Some Miami Advice

 There are some pretty annoying trends currently taking hold of the American sports world today. Ones that come to mind are the Tebow craze, significance of the QUARTERBACK POSITION (Trent Dilfer voice), and the continuing notion that one player has to take every final shot.

To me though, there is one trend that trumps all of those: the over-criticism of the Miami Heat.

When LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh all agreed to join forces, most casual fans immediately hung up a minimum of three future championship banners for the franchise. How could a basketball team possibly lose with three of the NBA's top 30 players?

Well, that's the problem. Everything in the Heat's future is invested in the production of three players. There is literally nobody else on that entire team who can score consistently enough to be considered a key contributor. If one of those three goes down, as Bosh did, then the whole championship possibility for Miami just took a huge hit.

If you don't believe me, I invite you to take a look at the roster. Well, we have two average point guards in Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers. We have big men who could not score a basketball if you put the hoop at five feet in Joel Anthony, Juwan Howard, Eddy Curry, and Dexter Pittman. Better yet, we can put in Mike Miller or James Jones to maybe hit a three.

Nobody on that list of names fulfills the distinction of being a role player. The only two I didn't name, Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem, could actually give you enough to be a role player. And here's a little tip on basketball if you didn't know; role players will win you championships.

Take a look at the greatest NBA teams to ever step on a court. The Bulls dynasty saw greats like Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc, and Steve Kerr make key contributions at multiple points to help Jordan and Pippen win all of those titles. Shaq and Kobe knew they could dish the ball to Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, or Robert Horry to hit a key shot in a key moment. Bruce Bowen was a key cog in the Spurs dynasty. John Havlicek, believe it or not, was a sixth man for his first four titles with those great Celtic teams.

If the Heat had three or four players that could live up to those role-playing capabilities, they could win an NBA title. But at the moment, they just don't. It's all about the Big Three. The spotlight never leaves them, which is not helpful.

Go back to my point about "the last shot" or "the clutch gene" being an annoying trend in sports. The situation with the Heat is the perfect example of how this is ruining the game of basketball and truly driving a team like this insane.

Nowadays, everybody thinks there has to be one designated guy to take the final shot in a basketball game. If he's double-teamed, it doesn't matter. You're the star; you have to shoot it. This "hero ball" is not the answer to winning basketball games. You win close games by drawing clutch plays, but there's even a slight catch to that: you have to have guys who can execute those last plays.

The Heat are an enigma with this phenomenon. They have two NBA stars who are looked at to close games; James and Wade. Tonight, both of these men failed in the final minutes with missed free throws and opportunities to give their team the win. Unlike the rest of America, I'm not going to sit here and place heaps of blame on them solely for that.  Let's consider the circumstance of tonight's last play.

Down by three, Erik Spoelsta decided to draw the final play for Mario Chalmers. First, I give him a great deal of credit for coming up with a set play to win. Excellent move. But where was he wrong? Well, he picked Mario Chalmers to take the shot. The only meaningful moment Chalmers has ever provided was a last-second three to give Kansas a national title, truly memorable. But that was college. This is the NBA.

Spoelstra put the game on the shoulders of a player is simply not capable of hitting a shot like that. The Lakers knew "Big Shot Rob" (Robert Horry) and Derek Fisher could hit shots like that. The Bulls knew Steve Kerr could nail a buzzer beater. Last year's Mavericks never worried about Jason Terry having the ball in his hands in the final seconds.

Miami does not have this luxury. They have no choice but to give the ball to James or Wade and hope they can create something. So, in actuality, I will criticize the Heat any time one of these two does not take the shot because there is simply nobody else capable of making it. Who else are you giving it to?

People need to remember that fact. The third leading scorer on the Heat tonight, without Bosh, had five points....in four quarters of basketball. Criticize Bosh all you want, but without him, this team has nobody to replace him. No depth will lose you championships every single time, which is why I believe the absence of everybody's favorite human velociraptor will do just that to Miami.

The bottom line is I am actually quite surprised by the Heat's rapid success. This is a team that has no point guard or center and absolutely nobody on the bench who can come in and be a force. They should not be contending for a title already. Combine that aspect with the pressure of every loss exceeding everybody else's losses, then you have a pretty tough predicament on your hands.

So, next time the Heat lose, don't just look at The Big Three's stats. Take a look at everybody else's. Then, you might calm your outrage a little bit.