Unless the opposing power forward is Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, or Pau Gasol, Bosh should be playing center. As great as Udonis Haslem is, he can not guard Garnett or Gasol, & when Bosh must guard the power forward, Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Jamaal Magloire should be in the game.
Otherwise, Bosh should start and center & Udonis Haslem should start at power forward. Joel Anthony has been playing well but he is not a true center & should really be backing up Haslem & getting only garbage time minutes at center. As for Bosh, I saw him in person against the Jazz, repeatedly stuffing Paul Millsap, who is a monster. When Bosh plays with that intensity, he can lock down any post player short of Dwight Howard.  He must for the Heat to be champions.

At shooting guard, James Jones should start unless Mike Miller comes back strong from injury, but both must play big minutes. JJ and MM can both defend, space the floor & back up LeBron at small forward. Until Miller gets back, Jerry Stackhouse should sub for LeBron and Jones. House, Chalmers & Arroyo are too small to guard anyone but the point guard.

The final problem with the Heat is not the coach, but the fans. Many Heat fans have been complaining about Spoelstra, but I believe he will figure out his rotation. The bigger problem is that just like the players, the fans have been out of position.  When the game starts, the fans haven’t gotten to their seats yet. When the second half begins, the fans are buying food at the concession stands. The Jazz came back in the second half against the Heat to dead silence because the seats were half empty.

It felt like Heat fans thought the game was already over & the players didn’t play as hard because of the silence. If Heat fans want the team to win, start screaming “Defense” when the other team has the ball. It makes a difference.

Leave a Reply