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Spoilered for length Spoiler Huh? You have the two superstars taking differing stances. I thought this was a collaboration for the ages. All three of them were supposed to go all in, right? It was supposed to be easy, right? Now one of them is the eternal optimist, while the other guy's glass is probably 1/8 full. What's the real outlook here? Also from Michael Wallace: "Earlier in season, Bosh said he didn't prefer to bang much down low. Now say's he's not being used enough as a big. Which is it?" Confused with Bosh here. 47% of the shots he's taken this season have been jump shots. Last year, it was 31%. I thought Chris Bosh was relishing his new role, one that didn't involve him being used in the low post as often. Now he's complaining about not being used down low more often? I sort of agreed with him concerning last night's game, considering Gerald freaking Wallace was guarding him for a good chunk of the first half, but wow, he was pretty giddy about his new role before the season started. You sad, Chris? The money they shelled out for the best role player in the game means they're stuck with him for quite a while. Here's Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (http://twitter.com/#!/IraHeatBeat): "It sure sounds like Dwyane Wade wants more Eddie House and James Jones. In other words, the clock may be ticking on Mike Miller." This is the same Mike Miller that was being touted as the guy that would put Miami over the hump, right? The guy that would provide Miami with a spark? Mike Miller is a shadow of himself. Hard to believe that he and Brad Miller make the same amount of money, albeit their contract lengths differ. He's had, what, 3, maybe 4 decent games, 1 great game, and a bunch of stinkers. Yes, Mike had his problems with injuries this year, but even when he's been healthy, his impact has been marginal at best. What, is he the Shane Battier of the Heat or something? That's an insult to Shane himself. Yes, the Heat have been beating the teams they're supposed to beat, but those under .500 teams are not going to be playing past April 13th. On the other hand, they're losing to the teams that they'll probably be seeing in May/June. Even more damning is that unsightly 1-9 mark against the teams with the top 5 records. THE 5 TEAMS THAT ARE AHEAD OF THEM IN THE OVERALL STANDINGS. THE SAME 5 TEAMS THAT HAPPEN TO BE AHEAD OF THEM HAVE AN EQUAL OR BETTER CHANCE OF WINNING THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP THAN THEY DO! Why? Those teams are pretty good! They have cohesion, chemistry and stability! Their stars are complemented by competent NBA players who know their role in the offensive systems that their coaches run! The stars get their stats and will shine on a regular basis, but their supporting cast is good enough to step up at any given moment in a game! Not the Heat, who have a bunch of washups who were good, or half-good, 3 years ago, or 5 years ago, or 9000 years ago and try to pass them off as role players! Washups who don't know what in the world they're supposed to be doing with the ball because the stars they play with have the ball for 18 out of 24 seconds! Washups who have no particular role because the coach they play for doesn't know what he's doing! Just give the ball to #1, #3, or #6 and don't worry about it! Cleveland brought in players that were best suited to LeBron's strengths. It wasn't a SPECTACULAR cast by any means, but they were solid, they knew their role, they executed, and they turned LeBron into the King of the regular season. Oh, right. It wasn't LeBron's fault. Almost forgot that part. But chemistry is overrated though, right? People complain that the Heat don't have it for some reason. Maybe because the stars basically have the same playing style? Maybe a certain SOMEONE just has absolutely no idea when to rein his ever-inflating ego in? The best part (well, at least to me it is) is that two of the best players in the world and a guy who has morphed into the NBA's best role player team up, pull THIS crap off <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pT-I8jQDQ7c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>, and they expect people to feel sorry for them. Give me a freaking break. Their slopping sycophants drink the Kool-Aid and believe that they could win 73+ and win all of them in a walk. They thought they'd be saying "Game over" amongst each other, much like Tim Duncan on Friday night. They thought it would be easy racking up championships. Now they sound like they'll be lucky to get one, two, maybe 3 at the most. I believe Erik Spoelstra will go the way of Mike Brown after this season. He hasn't helped his own cause with the crying issue and the relationship with the stars, which was probably tenuous to begin with, looks to be coming to a breaking point. A lot of his decisions have been really, and utterly baffling, but you can only blame a coach for so much. Would not surprise me if Pat Riley fired him today or the many days after and ran the show himself. Effort is there for the most part. Can't deny it. With the exception of the Spurs game. But effort only gets you so far, as little by little, the cracks are showing. The games of the past week have revealed to us the real Miami Heat team in the words of Skip Bayless: "2 and a quarter men." They put the target on their back when they had their little coming-out party and LeBron made his stupid little proclamation. D-Wade and LeBron will get theirs every single night. Throw in Bosh every now and then. But that's about it. Who else will step up? I now realize that D-Wade was right after all. The world is better now because the Heat are losing. Because with every loss, they reveal to the world that they're just a two-man show most nights. Heck, LeBron's spot on with his karma tweet from way back when. Because Miami's getting plenty of the bad kind right now. He sure loves shooting himself in the foot with moronic statements, doesn't he? No sympathy from me. Sorry.
