5 Reasons the Miami Heat Did Well at the Trade Deadline

With the trade deadline past us, we can now take in what we can only perceive to be the Miami Heat's roster for the rest of the year.

Not too bad. They still got that trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh leading the way in the starting lineup, as well as Mario Chalmers and Joel Anthony who have greatly improved from the year before.

Coming off the bench is Udonis Haslem, who may be out of that shooting slump after a terrific win against Philadelphia, lightning-quick rookie Norris Cole, the defensive-minded Shane Battier and either Mike Miller or James Jones—two formidable three-point threats.

Outside of the usual rotation we find Juwan Howard, Dexter Pittman, Mickell Gladness, Eddy Curry and Terrel Harris.

It has the talent and the depth of a championship team, especially depth which has provided to be the greatest improvement from the season before, after the Heat were forced to use the likes of James Jones, Joel Anthony and Juwan Howard as sixth men.

Haslem's size, Miller and Battier's shooting and Cole's mid-range and driving game are considerable improvements to a team that would get little contribution from the supporting cast last year.

The Heat did the right move this past week by doing absolutely nothing and remaining with the same team they have. They have all the pieces of a championship team and will only continue to improve.

Here's five reasons why there's nothing to worry about the Heat remaining stagnant during the trade deadline.

They Already Have the Essentials

No team is going to get by with just three players running the show.

The Miami Heat did their best at attempting to disprove that theory last season but saw their expected results come to a crashing thud after a third of the trio decided to take summer vacation a little too early. Without that player contributing his usual averages, the Heat found themselves scrambling for someone who could step up in their absence.

Only silence. Mario Chalmers did a fine job averaging 11 points per, but the rest of the team was injury-plagued and plain non-existent.

Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem were both dealing with injuries, Mike Bibby was historically bad, Joel Anthony didn't have the length to keep up with Tyson Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki, and James Jones and Eddie House got no minutes.

Why James Jones got no minutes, we will never know. Let's just be fortunate that the Heat coaching staff finally came to their senses and started playing arguably the best three-point shooter in the league. It might have taken yet another injury to Mike Miller for it to happen, but we can at least take Jones getting some minutes and delivering as the silver lining.

The Heat made the right move in not making any moves over the trade deadline because they already have all the key essentials to win a championship. They have their slashers (LeBron and Dwyane), their mid-range shooters (Chris and Udonis), their three-point threats (Chalmers, Battier, Miller and Jones) and their defenders down low (Chris, Joel, Dexter and Udonis).

Even though the Heat are lacking toughness down low, the Heat seem to have every other aspect of the game filled in. They have the slashers who can take it to the hole and take over a game, the mid-range shooters who can be relied on to make timely shots when the opposition begins to pack the paint and the shooters who could knock down threes.

The reason why the Heat have been struggling as of late is due to the shooters not being able to hit their shots. Shane Battier has been dreadfully inconsistent all year, Mario Chalmers has hit a slump after the All-Star break, Mike Miller is hurt and the team just started to realize again that James Jones is good at shooting.

You say the Heat needed someone who could rebound? Why look toward free agency or a trade when you can look at the team itself and find the solution?

Rebounding Won't Get Solved from the Outside

The Miami Heat don't need a center. If they made it to the NBA Finals last year with dinosaurs like Erick Dampier and Zydrunas Ilgauskas starting at center as well as someone who is 6'9", then there's no reason why they should need one this year.

When it comes to rebounding, size is only half the battle. You can be tall, but it doesn't mean you're going to be a good rebounder. There are so many other aspects to rebounding than just being able to jump higher than another player.

Timing, shot awareness (knowing where the ball is going to carom) and boxing out all play huge roles in something that's seen simply as whoever is the tallest player gets it.

The Heat have no excuse for the pitiful rebounding that they have been doing since the All-Star break and sporadically throughout the season. They have a 6'11" power forward, an athletic center, an aggressive power forward off the bench and two of the league's most athletic players. There's no reason why this team should be allowing 20-plus offensive rebounds in a single game.

Simply put, the Heat are playing with fundamentals when it comes to going after and grabbing rebounds. There's hardly any aggression, no boxing out whatsoever and hardly any awareness on the idea of where these rebounds could be headed.

It gets extremely frustrating when all of those double-teams you throw along the perimeter and constantly chasing the ball end up in a missed shot and an offensive rebound because nobody could hold their own down low. It's not that difficult a concept, especially for someone like Chris Bosh who should be singled out on account of his poor rebounding performances.

For someone who made a vow to play more aggressive and willingly accept roles at center, Bosh is failing to deliver. Bosh is 6'11" on a team with no center, yet he's the second leading rebounder at a little under eight boards per. The Heat's small forward, LeBron James, is leading the team with eight boards per.

Udonis Haslem is grabbing nearly eight boards per in 10 minutes less than Bosh. He hasn't recorded 10 or more rebounds in a game since February 21st.

This is not an issue that can be solved from some outside source. This is an issue that needs to be solved within the team, and it easily can be. This is a guy who averaged 10 or more boards per three times in seven years with Toronto on a team where the center also didn't happen to play a center. Bosh is in a similar situation now, yet he's barely grabbing eight boards per.

He's the most important player on this team, and his significance is larger than ever with this rebounding issue becoming more and more prevalent.

They Didn't Have Much of a Choice

The Miami Heat weren't going to make a trade, so that was completely out of the question right off the bat.

Secondly, free agents are free agents for a reason. Unless they were a recently waived player that another team dropped to make room for another (i.e. Chauncey Billups), then there has to be some legitimate reason as to why the other 29 teams in the league don't pick them up first.

