LeBron James and 5 Players on the Miami Heat With Something to Prove Next Season

After a disappointing end to an impressive run, it's time the Miami Heat move on and look toward future seasons and the possibility of winning a championship again.

There isn't too much to be discouraged by for the Heat despite giving up a 2-1 series lead in the Finals and even blowing the possibility of being up 3-0 at one point if things had panned out correctly.

Even with the nightmarish end, the Heat still had a quality season to look back on considering that this was only their first season together. They still won 58 games, secured a second seed and dominated the Eastern Conference by needing only five games apiece to beat the No. 1 and 3 seed.

It was a memorable season for the Heat. Despite all the needless criticism, the team still provided its entertainment value and displayed pure talent that the casual NBA fan hasn't seen in a very long time.

The 2010-'11 Heat were one of the most dynamic and entertaining teams to watch in recent NBA history as the team ended up as one of the most popular as well as being one of the most hated.

You could have despised LeBron James the entire season, but you still had your jaw dropped by some of the plays that he and the big three created.

With a long offseason in store, the team can move on and look to improve from last season's disappointing end. Here are five of those players that can utilize this offseason by improving on the weaknesses that might have cost the team a potential title.

Mario Chalmers

With not too much help expected from this year's free-agent class, the Miami Heat might be on their own looking for a capable point guard.

The team went through a myriad of players who took turns running the point with Carlos Arroyo, Mario Chalmers, Mike Bibby and Eddie House all getting at least one start during the season.

None of these options were stable as Arroyo would hardly make an impact, Chalmers would commit too many unforced turnovers, Bibby would deteriorate into some player that we've never seen before and House would just be too inconsistent with his shot and too much of a liability on defense.

However, the Heat did obtain some positives from their recent Finals loss at the point guard position with the way Mario Chalmers performed for the duration of the series off the bench.

After witnessing the struggles of Bibby for the entire post season, the team elected to have Chalmers take most of the time at the point where he would play some of the best basketball of the season.

He'd score at least 12 points on three different occasions and wouldn't commit more than three turnovers in a single game.

His shot was extremely impressive as well as he hit multiple three-pointers in all but two games and would really struggle from the field in only one game, where the only shot he would make would be a game tying three-pointer near the end of regulation.

The one game he started he would score 18 points and dish out seven assists.

With no chances of finding a point guard of the future, the team is going to have to make due with what it has and start Mario Chalmers for the duration of his time with Miami.

Chalmers is completely capable of being the teams point guard of the future and has made significant strides in a number of categories that isn't all statistical.

By the end of the season, he wasn't committing as many unforced turnovers or taking as many bad shots as we're normally used to.

What does he have to prove: Consistency

In this upcoming season, Chalmers is going to need to prove just how consistent of a player he is. He needs to play as he did in the NBA Finals where he was playing smart, making the wide open shots that he's getting paid to make and creating plays that pure point guards should be facilitating.

He'll also need to improve his one-on-one defense immensely.

He's terrific in the open court when it comes to intercepting passes in the lane, but being able to defend a player one-on-one is an attribute he needs to have if he wants to be considered a reliable threat on both ends of the floor rather than a possible defensive liability at some aspects.

Don't expect him to go anywhere either as the team not only offers him a possible starting job with Mike Bibby most likely on the way out but a qualifying offer as well.

Mike Miller

This wasn't the season that I nor the Miami Heat organization envisioned for Mike Miller.

When signing the sharpshooter to a lucrative deal worth nearly $30 million, the Heat expected him to become one of the league's top three-point threats because of just how many open opportunities he would receive.

Considering that he's a career 40 percent shooter who had done time with some of the cellar dwellers of the league in Minnesota and Washington, playing with the Heat would have been the closest thing next to shootaround for a three-point specialist like Miller.

Then a series of unfortunate events began to happen to the 10-year veteran. He suffered a thumb injury to his shooting hand after getting tangled in LeBron James' jersey during a practice prior to the start of the season and wouldn't return until Dec. 20th.

