Miami Heat: Why Everyone Needs To Put the Brakes on the Norris Cole Hype Train

Whether or not you're a Miami Heat fan, I'm sure you've heard that Norris Cole has turned the Heat's "Big Three" into the "big four".

It's just a matter of time before the Heat send Chris Bosh to the D-league to make room for Norris Cole in the starting lineup.  Who knows, the Heat might even trade away LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for future draft picks, since they are so great at making draft moves, because it's evident that Norris Cole is the future of the Miami Heat.

Seriously, everyone needs to hop off the Norris Cole bandwagon and derail the Norris Cole hype train right now.  I understand Cole had a great game with 20 points (14 in the fourth quarter), four rebounds, four assists, three steals and much needed late game heroics.  One game's production however doesn't prove anything other than Cole has a lot of potential, like a lot of other young players in the league.

Let's take a minute and look at Mario Chalmers, the Heat's starting point guard who everyone wants Norris Cole to replace, and his rookie debut.  Against the New York Knicks on October 29, 2008, Mario Chalmers started off his NBA career with 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds along with a stellar 53.8 field-goal percentage.

While Chalmers scored three points less than Cole, he had a 3.8 percent higher shooting percentage and he accounted for three more rebounds and three more assists in his rookie debut.  While Chalmer's debut ended in a loss, I'd argue that it was a better debut because he produced at such a high level without the talent that Norris Cole had around him.  

Chalmers put up his numbers with guys like Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, Jermaine O'Neal and Shawn Marion.  I think it's safe to say that talent isn't on the same level as the talent of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade that helped Norris Cole produce like he did.

Chalmers ended his rookie season as a member of the All-Rookie second team, with a season average of 10 points, 4.9 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.  It will be hard for Norris Cole to replicate that kind of season long production in his rookie season with the Miami Heat, even though he has much better talent around him.

Norris Cole had a great game, but everyone needs to remember that it was just one game.  A lot of players who fade into basketball obscurity have at least one 20-plus point game.  Players like DaJuan Wagner, who scored 20-plus points 11 times in his rookie season, and the former Mr. Kardashian Kris Humphries even scored 20-plus points once in his rookie year.

Look, Norris Cole will be a good NBA player.  He has the ability to play either as a true point guard, or as a true scorer based on whatever the Heat need from him, but he's not going to be the rookie of the year and he won't replace Mario Chalmers in the starting lineup.

He won't do either of those things mainly because the Heat don't need him to.  The Heat need Cole to be a spark off their bench, and that is what he will do throughout the 2011-12 NBA season.  He'll have bad games, good games and even another great one or two, but we can't base our view of Cole on only one game. 

The hype around Norris Cole is already sky high and the bandwagon is getting full, but be careful because in the next week or two Cole will show you that he is just another average rookie who had one great game.