Breaking Down the Heat

When the word first leaked out that LeBron James and Chris Bosh were teaming up with Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade, Miami instantly became title contenders. With all three players usually having high-scoring games, statistic wise they should cruise straight through the entire season.

When you look past the statistics though, you begin to see overlaps of the playing personalities. LeBron and Wade have a similar attack, driving straight towards the basket and overpowering their defenders. Bosh also attacks the basket, and all are used to being the leaders of their team. So how can they all mesh together as one team?

That’s the task of Eric Spoelstra. The head coach had to find a way for all three players to achieve their best while not overlapping each other’s talents. One word covers Spoelstra’s idea: passing.

All three have superior passing abilities, and if they could put passing into their arsenal, they could get their skills to blend in with each other.

That plan is going into action as the Miami Heat work towards their goal of winning the NBA Championship. And from my perspective, they’re accomplishing their goal. They are currently 34-14 and are leading the Southeast Division. They have overcome some of the NBA’s top teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers. While they have been doing fairly well so far, there are still teams doing better than them. Why?

Initially the team wasn’t doing very well, and these were the two major flaws in their offense.

First of all, the Heat needed more help from their role players, the players that put in five or 10, sometimes maybe 20 points a game. The role players used to score about 50, 60 even 70 points each night, then count on Wade to put on the rest. Now, with the arrival of LeBron and Bosh these role players are combining for 30, 40 points. Although I’m not calling the three “ball hogs,” they are scoring the majority of the Heat’s points.

The second flaw is with the different positions on the team. Who is the point guard? Typically, a point guard brings the ball down the court, finds an open man, or drives to the hoop. Currently, the official point guards of the Heat are Carlos Arroyo and Mario Chalmers, but what are they really doing? Watching the game, it looks as if they just give the ball to Wade or James and let them do all the dirty work. It’s as if either Wade or LeBron is the point guard. So what are the positions of Arroyo and Mario?

One thing should be noted about the Heat. They started the season 9-8 and are now 34-14. Over the past 31 games they have gone 25-6. This is still a team in progress, and does not quite have the experience as some other elite teams in the NBA.

There’s a lot of weight on the Heat’s shoulders, but they are battle tested and ready to fight through the season with one goal: an NBA championship.