Mediocre Talent in South Beach

The Miami Heat were supposed to be one of the powerhouses in the NBA. They already had Dwyane Wade and gained LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and some pretty decent secondary players like Mike Miller and Eddie House during the offseason. They started off the season with a loss to Celtics but then rebounded nicely for a few games. Since then they have sputtered to 10-8. Teams like the Pacers, Knicks, Warriors, and Cavs all are within 2 games of them. What has happened to the Miami Heat?

For starters their leading rebounder, Udonis Haslem, got hurt and may be done for the year. Mike Miller has not played a game yet and won't until January after injuring himself in practice while guarding James. But everyone who follows basketball knows about these injuries. The real problem here is the coaching. Eric Spoelstra is not a good coach. He does not know how to handle the three stars compare to the rest of the team. If you look at the stats you'll know what I mean. LeBron James is the team leader in 3 of the 5 main stats (points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks). None of the bench players are in double digits in points for the season and there are no passers on the team besides James and Wade. The stats for the team outside James, Wade, and Bosh are really quite pitiful. It's as if Spoelstra only trusts "Miami Thrice" to win games for him, and that is certainly not how you win basketball games.

Maybe I'm being too hard on Spoelstra. Maybe we are learning through the Heat that a NBA team cannot be built around three superstars in their prime. Boston and San Antonio's Big Three all include guys towards the end of their careers, and none are prolific scorers like Miami's Big Three. Miami's Big Three is made up of three players that you can build a team around. They don't really compliment each other like the older Big Three's do. Miami's Big Three also had to get paid, which left little money for significant bench players. Miami's bench is thin once you get past Haslem, Miller, Arroyo, and House, and two out of those four are injured.

What Miami needs to do is play as a five man team and not a three man team. They need bench players to average more than 5, 6, 7 points a game and they need them to get more than just an assist or two a game. The Miami Heat consist of other players besides James, Wade, and Bosh and they need to step up big time. Spoelstra needs to trust his entire team and not just his Big Three. That mediocre talent in South Beach will have to shine if the Heat ever wants to become the hottest team in the NBA.

References

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/miami-heat
http://espn.go.com/nba/standings/_/group/1