Miami breaking up the big three if they lose in 2nd round?

Miami's problem was never the big 3. The big 3 are REALLY GOOD. And in a no-cap situation be worth more than most other entire NBA teams.

Miami's problem is that Pat Riley surrounded the big 3 with some of the most pitiful role players to ever grace the planet. Big contract to Mike Miller when he's injury prone and slowing down. MLE to Battier on his last legs. Haslem I thought at the time was a good signing, but in hindsight look downright awful right now. Riley also drafted Beasley over Westbrook/Love in the year prior to the big 3.

I still think Riley gets a ton of credit for facilitating the big 3 move. But his overall mediocre talent evaluation has cost his team dearly.

 

This.

One of the ESPN Heat guys, Tom Habestroh, was on radio this morning and among other things, was asked about this. He basically excused Riley though.

Host: Does criticism escape Pat Riley if the Heat don't get it done because he's responsible for surrounding them with the right talent and apparently has surrounded them with the wrong talent.

Haberstroh: Even the loudest Heat critics will admit that no one could see Miller and Haslem aging this fast and getting injured this often so not sure you can pin this on Riley's decision making when he built the roster. I don't think anyone saw how quickly they would age. I think it was risky to bottle up a lot of the cap space in Haslem and Miller who are on the wrong side of 30 but he got 3 max level players on the same team. You can't knock him for that. I can only say, they shouldn't have given 5 year deals to guys who are past their prime.

Spoiler

The rest if you're interested

-I don't think Wade threw last night's game but if Wade were to throw a game, that is what it would look like. It was that bad. Every time down the floor, he did something terrible. Bad shot after bad shot. Didn't get into the paint. Spoelstra blowup. He refuses to drive into the paint. That tells me something is up. He has been getting treatment to his lower legs. He's not 100% but I've never seen Wade play like this. Looked like he forgot how to play basketball. It was like Wade wasn't aware of how bad he was playing.

-Heat shooting 12% from 3 in this series. When people say Heat are due to hit 3 pointers, it's not true. Not like a 15 for 20 3 pt shooting barrage around the corner. It's possible Miller is hurt and Battier doesn't have their legs and you're seeing their true 3 point shooting. Not saying it won't happen again but more underneath this team than statistics.

-Any positives for the Heat? 3 pt shooting possibly. The worst 3 pt shooting team during the regular season was twice as good as what the Heat are doing now. They are so bad that they are looking up at the standings in the 3 pt standings. That's the only thing you can point to. Wade didn't get to the basket more than once. They need him to attack and getting FTs..

-Wade's right hand might also be hurting him.

-Not sure they get past the Pacers. Considering Wade's condition right now, I don't see them getting past the Pacers at this point.

About 112:00 mark

http://www.790theticket.com/podcast_sg.aspx

 

I think they are not that stupid to fail again.... give the money to Dleaguers or some young talent

 

I don't see them trading Wade because he's meant everything to them, but that would undoubtably be their best option. He is 30 and gets injured far too often, and he and Lebron simply can't coexist. Bosh is in no way the problem. They need to move one of their wing players and try to bring in Dwight Howard or Bynum or some center that can get it done inside and rebound/play defense.

 

I dunno... I don't see the big three, Haslem, Battier, and Miller, staying together past this season regardless of how the series go.

 

Yeah but role players are usually first to go... the prime victims of change... then comes Bosh.... and finally down to Wade and Lebron, Wade because of sentiments and Lebron because he is the best player

 

The thing is Pat Riley just doesn't hit on draft picks. Heck, even back to the DWade draft supposedly he wanted to draft someone else, and had to be swayed to draft Wade. Since then his drafts have been nothing short of putrid.

Heck, even the talent he surrounded Wade with for their first championship, old Shaq, old Antoine Walker, old White Chocolate, etc. were all old and on the wrong side of their career. Riley's ability to identify young, upcoming talent was never his strong suit. He didn't need much around the big 3. I mean, just obtain a couple of cheap guys like Dragic and Parsons and imagine how much better they'd be.

 

The question is why would we want Wade on the team? He's like Joe Johnson part two: all hype and no production. At age 30 he should still be in his prime, but I guess his style of play destroyed his body, he's been really ineffective the last couple of seasons.


In an ideal world Miami would dump wade and build around both Bosh and Lebron, two guys who proved themselves to be legit max players in the league. However the reality is you can't trade away Wade, you got Bosh and LBJ on the premise of Wade recruiting the two of them and talking about how loyal Miami is. OTH, if Miami doesn't do anything Lebron would probably leave once his contract is up and you'd be left with a good player in Bosh and extra baggage in Wade. IMHO the only recourse they have is to trade away Bosh for better players, maybe Riley can work out a Howard for Bosh type of deal.

Or maybe we can trade for him ourselves. Bosh for Lowry, Scola+picks would probably be a good deal for both teams. Unfortunately with DMO coming in next year I don't really want another forward on the team...that dude will be such a beast.

 

Durant got mugged

 

stern doesnt own da heat...

 

Lol.... never knew much about Riley... researched recently, he got a couple of COY awards...seems to be a much better coach than president, GM that is

 

daywalker you definitely are not blade on your nba history. that's ok, i know you are a young vampire, which explains your affection for certain players.

 

I'll leave that to you. FYI usually old fans do have sweet memory of the past, including old players.

 

I've seen some piss poor post on this board,but this takes the cake,pie,and pudding. Why in the hell would u trade lebron when you can never get anything close to value. Did I mention he's also the youngest most durable player of the 3. Oh yeah,he's also the best player on the team and in the league. Child Please!

 

Pat Riley took 3 different franchises to the Nba finals. He's one of beet coaches of all time and he adapts to his personnel. Either I'm really old or you're really young or both. I thought it was a given that people know that he is s legend. The lakers dynasty of the 80s was his doing.

 

This. This. This. Does anyone understand how awful Mike Miller is? He looks like a meth addict and he can't play. He gets like 6mil per year. This was their biggest mistake.

 

Yes. It was probably the worst game Wade has ever played in his NBA career. It really looked like he threw the game. I've never seen anything like that from him. So, as bad as Wade played and as awful as the heat are from the 3pt line pretty much tells the story. However, Pacertom will tell you that the Pacers are the greatest team in the NBA and they are they reason the Heat are struggling. The Heat are killing themselves. It has nothing to do with the Pacers.

 

I said this the first day of the season about Miami. And I've also seen this done somewhere else (Yao and tmac).

 

The big 3 hasn't failed, but its real weakness has been exposed, when you tie up your entire hopes in 3 guys, losing 1 can kill it off.

Whereas your Chicagos are tied to one guy, sure if he goes down, you're SOL (and even then, it was adding Noah's issues on top that crippled them), but the chances of 3 guys going down is significantly greater than 1.

 

I don't know why people always blame the best players on the team, rather than the worst. The Miami Heat are not poorly constructed, given that the alternative would've been a lone Wade with a bunch of assorted crap. Other superstar + crap teams have won the championship (i.e. the Kobe-Shaq Lakers). Injuries can bring down the best teams, like the Bulls this year.

With talent like what they have, the Heat will be contenders for years to come. Blowing them up because one of their three good players got taken out by injury is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.