Miami Heat: 5 Reasons Why They Should Be Considered Title Favorites Next Year

After a Finals performance like this past June, you wouldn't expect the Miami Heat to be such strong favorites to take home the title next season.

What we fail to remember, however, is that the Heat still has LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and there is no team currently playing in the NBA that can match up with the Heat at all three positions.

It's the reason why they won 58 out of 82 games during the regular season and why they coasted through the Eastern Conference Playoffs, only losing three games to three separate teams.

They were too talented of a team to fail until they reached a Dallas Mavericks team that turned the heat up with a defense they could not break.

Even with the upsetting end to an otherwise productive season, there is still plenty of hope for this team to still win multiple titles.

They faced a number of obstacles last season that they were forced to overcome for the duration of the regular and postseason, as they basically played with three players for the majority of nearly every game.

It was a good run for a team that only joined together less than a year prior and had to overcome struggles and criticism.

Should they still have won? Without a doubt.

Just because they lost one year doesn't mean they're never going to win now. They still have three top tier players and will have a lot more working for them this next season and seasons in the future.

Here are five reasons as to why this Heat team will still go on to win not only a title next year, but multiple titles throughout their time together.

Improvement at the Point

Aside from the power forward, small forward and shooting guard positions, the Miami Heat ran into a number of problems from two of the most important positions in the NBA today: at point guard and at center.

While the numerous players who played a part at center were consistently dreadful, the play at point was consistently inconsistent.

With Mario Chalmers, Mike Bibby and Eddie House as the teams three pure point guards, the Heat dealt with a number of issues from each player.

Whether it was Chalmers' inability to make the right plays at the right time, Bibby's disappearance in the post season or House's lack of defense or concern of looking for teammates, the Heat just couldn't find one true answer for the point guard.

However, with Bibby disappearing in the postseason, it was Chalmers who ended up playing the role of savior at the one spot for the Heat.

After another subpar regular season where he lost his starting job a number of times, Chalmers was electric and was possibly the Heat's third best player in the NBA Finals, as he let his range and play making speak for his game. He had multiple three-pointers in four of the six games and even had four-on-two occasions.

His ability to his pressure shots is surprising as well. Near the end of the Heat's Game 2 loss to Dallas, Chalmers hit a game tying three-pointer with 15 seconds remaining. Chalmers has always been able to hit shots at the right moment for the Heat.

With confidence, Chalmers can be an extremely dangerous point guard as well as a possible solution to filling out the starting job at the point permanently.

His three-point shooting has always been quality, and he has the agility and athleticism to take on any power forward or center down in the paint. Chalmers' offense has been inconsistent for the most part, but he can perfect his craft if he can continue to start and work his way through down periods.

His on the ball defense is subpar, but his ability to anticipate and intercept passes is exceptional for a player of his age.

If he can continue to learn under the tutelage of players like House, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, he can easily become the teams point guard of the future as well as becoming a legitimate floor general in this league.

A Healthier Bench

For a team playing without its fourth and fifth best players, the Heat did quite well. Even a team with players of the caliber of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the roster still needs players to step up and help the teams cause at times.

For the majority of their first regular season together, the fourth and fifth best players for the Heat were James Jones and Mario Chalmers because the team had key injuries to their two best bench players.

After shooting a career high 48 percent from deep the previous season, the Heat signed Mike Miller to a $30 million contract over the next five seasons. They anticipated that he would be the team's sharpshooter from deep considering that he had done so well the previous season and over his career.

He was a 40 percent career shooter from beyond the arc and had shot over 40 percent from the land of three for five of the previous six seasons.

Unfortunately, Miller's tenure with the Heat got off to a late start, as he suffered an injury to his hand during a practice prior to the start of the season, and he wouldn't make his debut with the team until Dec. 20.

He struggled mightily with his shot, as nothing could fall, and in turn, his confidence fell with it. Not only that, but he experienced a myriad of other injuries throughout the course of the season.

For shooters, suffering an injury to your hands is the worst possible thing that could happen. Miller has been in the league since 2000 and has always been recognized as a three-point threat.

With an injury to his hands, he lost the flow and the touch that he had developed over the past decade. His psyche was damaged as a result of him missing the shots, and it caused him and the team to suffer.

Not only was Miller injured, but the team also had to deal with the loss of their warrior in Udonis Haslem after injuring his foot on Nov. 20 and not returning until the Conference semifinals.

Haslem has been on the team since 2003 and is one of only two members of the current Heat team to be a part of the 2006 championship squad. His exceptional effort and blue-collar work ethic is key to the team, as it usually inspired his teammates to play with the same amount of effort.

He's a double-double threat in every game, and the best the team could come up with as a replacement for the season was Joel Anthony, who was averaging two points and three rebounds per game.

Haslem's presence was missed as the team skated the way through the regular season and hardly played with a purpose. Losing a player that averages 10 points and eight rebounds per game as well as being the hardest work was a devastating blow to the Heat.

Haslem will be at 100 percent by the start of next season, and the team can only hope that Miller gets his act together in time as he undergoes procedures to correct his hands.

With Miller and Haslem at full strength and providing the big three with support, the Heat overall will add much more versatility on both sides of the ball with a sharpshooter to go along with a hustler and overall hard worker.

