Miami Heat Rumors: Why Failure to Deal Will Cripple NBA Title Chances

The Heat can have all the talent they want, but they need to have the proper grit to win an NBA Title. Right now, they don't have the players to help them come through and execute some of the plays that you don't see on Sports Center. Those plays are nice, but they won't carry a team through the playoffs.

In February, Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports reported that the Heat were interested in acquiring Chris Kaman. That didn't happen. Kaman is still in New Orleans. Earlier in February, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com said that they were interested in either Joel Przybilla or Kenyon Martin, but neither of those players went to Miami. 

Obviously, the fact that they were interested in bringing these players in is a sign that the Miami brass was aware that there was a problem. The problem has yet to be fixed, and that's going to lead to another long offseason in South Beach. 

This is not a criticism of the Big Three; I am merely saying that they aren't the kind of players to put up the gritty in the paint points, or dominate down below on the defensive end. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are two of the better perimeter players in the history of the game while Chris Bosh is a big man with range. Unfortunately, those skills aren't going to work well against a team with a strong inside presence. 

Even great outside players go through cold spells from time to time. When that happens, their teams need to rely on a strong inside player to keep everything afloat. Miami does not have that. 

They also don't have any player that can even minimize the disadvantage that would come with facing someone like Dwight Howard in the playoffs. No center will offset Howard, but one of the aforementioned players could stay close enough that the Big Three would easily put Miami over the edge. 

To win an NBA Championship, you need to have talent in the right places, and grit in the right places. The Heat has all the talent that they could ever need, just like they did last year.

The Heat's problem is that they entered this season without the grit to the next step and win an NBA Championship. This is why they failed to beat Dallas last season. Now, here we are at the trade deadline and that is still a void. As a result, expect a similar postseason result to what we saw a season ago. 

They'll win some series. Heck, they may even win the Eastern Conference again. But when it boils down to it, the Heat will not have the right pieces to win it all, which is the only acceptable result for this squad. 

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