Miami Heat: Debunking Seven Myths About Their Shortcomings
From the moment LeBron James uttered those now infamous words, "I've decided to take my talents to South Bench," the anti-Heat brigade of columnists and bloggers have nearly burst a blood vessel to explain why the Heat can't win, won't win, won't beat the Lakers, will flame out, aren't coming out of the East and are inferior to last year's Eastern Conference Finalists.
I don't presume to know what will become of the Heat next year. Some of these theories could certainly come true, but I think that much of criticism comes from anger at the team itself rather than a real assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.
Here, I take a look at the most oft-repeated assertions about this team, and give my reasons why these arguments are more a reflection of bias than a real reflection of the facts:
7. "They Will Not Be Very Good Defensively"
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When a team has this much firepower offensively, it makes sense for some to assume that they will lose focus on defense and become a more offensive oriented team.
It happened to the Detroit Pistons in 2006, when, after two straight finals appearances where Larry Brown stressed the importance of "playing the right way" on defense they lost their focus on D when coach Flip Saunders turned them into more of an offense centered squad.
The result was an ousting by the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Nevertheless, I don't think this team will face the same fate. For one thing, Pat Riley has never managed or coached a poor defensive team.
From the Heat of the late 90's to the Lakers of the 80s, his teams have always focused on tough, intimidating defense to win.
Last year, under coach Erik Spoelstra, with much less talent than this current team, the Heat were second in the league in points allowed, second in opponents field goal percentage and fourth in blocked shots.
But here's the kicker: When the season begins, the Heat will be the ONLY team in the league with four players (Wade, James, Anthony and Bosh) in the top 38 in shot blocking in the league. Four.
No other team can make that claim. The Lakers, Magic and Celtics COMBINED don't have four players in the top 38.
6. "They Have No Bench"
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One statement that has been constantly thrown about is how weak the Heat bench is. Detractors say, "they have the big three, but nobody else. If you stop those three guys, you beat them."
I could get into how difficult it really will be to guard a team with three primary scoring threats, but instead I am focused on the "no bench" theory.
Playing shooting guard will be Mike Miller. Last season with the Wizards he averaged 11 ppg, 4 apg and 6 rpg. It's safe to say those numbers should improve due to the amount of attention the big three will garner.
But if they stayed the same they are better than the Lakers bench options at shooting guard.
Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic COMBINED only averaged 10 ppg and 2 apg (amazing since Brown played point guard last year).
Meanwhile, at the point the Heat have Carlos Arroyo (6.1 ppg and 3.1 apg) . These numbers are not much less than Steve Blake's (7.3 ppg and 4.8 apg). It also bears noting that Blake played more minutes a game than Arroyo as well.
At backup center, the Heat have Jamal Magloire (2.1 ppg and 3.4 rpg) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (7.4 and 5.4 last year).
We can certainly debate whether they offer enough size or speed to compare with Shaq and Howard (they don't). But I'm not.
I'm only interested in looking at how they stack up against the other bench bigs from LA (the consensus best bench in the NBA). The answer is fairly well.
The Lakers only have one true bench center on their roster right now: Theo Ratliff, whose numbers last year 3.6 ppg and 3.1 rpg which are less than Z's. Plus, no one knows how Dexter Pittman, the Heat center out of Texas, will develop as a backup.
That's three adequate backups to LA's one. Add the fact that LA's starting center is injury prone and their only backup is 37 years old and you have a surprising Heat advantage at the 5 off the bench.
At the Forward spots, LA holds an edge. They come with Lamar Odom (10.8 ppg and 9.8 rpg) Matt Barnes (8.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg) and...well, a couple of unproven rookies is Devin Eubanks and Derrick Caracter.
The Heat counter with Udonis Haslem (10 ppg and 8 rpg) and Juwan Howard (6.1 ppg and 4.6 rpg) and largely unknown James Jones and Shavlik Randolph.
Advantage LA, but not by as wide a margin as one would be lead to believe.
The point is, Miami Heat's bench is more than sufficient to provide meaningful minutes for the starters while they rest. I think this idea that Miami's bench is filled with stiffs is a complete falsehood.
5. "They Have a Poor Frontcourt Game."
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This is a continuation from the previous argument questioning this Heat team's size. It is deemed the biggest weakness of this Miami Heat squad. "Team's will just pound it inside and beat the Heat on the interior."
Well, since only three teams in the league really have enough size to really make this myth a possibility let's look at the Lakers, Celtics and Magic bigs for a second and show how this size advantage may not be so glaring.
LA has the best trio of bigs in the NBA, there is no disputing that. Gasol, Odom and Bynum are a handful and are good for 45 points, 25 rebounds and nine assists a game when they're all on.
But it's rare that Gasol, Bynum and Odom are all stroking it at the same time, in the same game. But if they were would their numbers nullify the big three?
In other words, will Gasol and Bynum be so dominant in the middle that the Heat will lose because of their contributions?
To believe this theory, you'd have to assume that Gasol and Bynum would surpass their season averages in the games they play against Miami.
Gasol would go for 25, Bynum lights them up for 24 and Odom pitches in 21. With all that scoring in the paint, where will Kobe fit in this?