Possible Improvement in the Offseason

We might not have to think about this for awhile, but sometime in the hopefully near future, the free agency period will begin.

This year's free agency class hardly features superstar names in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, with David West and Jamal Crawford being the two most coveted.

Instead, this year's free agency class is littered with role players that are basically regarded as specialists.

Teams will have to wait until 2012 for superstar names to pop up (Dwight Howard and Chris Paul), so for now, they'll have to deal with players that won't hardly be commanding any sort of $10 million per year deal.

The Heat already followed through on picking up their superstars last year, so they now must look toward continuing to surround their big three with talent. Most importantly, they'll need to look to filling in the gaping holes at the center and point guard position.

The point guard spot won't be as serious an issue with Mario Chalmers hopefully becoming the team's floor general of the future, but finding a center will be an absolute must for the team.

They won't be able to afford the most coveted center in Nene Hilario, but there are plenty of other middle and lower-tier centers available for the taking.

With the likes of Joel Przybilla and Aaron Gray being possible options, all the Heat really need is a center who can catch and finish, provide some sort of resistance and deter players from scoring in the paint at will.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Erick Dampier, Joel Anthony and Jamaal Magloire didn't exactly cut it.

The team should make a strong push towards current Sacramento Kings center Samuel Dalembert. He could be affordable and the team could offer him incentives such as becoming an immediate starter, an extremely high chance of providing him with his first title and the closest he can be to his native Haiti.

The Heat may not offer him the most out of teams looking for a player like Dalembert, but they can offer more those three incentives that no other team cannot provide.

As far as a point guard goes, the team should possibly look towards signing T.J. Ford, Acie Law or Patrick Mills. They would provide some depth to the spot and would put some pressure on Chalmers, who usually responds well to some healthy competition.

A Better Flow to the Offense

If one problem persisted during the Heat's NBA Finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks, it was their lack of offensive flow.

The team had absolutely no sort of rhythm for the majority of the series, as the Mavericks zone defense shook the team and prevented the slashers from driving at will.

With coach Erik Spoelstra failing to implement shooters in James Jones and Eddie House to break the zone with their three-point shooting, the Heat had no answer, as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade both struggled to find easy scoring opportunities.

The NBA Finals wouldn't be the first time this has happened, either. There were numerous occasions during the regular season when the Heat's offense was grotesque. Even with three of the most prolific scorers in the league, the team had no flow and no chemistry on the offensive end.

The ball would stick on the perimeter and the team would throw up desperate and lengthy shots late into the shot clock. There wasn't enough player or ball movement to go around, as the team couldn't find any sort of answer.

The main problem that lies with the offense is the fact that there isn't a set offense that the team utilizes. The offense is basically limited to the players creating their own shots and hoping for the best, as they either rely on Bosh post-up's or mid-range jumpers, Wade or James driving or Wade, James and Bosh attracting double teams and kicking out to an open shooter.

The offense is as simple as it gets, and the Heat lost because the championship because the Mavericks were smart enough to figure it out.

Miami needs to utilize the three biggest strengths it has on the floor. They have the two best slashers in the league to go along with a terrific mid-range and post threat.

Allow a pure point guard to take it up the floor and dictate the offense and force Dwyane and LeBron to learn to move without the ball to score rather than only knowing how to play in an offense where the world revolves around what they do as primary playmakers.

One of the largest improvements the team needs to desperately make is its inability to involve Chris Bosh in the offense. The team fails to remember that it was only a season ago when he was averaging 24 points per game as the team leader of the Toronto Raptors as a No. 1 scoring option.

They should allow the ball to run through Bosh in the post rather than having it run at the top of the perimeter with James or Wade.

A Hungrier Team

I was mistaken when it came to thinking that this team should win a title based on the motivation and hunger this team had.

These three players became social pariahs and gave up millions upon millions of dollars for nothing other than the glory that they would feel by winning a title. Only Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem and Eddie House know of that feeling on the current roster.

LeBron James and Chris Bosh came to Miami in hopes of experiencing that same feeling, and in time, they will because of just how much hungrier they are after falling in six games to the same Mavericks team they beat five years prior.

In the NBA today, there is no player more desperate to win a title than LeBron James. His ego won't allow him to be proven wrong after the antics he pulled on July 8 of last year and throughout the regular season.

He scorned the entire city of Cleveland and several other teams that thought they had a chance at obtaining him just to sign with two other superstars rather than attempting to lead a team by himself as he did with the Cavaliers.

The world waited for him to fail and they got their wish. In fact, the Heat failed to win a title mostly because of James' disappearing act in the Finals.

After two prolific series and being the sole reason as to why the Heat had made it to that point, LeBron only averaged 17 points per game in the Finals and became nothing more than a player with a subpar jump shot.

His hesitant and tentative play cost the team a title, as it left Wade and Bosh to pick up the pieces.

He and the rest of this team are probably mortified for the way they performed in the Finals after working so hard to get to that point. They proved all their critics right and let themselves down for the way they performed.

The only way to obtain redemption for the way they performed in that Finals series is to come back next season and win the title.

James, Wade and Bosh have too big of egos to allow this experiment to fail. Rather than allowing their mouth do the talking, they need to allow their talent to start and finish the job.