He would continue to struggle with his shot and would deal with injuries ranging from an injury to his other shooting hand, a shoulder injury, and a few concussions.

Miller struggled greatly throughout the duration of the regular season and for the majority of the post season as the injuries clearly affected the way he shot and when he shot. He somehow shot 36 percent from beyond the arc, a near career low, and shot an even worse 30 percent for the postseason.

Miller did at least manage to convert on eight three-pointer's in the Finals but still couldn't manage anymore than nine points in any of the six games.

By the end of the season, Miller was nothing more than a hustler and effort guy. It was impressive to see Miller integrate himself at other parts of the game when he realized his shooting touch was completely back, but the team signed him as the main three-point shooter, and he couldn't deliver.

Injuries to a shooters' thumbs would greatly affect anyone, but the team needed Miller to shoot as much as possible so he can at least begin to figure out where the problems were.

Don't forget, "You miss 100 percent of the never you don't take".

What does he have to prove: Resilience

With James Jones most likely on the way out, the focus when it comes to three-point shooting will directly be on Miller.

He had an extremely tough season physically and mentally as he also had to deal with the health issues surrounding his newborn daughter, and it's just not fair to truly judge him on the season he had last year.  

Miller has been one of the league's most consistent three-pointers and is only a year removed from hitting nearly half of his three-point attempts. For the Heat to excel, they need another player who can provide some sort of support from the perimeter who could attract attention.

The big three bring in double and triple teams on nearly every possession, and it's perfect for Miller who could get his stroke back with the number of shots the team should allow him to take.

With a long offseason ahead, Miller should have plenty of time to get his body back in working order and his mind in the right place.

Udonis Haslem

Fate had to have played a part in this one. After somehow allowing the three top free agents of 2010 to fall in the lap of Pat Riley, the basketball gods decided that they had given the Miami Heat too much.

So in turn, they decided to take away the fourth and fifth best players and leave the rest of them team inept at making open jump shots.

Mike Miller was a tough loss for the Heat team since they lost their main perimeter threat, but it paled in comparison to what Udonis Haslem brings to the table on a consistent basis.

Haslem went down with a foot injury on Nov. 20th that kept him out until the Conference Finals, the most devastating injury of his career.

For seven seasons, Haslem has been the heart and soul of this Miami Heat team. He's a warrior and consistently gives a 110 percent effort every single time he steps on to the floor.

Whether he's diving on the floor for loose balls or fighting amongst the trees for rebounds, it's the little things that Haslem does that all adds up in the end to an eventual Heat victory.

He was willing to sacrifice playing time, a starting role and money for the Heat, so it's obvious that he's a player whose main focus is on loyalty and helping his team achieve heights that they haven't seen in five years.

After all, the Heat were the only team to give him a chance after he went undrafted.

Losing Udonis was a huge loss to the team because not only did the lose their hardest worker, but their most consistent mid-range shooter and their top rebounder. His mid-range game has greatly helped the team as he always finds himself open on Wade kick-out's and unlike many of the other supporting players, knows how to finish the shot at any time during a game.

In between the Wade and Shaq era and the arrival of James and Bosh, it has been Wade and Haslem keeping the team afloat.

What does he have to prove: Hard work pays off.

Over his eight years at the NBA level, Haslem hasn't ever suffered any significant injuries outside of an ailment that kept him out for half the season in that forgetful 2007-'08 season where former coach Pat Riley basically kept him and a few other key players out to salvage their bodies.

This was the first season that Haslem has suffered from a serious injury, and it greatly affected the team in a negative light.

Udonis has already proven that hard work does pay off after helping the team win the 2006 championship as the starting power forward. He needs to take this offseason to completely rehabilitate any ailment he has to return to the form that he was at prior to the regular season ending injury.

He's one of the teams most valuable assets, and the organization needs him to give it all without hesitation or any concern of worrying about another injury.

With dunks like this however, we might not have to worry about that.

Chris Bosh

Of all the newly arrived players on the Miami Heat, no one had a rougher time than Chris Bosh.

Not even LeBron James took as much abuse as Bosh did at some points in the season as he constantly had to deal with the criticism surrounding the way he approached every game at a passive standpoint.