This scenario will not happen because Kobe is not going to defer to Bynum in a game like this.
He will certainly give 'Drew his touches, but to assume that the bigs for LA will hold this large of an advantage is a bit optimistic.
Bynum certainly has potential to be a great center, but his season average of 15 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.5 blocks per game (which ironically is the same number of bpg the smaller Heat center Joel Anthony averaged in limited playing time), but he has yet to reach the point in his career where he can dominate a game like a Wade can or a LeBron can or a Kobe can.
Remember, the Heat have a lot of shot blocking and can disrupt the rhythm of the bigs with their speed and athleticism. There is also the issue of fouls.
Bynum and Odom (both foul-prone against quick forwards and guards) would need to stay on the floor for this advantage to be fully capitalized on.
Will he be able to avoid two early whistles if LeBron and D. Wade start the game by driving to the hoop?
4."They Will Get Killed By Dwight Howard"
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Look, I like Dwight Howard. I think he is a great center and will eventually emerge as one of the top three players in the league. But who died and made him Hakeem Olajuwon?
Howard only averaged 18 ppg and 13 rpg last season playing against mostly smallish centers. He is nowhere near Shaq, territory, or Willis Reed territory, or even Patrick Ewing territory.
His game still needs much improvement and elevating him to a level of "dominant force in the NBA" completely ignores the facts. While solid,his numbers don't suggest an ability to completely dominate a team with five shot blockers (including Haslem).
He's a 60-percent foul shooter and spent a great deal of the Bobcats series glued to the bench for silly fouls, and the Bobcats didn't have half the talent of this Heat squad.
"Don't Worry, Boston With Their Size and Experience Will Take Them Down"
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Boston strengthened their frontline specifically to take advantage of Miami's "weak interior." They have Shaq, Kendrick Perkins, Jermaine O'Neal, Keven Garnett and Glen Davis to play in the paint.
So advantage Celtics right? Not so fast.
If it's one problem I have with the bigs on the Celtics it's this: They have a lot of size, but not nearly enough speed or athleticism.
This means that if Wade and James drive to the hoop, there's very little they can do other than collect their fouls and have a seat.
Plus, not one of these bigs can command a double team at this point in his career because each has an offensive game that is greatly eroded (like Shaq) or one that has yet to develop (Perkins).
That will hurt their three-point shooting and put more pressure on Pierce and Allen to score one-on-one or over screens.
The O'Neals' days of big scoring nights are over and neither will average more than 14 ppg next season. Plus, if any of these bigs get going, you can always put them on the line. Perkins and Shaq are terrible foul shooters.
Davis is better, but how much will he play behind Shaq and Perkins? All in all, I just don't see the Celtics aged bigs having enough of an impact to "dominate" the Heat.
2. "Their Egos Will Flare Up"
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I must admit, this is certainly a possibility. But making this statement also suggests that LeBron and Bosh aren't bright enough to know that they will have to defer to Wade since, as he reminded us after he hit that game winning three verses the Bulls, "this is [his] house."
It also suggests that despite being friends off the court and taking huge pay cuts to play together, the big three will let their selfishness prevent them from reaching their potential. That seems fundamentally counter-intuative.
LeBron, for all of his detractors complaints about his actions off the court, is very willing to defer to teammates on it. Remember the assist for the game winner against the Wizards?
Dwayne Wade played well with one of the leagues great attention seekers and egomaniacs in his own right in Shaq with little incident.
Plus, Wade and James average 6.4 and 8.6 apg respectively. You don't average that many dimes if you don't know that they key to winning is getting contributions from everyone on the team, especially your second and third option.
1. "The Celtics, Lakers and Magic Are All Better and Deeper."
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The Magic haven't really proven anything in particular in the playoffs yet except if you shut down their 3-point game (as the Lakers did in '09 and the Celtics did in '10) in the playoffs, you can beat them.
They still have to prove that their Finals appearance in 2009 was not just because KG was injured.
But with the loss of Matt Barnes, their best one-on-one defender, they will have their work cut out for them to get back to the final two of the NBA.
Boston has all the intangibles you like: experience, leadership, championship pedigree, but they lost a key defender in Tony Allen.
We have yet to see the impact of losing the architect of their defense, Tom Thibodeau. Plus, health is always a concern in Boston and figures to be one again this year.
LA of course are the champs. Until someone beats them, they are the league's best team. But they too are also a bit older and weaker at the backup center position. They probably are best equipped to beat the Heat.
Nevertheless, the opinion that the Heat will prove to be inferior to the acknowledged three contenders is not necessarily a myth, just a claim made without basis considering the weakness that exist in those contenders.
Most fans of the aforementioned elite teams are so deeply committed to their teams (and the failure of LeBron James' team) that they could hear that a blind camel the starting at small forward for their squad and they would give 10 reasons why that camel is better than James.
But showing no willingness to see the strengths of the Heat (and they have plenty, to be sure) or the weaknesses of their team makes the debate more about "why your team sucks" than real, tangible analysis of X's and O's.
No team is a lock. Not LA, not Boston, not Orlando, not Chicago, until they play the games. The 2010 championship means nothing in October 2011. But by simply focusing on the Heat's weaknesses while ignoring those of other teams seems to be cherry picking.
