Miami Heat Season Recap: Where Dwyane Wade Happened

Just one year after a disastrous, injury-filled, 15-67 season, the Miami Heat bounced back and returned to the postseason. In just one year, they transformed from the worst team in the league to emerge as the fifth seed in the East and push the Atlanta Hawks to seven games in their first round match up.

There turnaround was anything but smooth, as their roster, head coach, and team character was retooled after finishing with the league’s worst record in the 2007-2008 season.

Almost as soon as the 2007-08 season ended, changes started happening. Pat Riley stepped down as head coach and promoted Erik Spoelstra as his successor. Then there was the NBA Draft, in which the Heat owned the second overall pick. They took Michael Beasley with the pick and selected Mario Chalmers with their second round pick. And just like that, the Miami Heat went from one of the older teams in the league into one of the youngest. They had a supporting cast of two rookies, one sophomore in Daequan Cook, and other young players such as Chris Quinn.

With a new coach, new rookies, and a healthy Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat were on their way to a rebound season.

With their new roster in place, the Heat started out slow, playing very inconsistent, which is typical of a young team that featured two rookies in their opening night starting lineup (Chalmers and Beasley). The Heat’s first 25 games was an array of inconsistency, with win then loss, win then loss, as they started out the season 13-12. While their record was nothing spectacular, it was still a far cry from the prior season’s 7-18 start.

As the season progressed, Miami started to come together and play with a higher level of consistency. They reeled off some impressive wins over top teams such as the Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic, and Spurs.

Dwyane Wade led a young core of players in a remarkable turnaround year for the All-Star guard. After a season plagued by injuries, Wade bounced back strong and showed the critics that he could still play. By the All-Star break in February, Wade was the NBA’s leading scorer and led his Miami Heat to a notable 28-24 record.

With the Heat sitting strong in the East’s fifth spot and looking to move into the coveted fourth spot, Pat Riley made headlines with a blockbuster deal just before All-Star Weekend. Riley traded Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for six-time All-Star Jermaine O’Neal and small forward Jamario Moon. The hope was that O’Neal would establish some type of post presence and help balance Miami’s ball movement and play.

While O’Neal certainly had some great moments and helped the Heat into the postseason, he never really emerged as the player the Heat expected him to be. He had trouble becoming the Heat’s offensive inside presence and had a major issue with rebounding. A career average of 7.6 rebounds per game fell to 5.4 rebounds with the Heat. But, Jermaine was an excellent shooter and an outstanding defensive presence. He was a great shot blocker for the Heat as they stepped up their defense in the post, which was primarily because of O’Neal’s presence.

During the All-Star weekend, Miami was represented by Wade, Beasley, and Cook. Beasley participated in the rookie-sophomore game, in which he led the rookies with 29 points. Cook kept up his hot three-point shooting by winning the three-point contest, becoming the third player in Heat history to win the award. But, All-Star weekend saw all eyes on Wade, as his MVP-hype was the talk of the weekend and his recognition for an MVP candidate increased.

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