It wasn't an attribute that the Heat needed from Bosh considering that they had little to no post presence outside of him. Miami needed Bosh to be aggressive and force the issue inside, so James and Dwyane Wade would have more room to work with.

It was a tough season for Bosh as he had to not only transition his game into the Heat's system and play along with two other superstars, but he also had to adjust to his role as a third scoring option rather than a first.

It's a transition that any player would have trouble dealing with if they had been the number one player on a team for seven consecutive seasons. Even James and Wade dealt with troubles at the beginning of the season as they switched roles from first to second scoring options.

The main problem with Bosh's first season with the Heat was that his approach was too hesitant and too passive. He appeared to be a completely different player from the one he was in his time as a member of the Toronto Raptors.

It greatly helps when the ball is in your hands on every single offensive possession, but it doesn't give Bosh an excuse to play with so little passion and tenacity. Whenever the ball is in his hands, he should be looking to drive it rather than already looking to settle on a jump shot from 20 feet out.

Despite all this, Bosh still managed to average 19 points and eight rebounds per game. He was still the teams third best player throughout the regular season and was a driving force during the team's postseason run.

He was easily the teams second best power forward in the NBA Finals and was a key reason behind the teams easy conference finals victory over Chicago.

What does he have to prove: There are more sides to Chris Bosh than we know.

By the end of the season, it seemed that Bosh began to realize his role on the team. He also began to utilize his greatest strengths that includes his agility and quickness to beat out most other opposing power forwards on the dribble.

Bosh needs to use that to his advantage by beating players on the dribble and driving on them every time he gets the ball in his hands.

An aggressive and consistent Chris Bosh only allows his confidence to grow and his team to grow with another dimension to an already dangerous offense.

LeBron James

It's only been a year and two weeks since LeBron James took his talents to South Beach, and it seems as if the NBA world has been turned upside down on so many occasions since then.

James has turned the Miami Heat into perennial title contenders, sent the Boston Celtics nearly back to obscurity and has established a stranglehold over the Eastern Conference that might not be released until his time with the Heat ends.

James came only two games away from his first NBA title, the closest he's ever been, and yet he's still got so much to prove.

After a tough regular season where he came up short on ending games, James went berserk in the post season and released pent up clutch frustration that he laid it all on the unsuspecting heads of the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics.

James was easily the best player in the league when he was making jumper after jumper in the final minutes of those games during the semifinals and conference finals that we forgot all about what had happened for seven seasons and for the duration of his first regular season with the Heat.

We were convinced that he was clutch up until the fateful series against the Dallas Mavericks. James was a shell of his former self as he missed countless settled jumpers, failed to drive for the majority of the game and worst of all, lost the confidence that drives him in every game.

With the Mavs' zone stifling James and keeping him as a non-threat, the Heat became vulnerable, and they lost their wits by the end of the series as they hardly put up any fight in the decisive Game 6.

After such a tremendous effort in three consecutive series, how can James suddenly become so frigid from the field that he couldn't hit a shot from anywhere and was actually looking to pass when he entered the lane?

The immense amount of pressure on his shoulders was a contributing factor, as was the Mavs zone that didn't allow him to penetrate, but most of all this was caused by a lack of mental strength that he had abused for the duration of the post season until that point.

What does he need to prove: Consistency

If you're going to be clutch and make every jump shot you take in three consecutive series, then you have proved that you are completely capable of doing it for a fourth time. You shouldn't allow two-bit role players to get inside your head if you're the superstar that you make yourself out to be.

Any superstar with any amount of pride or dignity would take that as a challenge and unnecessary motivation and would go on to have a career game.

This past year should only show James that he needs to continue to improve not only on his consistency physically but mentally as well. He can't allow a team to get inside his head after going through so much for nearly a months worth of playoff basketball.

He should take these Finals as a jump off point for what should be an entertaining tenure with the Miami Heat and also as a lesson learned for what not to do when this type of situation arises again.

And the chances are high that this type of situation will recur several more times.