Miami Heat Can Win It All If Dwyane Wade Leads the Way

They attempted to win with LeBron James leading the way, and they came up two games short.

That was the Miami Heat's first mistake in their NBA Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks. They allowed an inexperienced player who had only played in four previous finals games—all that he lost—to take over, and it cost the Heat greatly when they found out he wasn't mentally ready to compete at such a high level. James was hesitant and tentative the whole series and looked to be a completely different player than the one who had just torched two of their top Eastern Conference foes only a few weeks prior.

After performing so prolifically in the semifinals and conference finals, it was believed by the organization and the rest of the NBA world that it should have been James leading the way into the finals. In Game 1, he gave the team a needed 24 points, but then went on to falter down the stretch in nearly all of the next decisive five games. The clutch moments he was living for in series past was now the last type of moment James wanted.

By Game 6, LeBron didn't even look like he wanted the ball.

James has the talent, potential and physicality to become one of the league's greatest, but he seems to lack the killer instinct and overall heart and desire a player needs to be considered as one of the league's best—now and in history. James' biggest criticism was his postseason play, and he managed to prove his critics wrong for the first three series, but then kept them talking after his dismal finals disappearance.

The Miami Heat signed three players for a number of reasons. The most positive reason for the Heat signing the likes of James and Chris Bosh to play alongside of Dwyane Wade was for the fact the team could rely on one or two other players if one or two weren't able to produce at the rate they're used to. On some occasions, the team had all three players producing at a higher rate, but most of the time, it was either one or two players producing at maximum potential.

This is where the team went wrong.

It failed to realize that instead of forcing the issue with one player, it should have given the majority of offensive possessions to players that were ready for the spotlight and ready to will their team to victory. With James leading the way for most games, Miami was basically running the same stagnant offense game after game.

The main problem was the team had a clear-cut answer for its finals struggles if it would have deterred the ball to Wade rather than James. Wade didn't have as many postseason appearances as James, but he did take advantage of it whenever he got the chance. He averaged 33 points per game on 56 percent shooting in the team's five-game series loss to the Boston Celtics in 2010 and also averaged 29 points per game during the team's seven-game series loss to the Atlanta Hawks in 2009.

There was no better reason to give the ball to Wade than to just remember what had happened in 2006. Everybody remembers the story of Wade leading his Miami team from a potential 3-0 series deficit by erasing a 13-point Dallas Mavericks lead with five minutes remaining, only to see the Heat end up winning 98-96 behind Wade's 42 points. The Heat went on to win the next three games, clinching their first championship thanks to Wade.

On a team with veterans in Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning, it was a third-year player in Wade leading the way for the Heat. Some players falter under pressure, and Wade isn't one of those guys. He lives for the moments where the game is on the line and the ball is in his hands because he looks toward more of the reward than the risk he takes by attempting game-winning shots. When the ball is in his hands, Wade's already thinking about how the team is going to win and how he is going to be able to lead them.

Some players have this instinct and others don't. The biggest mistake of Erik Spoelstra's impressive run was not allowing Wade to take over and take control of the series as he did in Game 2, when he put the Heat up by 15 points with a little more than eight minutes remaining. After Wade hit his 36th point of the night, the coaching staff decided it was time for James to take over on the offensive end. Once the ball got into his hands, the offense went stagnant and the game went sour.

That's the benefit of having these three players once again. Players can alternate in leading the team during a playoff series from game to game. There shouldn't have to be one player the team desperately relies on because there are three players who were at a time a franchise player. James led a badly constructed Cleveland Cavalier teams to the finals, Bosh led the Toronto Raptors to division titles and Wade was leading less-than-stellar rosters to the playoffs year after year.

In a series like the finals, however, the ball should be in the hands of Wade for the majority of the game. He's been at this level before, and he's taken advantage of it with a finals victory. It was a mistake on behalf of the coaching staff and the team as a whole to not acknowledge this, but they should take it a lesson learned that they should hand the ball to Wade during decisive moments that players like him live for.

It's understandable the team gave the ball to James because of just how prolific he was during the two series prior, but it should have made its adjustments mid-series and given the ball to Wade. It would have taken pressure off James, and it would have allowed the player most ready for the situation at hand to take advantage.

In time, LeBron will be ready for situations such as the one he just gave away nearly a month ago. For now, though, the finals should be Wade's time to shine. He was easily the team's best player during the finals and would have been the finals MVP if the team had realized he was meant to be the star player of the finals.

Not LeBron.