I couldn't agree more with Wade on that. Miller has been worthless. James Jones will at least hit open shots and step in to take charges now and then. Bibby has been absolutely horrible since joining the Heat. I knew his defense was supposed to be bad, but going at Bibby has proven to be a guaranteed score or foul these last few games. House can give them the same shooting without being such a liability on defense.
[rquoter]The Miami Heat have now lost five consecutive games after the Portland Trail Blazers beat them 105-96 on Tuesday. The Heat are searching for answers and Chris Bosh said after the game that the team would be more successful if they changed how he is being used in the offense. "It is common sense, we can talk about it, but I think it's evident," Bosh told ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. "I just have to get it where I'm effective. I'm a big man. I can shoot the ball but I'm a big man. So I have to get it where big guys get it. Then I feel I can start helping out this team more." Bosh struggled against Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge shooting just 3-for-11 from the floor and scoring only seven points. "I've got to get back in my comfort zone, I haven't been in my comfort zone," Bosh said. "A lot of things are new for me. I just have to be more aggressive in demanding my [the ball] comfort zone, you know I'll take the fault for that... I'm effective down in the low post area, so that is where I need to start getting the ball. I need to be assertive in demanding it." Bosh has a point that he needs to get more shots closer to the basket. Windhorst checked out Synergy Sports and found that Bosh took 31 percent of his shots last season from the outside and this season with Miami it's up to 50 percent.[/rquoter] [rquoter]Miami Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has a player option for next season, but he probably won't exercise it. Ilgauskas says he plans to retire. "I think I've had enough of this game. I've played enough," Ilgauskas told alietuvis.com. "Sitting on the bench doing nothing is not what I want to do. The long trips and the intensive schedule have taken its toll -- I'm not a 20-year-old anymore and my body is telling me that it would be the right time to retire from NBA after this season. I have given everything I could to basketball and now I'd like to spend more time with my family." Ilgauskas, who is averaging just 16.8 minutes per game this season, had only played for Cleveland before following LeBron James to Miami[/rquoter]
I feel bad for Big Z. It would have been really nice for him to go out as a contributor for a championship team. He should have just retired as a Cavalier for life.
It was a mistake for Big Z going to Miami. He clearly was running low on fuel last year. Honestly, I don't know what he expected from himself this season. The best case scenario was for him to ride the bench just like he has with the Heat winning a lot of games. This is exactly what has happened. Of course, the losing skid this late in the season throws a major damper on things, but he should keep his mouth shut as now isn't the time to say something like this. Just my 2 cents.
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<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1gIZq6LADqc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Webber some real talk here. I didn't want to start a new thread.
I don't know why, but I always get the vibe that Webber would make one heck of a coach. What he said about the Heat earlier was absolutely spot on.
Big Z is clearly the rusty old mule that LeBron rides to the four step barn dances. No one should feel sorry for a tag along like him, he had a long NBA career which didn't seem likely with his initial foot injuries. Feel sorry for Yao. That is who I weep for every night.
"We could lose all the rest of our games & probably still make the playoffs." -Lebron James That attitude sure will win him 8 ring
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not really. he was the starter for 47 games and the heat were winning. then for some reason, 8 games ago spoelstra decided to start dampier (and not just bring z off the bench, but basically stop playing him altogether) and he's started all 8 games since then and the heat are 2-6 in that time. and one of the two wins was when z actually got 25 minutes. now i don't know if ilgauskas brought up retirement 8 games ago and they mutually decided he would have his minutes reduced from now on, but if not it was a really strange decision. and on playing house and jones more, i agree. i'm sure they'll be terrible now also, but for most of the season they were just fine as far as one-dimensional, minimum salary role players go (they were playing during the 21-1 run). house can shoot and can at least move around on D (unlike bibby, for whom i think rigor mortis is setting in) and jones has been hitting his 3's most of the season. they at least spread the floor. miller started getting minutes on 1/13 against the nuggets when he got 33 minutes. since then he's played in 20 games and the heat are 10-10 in those games. he's got a sweet -12.0 net +/- for the season. jones is actually +1.4 and house is -3.4, which is decent considering some of the minutes he's replacing are wade and lebron's. so basically, either miller has to play like he's not still injured or jones and house need more of his minutes. and just have bibby put down. or maybe spoelstra can see if he can squeeze juwan howard's crappy +/- into the lineup some more and kick someone good out. he hasn't quite replaced all the productive role player's yet.
Starting or not, Big Z hasn't played big minutes all season. He's not a key member of that team. He's maybe an 8th or 9th man. This is the best he could possibly hope for. I doubt his reduced role has anything to do with the Heat slide. If you believe it does, OK. Certainly Dampier isn't worth much either. Regarding James Jones, before the season started, I really touted his importance to Miami. He started the season strong, but the guy hasn't shot the ball well in a while. Maybe Miller's hand or the concussion is still bothering him. Time to switch back to Jones for now because Miller is killing them.
