NBA Lockout: 5 Reasons the Miami Heat Are Hurt by the Lockout

The lockout has no doubt caused a great deal of frustration and pain for everyone surrounding the league. From the owners to the players to the janitors that work the hours after the game cleaning up your messes, this lockout has had a profound negative effect on everyone and is only going to come out with everyone involved losing.

Well, except for the owners, who will force the players to give in since they realize they can't afford to lose a season's worth of pay. This lockout has pitted billionaires against millionaires in a dispute over money that means little to nothing to the owners but a lot to the players. The players are at the mercy of the owners because they understand and realize they can live without a season and the players can't.

It's all about greed. The potential of an absolutely tremendous season goes down the drain and fans are now left with nothing to watch but NBA highlights dealing with lawyers and business jargon the majority of the fan base would rather not hear about. What none of these members of the upper, upper class realize is this league is about the fans and how they continue making the NBA a relevant league while the owners watch from their boxes and the players play the game they.

It shouldn't have to come to this—the second time in nearly a decade the NBA has gone through a lockout, and the blame should be pitted on both sides. The players may be greedy too for wanting millions upon millions of dollars, but then you have to blame the owners for giving $4 million year to your average role player that plays 20 minutes a night.

Aside from baseball, there is no league that pays individuals better than the NBA. There is no other organization where a three-point specialist that can't rebound or play defense makes $20 million and it's contracts like this that put us in the predicament that we are in today: without basketball and fans losing interest and trust.

Without getting a little too overzealous about this whole lockout deal, let's just get into the five ways the lockout is hurting the Miami Heat.

The Clock Is Ticking

This is not your Dwyane Wade of old. As much as we like to see the league's most electrifying and dynamic player do what he does best, it's going to be that style of play that will greatly limit him in years to come. Knowing that only makes it more difficult to understand that some of remaining prime years of Wade's career are being wasted because of monetary disputes.

Wade has always been a slasher since he came into the league, but it was before 2007 that he also possessed a consistent mid-range jumper that was equipped with a near unstoppable bank shot and a solid baseline jumper. The reason why Wade doesn't possess that jump shot is due to the fact that he has suffered so many injuries that he can no longer put as much of an arc into his shot as he could before.

Take a look at his free throw shooting pre-2006 and today; the shot today is basically a line drive when compared.

Wade will have to become more dependent on his jumper later on as to avoid having to drive and risk any more serious injuries. He has been driving at a prolific rate since he fully recovered following the 2007-'08 season and all of those spills he has dealt with had to have taken a toll on his body.

He'll be 30 years old in January, and that is an old 30. It definitely helps Wade that he has teammates like LeBron James and Chris Bosh to shoulder some of the load, but driving is Wade's bread and butter and he needs that to continue being considered an elite player. Having him sit on the sidelines while watching him hit 30 is something no Heat fan wants to see.

They don't want their superstar wasting his remaining primes years on the bench when he could be playing and improving his jumper so that he could remain relevant when his athleticism starts to go.

Outside Distractions

If there is one thing that this Miami Heat team needs to do for the upcoming season, it is to stay the course and remain motivated.

It was obvious each member of the "Big Three" was extremely emotional following their team's disappointing end in the NBA Finals because of just how far they had carried the team only to come away with nothing more than a reward for defeating the Eastern Conference's best.

Being the emotional player he is, Bosh broke down on the way to the locker room following the Game 6 loss, reflecting how much this loss meant to him and the rest of this team as he was helped to the locker room by Erick Dampier among others. James and Wade didn't exactly break down like Bosh did, but you have to feel for a player like James that was hell-bent on winning a championship only to become the main reason as to why he didn't come away with one.

This entire offseason was meant to be a time where they become motivated again and reflect on everything they did wrong throughout the year. Rather than doing so, they instead have to worry about if there is even going to be a season. A few Heat players have involved themselves in negotiations with Wade playing a tremendous part after getting into a spat with commissioner David Stern.