Take Erick Dampier for an example. The former Dallas Mavericks center who had gone as far as starting on a team that went to the championship to becoming a free agent with no place to go in 2011. The red flags continue to sprout up when you realize that not many other teams in the league want the center, even though every NBA team could always afford to have another center ready.

The Heat would sign Dampier, and he would start in 22 games, but wound up playing a total of zero playoff games. All in all, the Heat essentially wasted a roster spot that had a minimal impact in the regular season. Can you believe not one other team in the league wanted to pick him up?

This year's batch of free agents was no better. The Heat have an obvious need for a center but only went as far as giving Rasheed Wallace a workout. They also attempted to sign Kenyon Martin and Joel Przybilla with negative results. With those two out of the picture, the sights set on New Orleans Hornets center Chris Kaman.

This was the most far-fetched theory of them all. Kaman is a former All-Star who was being shopped around by the Hornets. The team went as far as telling him to stay home but brought him back after they couldn't find a suitable trade as well as injuries occurring to members of the frontcourt. With no trade, the Heat became hopeful of a buyout.

This league may not run on loyalty, but money still plays a large part. If anybody thought Chris Kaman was going to willingly take a decrease of $14 million to $2 million just to have the easiest job in sports, you're sadly mistaken.

The Heat didn't make a bad decision to not pick anyone up at the trade deadline. They didn't even have a choice. They're a contender, and they shouldn't be making any desperation moves to fill in a weakness.

This Isn't Their Best

Last year, we heard all of this talk about the Miami Heat entering a new level when the playoffs were going to start.

When the first series concluded, we didn't experience that next level, and there were still plenty of doubts surrounding the Heat's upcoming series against a Boston Celtics team that they had lost three of four against in the regular season.

The Heat's 4-1 series win against the Philadelphia 76ers hardly raised any eyebrows, as most people were more disappointed over Miami struggling to win in the majority of those games.

Then, the Heat beat up the Celtics 4-1. Most of the games were close, but the Heat's execution down the stretch on both sides of the court was unbelievable and reminded us of a particular Boston team that won a title in 2008.

Still, beating up on a team as old as the Celtics wasn't impressing anyone. If the Heat wanted to prove that they were an elite team, they'd beat the Chicago Bulls.

It wasn't even close. The Heat dropped Game 1 in Chicago and promptly went on to win the next four games. Against a team that they had lost all three games to in the regular season, the Heat completely outplayed the Bulls in the final four games of the series to move on to the NBA Finals.

Derrick Rose shot less than 40 percent and was erased off the court once LeBron James began to play defense on him.

It took five games to beat Chicago. The No. 1 seed that had just won 62 games and arguably had the best defense in the NBA, as well as arguably the best player, and they were beaten by a team that heavily relied on three players.

Getting Udonis Haslem back was a huge boost, but LeBron James and Chris Bosh completely outplayed their opponent game in and game out.

Dwyane Wade struggled for the most part but played a huge part in the Heat's Game 5 win where the team erased a 12-point deficit in the final three minutes to steal the series.

Miami went 1-7 against those two teams in the regular season. They went 8-2 in the playoffs against the same two teams. There was nothing different about either team. They were the same when they played each other in the regular season, and they were the same in the playoffs. The only thing that changed was the attitude the Heat brought into the games.

As much as I don't want to say it, I feel like the Heat are bored. Even in a schedule where there's only 66 games, they seem to play lackadaisical and nowhere close to the potential that we've seen them play at before.

Perhaps, they're smartly conserving their energy for when the postseason begins. This schedule is beating up on a lot of players, and the Heat can't afford to lose even one of their big three.

Before we begin to judge this team, maybe we should just wait for the playoffs to begin so we can see the Heat at the next level one more time. They proved it to us last year when they steamrolled their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 12-3 record.

There's no other indication as to why they should fail to make it back to the NBA Finals again if they can remain healthy.

They're Still Better Than Last Year

The Miami Heat didn't deserve to be anywhere near the NBA Finals with the roster they were sporting.

You had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but who else? Haslem and Miller were the sixth and seventh men, and they were both dealing with injuries, which left the Heat to rely on guys like James Jones, Juwan Howard and Joel Anthony for stretches of time that they didn't deserve and wouldn't get on any other team.

Jones is a great shooter but should only be used in instances. He's not the type of player who can play 30 to 40 minutes because his defense does become a liability. Jones is a player you want to have to help create some space in the scoring department between you and your opponent. He's as close to a guaranteed three as anyone else on this team and can stretch a 29-27 lead to 38-27 in the span of two minutes.

Juwan Howard is a stiff. He was, last year, at the age of 37, and he is, this year, at the age of 38. He's a big man with no lift, so that means no rebounding or scoring in the paint will occur. The Heat essentially relied on him, Joel Anthony and Chris Bosh to do the rebounding. Like I said, it was a miracle that this team even made it to the finals.

The Heat team you see this year is unbelievably better than the one we saw make it to Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Not only do you have the big three working together and having a better feel for each others tendencies and spots where they're comfortable on offense, but you also have the return of your two best players off the bench, the dramatic improvement of Mario Chalmers and the addition of Norris Cole and Shane Battier.

The 2011 Miami Heat can't even compare with the Miami Heat of 2012. The Heat of 2012 have legitimate defenders. They're not trying to pass off Mario Chalmers, Chris Bosh and James Jones as capable defenders anymore. They have aggressive defenders like Norris Cole and fundamental defenders like Shane Battier to now rely on.

The Heat don't need to look for outside sources to solve all their problems. They got a team with better defenders, better shooters and less injuries. You're watching a three-man team turn into a legitimate eight-man rotation with players who can actually be relied on off the bench on both sides of the ball and not just one.