The more things change… The more they stay the same

We are witnessing a landmark year for the NBA; LeBron’s ‘The Decision’ was a bizarre off-season soap-opera that brought us the hype of the Heatles. The super-star bedrock was rattled as Amar’e Stoudemire went from Phoenix to NYC, Chris Bosh left sunny Toronto for blue-collar Miami, Shaq left LeBron’s sloppy-seconds to join the Celtics and Joe Johnson went nowhere.

Having observed Miami’s first half, I’m left with some impressive highlights and a lot of concerns.

RE: The Highlights

No team has amassed a highlight reel like this Miami Heat team. The blow-out wins, the Wade to Le Bron alley-oop dunks, Le Bron dunking so hard he give Wade a bloody nose, Wade racking up high scoring games, James Jones hitting WIDE open threes. Many nights, watching them is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals, except the Globetrotters are playing just a little sloppy. Or have been paid to keep it close. It always seems like, if Miami fired on all cylinders, they’d be unstoppable.

And on the occasions where they’re clicking and find a rhythm, they have looked just that; unstoppable.

The Heat blow people out. They can out-talent, out-work and over-power people. But…

RE: The Problems

The Heat don’t always fire on all cylinders.

They are far away from a well-oiled machine. Their lack of structured team play is brought to light by their team assist ranking: 27th. Dwayne Wade is a more than facile passer, LeBron fills in at point-guard frequently and can bring the ball up the court as well as anyone not named Steve Nash, Deron Williams or Chris Paul. Mike Miller and Chris Bosh can make passes and Mario Chalmers is a burgeoning PG. Why, on a team of people this established and skilled are the Miami Heat 27th in assists per game? Because there aren’t firm team mechanics yet. This is still a team of people that shoot first and run plays later.

That brings me to my penultimate and ultimate concerns.

Penultimate: The Miami Heat can’t beat the Beast. That being the Celtics. The Celtics are unquestionably the gatekeepers of the East. Until the Heat can play well, confidently and consistently against this team, LeBron’s “not five, not six” comment regarding Championships at his introduction to the Heat is laughable.

The Heat have played them closely, but I would put exactly $0 on them winning a seven game series against Gang Green…right now. Not saying it can’t be done. Saying the landscape of the East looks pretty similar to the way it has the last few seasons. Just slide Miami Thrice up two to three spots in the playoff seeding.

Ultimate: My final and most critical observation has come during close games. Both wins and losses. During close games, I’ve observed the Heat reverting to a Cavaliers 2009-2010 offensive scheme. Which is no more elaborate than: Give LeBron ball, spread floor, clear out. That offensive game-plan didn’t work for the Cavs last year. It didn’t work for the Heat running that for Wade the last two years and therefore, I don’t believe it can be trusted to work this year.

Miami has some of the most skilled, dynamic players in the world gracing their roster and without a more elaborate or effective scheme for close games, or games where the Three Amigos aren’t feeling it, I fear the Heat are destined to repeat the mistakes of previous seasons. I am a firm believer that basketball is as much a feel and flow game as it is a game to be coached and play-called.

But when I watched the Heat play the Pacers on February 8, things got a little tight at the end and I watched that last minute play out in the same fashion that LeBron got eliminated from the playoffs the last two seasons. LeBron got the inbounds, brought it down the floor, slowed down past the mid-court line, every other Heat player stretched around the 3-point line and stared at LeBron. He dribbled around, took the shot clock down, it became clear he was going to drive to the hoop, so the help defense came in from the Pacers and made it a hurried low-percentage play. This was not an isolated incident and it’s giving me some serious deja vu.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. Someone should tell the Heat.

Photo courtesy Lynne Sladky