The Heat don't need any more outside distractions—they get enough of that from listening to the media that has had a microscope on them since July 8, 2010. Dealing with the lockout, the prospect of going overseas and just wondering what to do with themselves over the offseason are all contributing factors to outside distractions of a Heat team needing to look toward one goal: obtaining a title.

Less Time Training Together

Surprisingly, the Miami Heat offense wasn't as fluent and exciting as we originally thought it would be. The fast breaks were quite possibly the most dominant and unstoppable aspect of an offense that we had ever seen before, but the half-court set offense just didn't work for a team that was centered around three players that see the majority of their points come from near the rim.

There were too many problems to even count when dealing with the offense. First, you have to deal with forcing Wade and James to learn to play off the ball. For seven years, those two players had dominated the ball and dictated their teams' offenses, which made it difficult for them as teammates needing to rely on the passing abilities and court awareness of others to thrive.

The organization also had to deal with finding a way to integrate Bosh in the offense. Bosh was a primary scoring option in Toronto for seven years and also became accustomed to having the offense run through him. We knew that it would be difficult for him to adjust to becoming a third scoring option, but it still didn't give the team the right to treat him as one.

Bosh is still very well and capable of leading an offense, and the team never seemed to recognize that when it completely ignored him in the second half and instead gave the ball to James and Wade.

Their first season together was meant to be a growing up experience of how to play with superstar teammates. Wade was the only player to successfully co-exist with a superstar, but James and Bosh had never had the privilege of playing with a superstar near or in his prime. They took the time to learn how to co-exist in their first season and this offseason, and a full second year was meant for more training for these three players and the rest of their team to continue learning how to thrive as teammates and not as individuals.

Less Money to Spend

Aside from the most popular topic of debate surrounding the lockout being the separation of revenue between the two parties, there are a number of issues that could greatly affect the Miami Heat and a number of other high-revenue teams as well.

One of those issues being the hard cap that would greatly limit the Heat in their pursuit for help in free agency. Unlike a soft cap, which allows teams to make significant signings on occasion, a hard cap forbids it and creates a limitation as to how much money a team could spend. This hurts a team like the Heat that currently has $40 million wrapped up in three players.

Not to mention they have $6 million per year going to Mike Miller and $3 million apiece going to Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony. The Heat are teetering on the brink when it comes to their spending, but they would have enough to sign the "Big Three" and the supporting cast if the cap is set at $70 million, for example.

The problem with that is the team would only have $5 million to spend on free agents, which is quite the problem considering this team is desperate for a capable center, defenders off the bench and a solid point guard. With the soft cap, the Heat would be able to spend freely with more funds and would be able to sign two solid role players rather than possibly only settling on one, depending on the ceiling of the hard cap.

Business jargon is something no sports columnist wants to talk about, but money plays quite the vital role in these matters and it's going to play a giant role in the way the league is going to be run for the next decade.

Free-Agent Targets Aren't Getting Younger

The Miami Heat's first season was plagued with players deemed useless for extended periods of time.

Nearly every center was too inept on one side of the ball and were liabilities more than anything. The starting center at the end of the season was a 6'9" Joel Anthony, who was quite possibly the worst offensive player in the NBA, averaging two points per game despite playing up to 30 minutes a night. His defense was solid against opposing power forwards, but opposing centers were just either too strong or too tall for him to handle.

Aside from center, the team also had trouble dealing with its point guards and the overall lack of production from the bench. The point guard issue may have been resolved with Mario Chalmers now getting the start after proving himself in the postseason, but the bench remains a huge problem with no answers outside of Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem.

With such a significant drop-off, the Heat are going to need to look for free agents and they've already announced targets in Shane Battier, Caron Butler and Tayshaun Prince, among others. Each of those players would have a huge role on the Heat team next season and it doesn't help that each of those players are already more than 31 years old, Battier leading the way at 33.

The Heat are going to sign at least one of those players, considering they're going to be a haven for veteran players that want to take it easy in their remaining years while taking home a few titles along the way. The veteran targets they're looking at need to remain conditioned in their later years to stay relevant and play a large role on this team, and the lockout is causing these players to miss games they could be using to either gel with their new team or to get conditioned once again.