Miami Heat: Take a Deep Breath and Relax, Panic Setting in Way Too Early

The Miami Heat currently stand at 12-11. A dismal 7-7 at home and are fifth in the Eastern Conference.

Superstar Dwyane Wade is in one of the worst shooting slumps of his career. The supporting cast isn’t doing as much as Heat fans had hoped for. Wade has criticized the team’s lack of effort after two consecutive losses, including a 28-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

I’ll give you a minute to take it all into consideration...

Got it all in your system yet?

Good, now please take a seat and relax because the Heat are not in peril.

And just because Wade says the team is not putting in the effort they need to win games does not mean he already booked his plane ticket for New York come 2010.

He is doing what every leader on every team in NBA history has done at least once in their career: give his thoughts and considerations onto what this team needs to do to turn it around and get this season going in the right direction.

The main concern with this team going into the 2009-’10 season was whether Dwyane Wade was going to be in a Miami Heat uniform when the 2010-’11 season rolls around.

Wade has stated many times that he loves the city of Miami and wants to stay there for his entire career.

But he needs the team to take serious strides towards a championship by making trades and signing free agents, while also trying to make progress in the careers of Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers.

Wade is coming off his best statistical season in 2008-’09 when he led the NBA in scoring at 30 points per game, along with a career high seven-and-a-half assists. He also made progress in developing a three-point shot range and garnering attention for his uncanny shot blocking abilities.

This season has been anything but MVP-like for Wade who still averages a stable 27 points per game, but has a career low 43 percent field goal percentage. The three-point shot is in the tubes as well with Wade shooting 25 percent from beyond the arc.

It’s appeared that Wade does not want to risk his body as much as he did in previous seasons by driving hard to the basket, and he is relying heavily on jump shots that are just not going in.

When was the last time a big time player left their respective team?

Shaquille O’Neal for Miami? That only came about because of a gigantic, public dispute with Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.

In fact, O’Neal jetting from Orlando to Los Angeles and then moving to Miami makes Shaq the only player in his prime to leave his team.

Superstars do not leave their team.

It’s not a common thing.

And when the 2010 off-season comes to a close, nearly every prediction all the NBA guru’s had about Wade going to the Knicks or LeBron James going to the Nets will be proven wrong.

Most players leave their team over money issues where either the team does not want to pay the player, doesn’t want to sign a long contract, or a team elsewhere offers more.

What most people don't realize is the Miami Heat, even with Dwyane Wade, have the second most amount of money to spend in the NBA.

If Wade is offered six year, $130 million contract, while the Heat manage to sign a Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire to a big contract, do you really think he’d want to go to an unproven team like the New Jersey Nets (2-23 record as I write this) or the New York Knicks (it’s the mecca yes, but what’s the point if the team is bad and the organization is lost)?

The Heat have a lot of money and if they face a first round exit in the postseason after a 45-39 record, they can keep Wade here.

Money talks, and I think it will speak up for Wade come next season when he’s still in a Heat jersey and playing alongside the big man he’s been wanting since Shaquille O’Neal decided to bust it up in Phoenix.

This season though, nobody is expecting anything huge out of this team.

If anything, NBA analysts had this team as a six-eight seed and possibly not even making the postseason.

There are three reasons why that is absurd.

No. 1: The Heat have Dwyane Wade.

No. 2: The Heat have Dwyane Wade.

No. 3: Michael Beasley is developing and will be a 20-10 player soon enough.

The Heat are going to be a No. 5 seed when the season ends and when teams like the Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons, and Milwaukee Bucks come back down to Earth.

They don’t have what it takes to beat the Atlanta Hawks because the Heat have only two weapons, three on a great night, and the Hawks entire starting lineup can score and play defense every night.

There are three proven facts in life: The Godfather is the perfect movie, the Indianapolis Colts will be good, and the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat will be the No. 4 and 5 teams in the Eastern Conference. Until, of course, 2010 when Joe Johnson is likely to leave and Dwyane Wade is guaranteed to stay.

The results may be the same as last year come postseason time when these two teams meet up.

Unless Wade gets out of his slump (he will), Beasley learns to score with Wade on the bench, or the Atlanta Hawks starting lineup get’s injured in a freak fishing accident.

Heat fans shouldn’t expect much this season because the Orlando Magic or the Boston Celtics are guaranteed to make the NBA finals.

The Miami Heat are going to arrange plans for the parade in two to three years when Dwyane Wade is celebrating a title with Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem—again.

The 28-point loss was a dismal performance from the Heat, in fact it was probably their worst loss in the Dwyane Wade era.

If the team can do what they did back in the 2005-’06 season, they’ll use this as a turning point to start stepping it up. During the championship season, the Heat used a 30-point loss to Dallas as their turning point and the rest is history.

The Heat started out that season 11-10.

A team with Wade and Shaq started out 11-10 and guess what, everything you hear now about panic and trouble brewing in Miami was being shoved out from SportsCenter.

Not saying that this 12-11 team is a championship caliber team, they’re not, but they are better than .500 and it will show at the end of this season when they finish at least five games above.

We can consider ourselves lucky this turning point came now, while Wade is slumping, rather than a week before the playoffs and ESPN is busy selling the idea of every worst case scenario for the Heat.

One of the best sights of the season so far has been the progression of Michael Beasley.

Twenty-three games into the season he is averaging a little under 16 points and seven rebounds a game, while getting to the foul line a lot more. Beasley is shooting  a team high 86 percent from the foul line.

The No. 2 pick from last year’s draft has made a lot of progress this season and is not only learning to score on his own, but has improved his jump shot. He has shown the ability to drive strong to the basket, not trying to finesse it.

The fear of Udonis Haslem coming off the bench rather than starting has actually worked out with Haslem scoring 11 points and grabbing a little under eight rebounds a game.

Haslem has stated before he wants to be a lifer with the Heat and will do whatever it takes to stay on the team, whether it be coming off the bench or starting.

At 12-11 the Heat have nothing to worry about.

Dwyane Wade is not going anywhere and the Heat will be a No. 5 seed at the end of the season. 

There is no need for desperation.

Wade is not ready to bolt for an unproven Chicago, New York, or New Jersey team.

There’s still 59 games left and a long six months until the summer of 2010 rolls around and there is no doubt that panic will set in then.

This team knows how to make the right moves, and it knows what the fans want.

There is no doubt it will do what it takes to keep Wade in Miami and make another attempt to create a dynasty.