It's hard to have a stranger season than the one the Miami Heat put together. Ten months ago, they were playing for their third straight title and LeBron James' future with the franchise seemed secure.
3 reasons the reigning Eastern Conference champs are about to miss the playoffs
*Non-LeBron James reasons, of course.
And then everything fell apart. First there were cramps, then the blowouts, then the first-person essay in Sports Illustrated. Pat Riley, clearly blindsided by James' departure, did his best to pick up the pieces. Chris Bosh was given an offer he couldn't refuse. Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts were signed. Hassan Whiteside was discovered. Goran Dragic was acquired.
And yet, the Miami Heat’s season is about to end before the playoffs begin. The Heat sit 10 games under .500, two games out of a playoff spot and behind two other teams with just two games left to play. The Heat’s season may not officially be over, but it’s on life support.
How does a team with two future Hall of Famers, a championship coach, an All-Star caliber point guard and a towering young center fail to become one of the eight best teams in one the worst conferences in the history of sports?
The answer isn’t simple.
1. Starting issues
When Miami pried Goran Dragic away from the Phoenix Suns right before the trade deadline, Heat fans everywhere rejoiced, and for good reason. A starting lineup of Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Loul Deng, Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside projected to be one of the league's best. Dragic and Wade formed an unstoppable backcourt capable of breaking down even the best of defenses. Deng would defend the league's premier scorers while also spacing the floor. Whiteside could clean up the boards, protect the rim and allow Bosh to do his thing without being required to bang down low. The future looked bright.
That dream died just a day later. On Feb. 20, the day after the trade deadline, the Heat announced that Bosh had been admitted to a hospital. He was being tested for blood clots, which were later discovered. Bosh hasn't played since, so the five best players on the Heat roster never shared the court.
The Heat probably could have withstood this blow had Wade been healthy all year, but being healthy for an entire year is not really something he can do anymore. When playing, he’s been excellent, averaging 22 points, five assists and shooting 47 percent from the field, but he’s also missed 19 games this season.
He’s not the only one. Deng missed nine games, Whiteside sat the same amount since January and McRoberts barely made it onto the court before a season-ending injury.
Even Dragic couldn’t stay healthy once he put on the Heat uniform, as a back injury forced him out of two games in early March. Dragic has played well since arriving in Miami -- 50 percent shooting, 17 points and five assists per game -- but the Heat are just 12-15 since the deal.
Having bad injury luck is one thing. What’s made life so difficult for Miami is the type of bad injury luck the team has had. One guy comes back, only for another to go down. It’s a vicious cycle.
Just check out the different lineups the Heat have been forced to use this season. None have played more than 167 total minutes or started more than 15 games together. Their most-used starting unit features a player (Dragic) who was just recently added to the roster, a 25-year-old (Whiteside) who didn't start playing until January and an over-the-hill veteran (Udonis Haslem) who was never even supposed to get major minutes this year. Compare this to the Warriors' starting lineup, which has played a total of 794 minutes together, and you see how unlucky Miami has been.
The Heat have only three five-man lineups that played more than 100 minutes. They've also used 30 different starting lineups this season, barely fewer than the tanking Knicks (36) and Sixers (39).
2. We need more men!
Remember that dream starting lineup mentioned above? That's a far cry from some of the lineups we've seen on the floor over the past month as the Heat's season slipped away. The Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Bill-But-Now-Going-As-Henry Walker, James Ennis, Tyler Johnson and Michael Beasley have all received crunch-time minutes down the stretch.
Having a ton of injuries is rough enough, but being forced to rely on D-League-level players and NBA castoffs to compensate is what prevented the Heat from staying afloat when Wade and Bosh went down. Michael Beasley should not be getting fourth-quarter minutes. Tyler Johnson should not be starting games. James Ennis is not an NBA-quality wing.
None of this is lost on Wade, who had the following to say after the Heat’s Sunday night loss, via ESPN.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s a part of life. But I’m proud of every guy who came in here, from the D-League, from China, wherever they were, and represented the Heat the right way this year.”
The McRoberts injury hurt Miami's depth, but the bench Riley gave Erik Spoelstra certainly didn't help matters. This is what happens when you unnecessarily add first-round picks to sign-and-trades (like the Heat did when they originally signed Bosh and LeBron) and waste picks on second-round talents like Shabazz Napier just to help convince LeBron to stay. Napier, selected 24th overall in the draft last June, is averaging just five points and three assists in 20 minutes per game this year and has been sent down to the D-League multiple times. That sums up the job Riley has done in building a bench.
3. Can’t you guys do anything right?
A quick look at the numbers shows a team that has struggled both on offense and defense. Miami’s offensive rating of 101.4 is the ninth-lowest number in the league. Its defensive rating of 103.9 is the 12th-worst. What’s the Heat’s problem? They’re just not very good at anything. Whatever classifies the area between bad and mediocre, that’s the Heat.
But if you want to take a deeper glance, you can see which areas have been problematic. Rebounding, for one, has definitely been an issue. The emergence of Whiteside helped, but it didn’t solve Miami’s inability to clean the glass. Miami is only grabbing 47 percent of possible defensive rebounds this season, the eighth-worst number in the league.
Interior play in general is a big problem. The Heat are only scoring 39 points per game in the paint, the sixth-worst mark in the league. They also score just 10 fast break points per game, the fifth-worst mark in the league. All that is a fancy way of saying they’re not getting easy shots. Dragic and Wade can score, but basketball is still a five-man game and it’s hard to develop offensive fluidity when the five players on the court are constantly changing.
***
The Heat now must hope the mix they build meshes next season. Problem is, Wade and Bosh are only getting older. They may have missed a golden opportunity to stay in the East title hunt this year.
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