(Photo via Getty Images)
The Miami Heat, on a celebratory night honoring the 20-year anniversary of the 2006 championship team at halftime, put up goose egg in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
With a final score of 127-115 that doesn’t show how lopsided this game really was throughout, the Hawks handled Miami from the start. Atlanta had an 18-point edge at halftime and the Heat were still flat at the start of the third quarter. Just another questionable effort, as they will now drop to a mediocre 27-25 record. Atlanta’s first-time All-Star Jalen Johnson led the way with a 29/11/11 triple-double on 12 of 20 shooting overall. CJ McCollum added an efficient 26 points off the bench as well.
Miami came into the matchup with Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins each getting downgraded to unavailable shortly before tipoff. They also still remain without Tyler Herro, who has been sidelined for the past 11 straight games with a rib injury. Coach Erik Spoelstra went with a starting unit of Davion Mitchell, Pelle Larsson, Myron Gardner, Simone Fontecchio and Bam Adebayo.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. was the Heat’s leading scorer, submitting 21 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in 28 minutes off the bench. He was the only Heat player to score over 20 points on the night.
Larsson and Fontecchio continued their scoring surge of late with 18 points each. Adebayo struggled shooting, going just 4 of 16 from the field, but still finished with a 16-points, 14 rebounds double-double. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough firepower to keep up with Atlanta.
The main bright spot for Miami would come off the court tonight with the 2006 championship ceremony. Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Pat Riley all headlined the most notable names involved with several speeches at halftime. It was a special moment for a special group, as Heat fans got to reminisce on the group that secured the franchise’s first ever NBA title two decades ago.
Unfortunately, the present day Heat would go on to spoil the moment as a need for change was felt throughout the arena. At one point, fans in attendance at Kaseya Center formed a “We want Giannis” chant in the midst of an abysmal effort on both ends from this roster. Miami shot just 44% overall as a team and a rough 25% from 3-point range, while allowing Atlanta to go 49% and 42%, respectively.
Will this be the last night that we see this group as presently constructed? The Heat will have the next two days off before hitting the court again in Boston on Friday— as fans across the league still await major trade dominos to fall. Thursday’s 3:00 PM trade deadline is less than 48 hours away.
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Agree to disagree on some of this “controversy “. Couple things…team sports require special chemistry regardless of talent. Look at last night’s celebration obviously highlighting that 15 Strong team. Team chemistry is almost magical and cannot be bought or taught. Having superior talent is obviously a necessity but not the ultimate team solution to winning. Debating white, black, or whatever players for me comes down to finding the best basketball players – period – who win – period !
Yes, I hear you. This is always the way these discussions go. There is always this slight change in the parameters of the issues discussed that never quite addresses things head on but sounds very appealing in this wonderful, kumbaya world. I do appreciate your input. But, it’s very hard to find the right winning combo with six non twowayers. Cut it down to four and I’m right with you. Twenty six other teams are finding their right mix differently and it will be interesting to watch the other three as Chicago just rectified their situation.
I’m not expecting agreement and do respect your seeing it differently.
Just a thought (or two) before the NBA trade deadline regarding Miami’s need for more “athletic” players.
Two way players are a luxury most teams would love to have. Despite the number of “non-athletic players” on Miami’s roster, it is still the #5 defensive team in the NBA, behind only OKC, Detroit, San Antonio and Houston.
Defense is not the problem with the Heat, offense is. It is especially important in the last 5 minutes (clutch time). Unfortunately, the Heat does not have players who can consistently perform in the clutch, (regardless of race, ethnicity, defensive ability or athleticism).
There are a ton of players in the NBA who may be “athletic” but who are not bona fide two-way players. Some can play defense but are marginal, at best, on offense. Others are good offensively, but are marginal defenders. Some are raw athletes who never fully develop into all-around NBA caliber players.
Oversimplifying the issue and lumping everyone into “athletic vs non-athletic” categories does not address the real problem. The real problem is that Miami does not have an A+ player or a top notch closer. Many of Miami’s games are lost in the second half because the team does not have a legitimate superstar to carry the load when the rest of the team falters. They normally lose 3rd and 4th quarter leads, not because of defensive meltdowns, but because of offense ones.
If you add one ss to this team (be he “athletic” such as Giannis or “non-athletic” such as Luka) the narrative could completely change. The players could then be viewed as fantastic playing together and management could then be viewed as outstanding. Until that happens, it is easy to point out the many defects in Miami’s team composition and management’s inadequacies. After all, it is human nature to find someone to blame when things don’t go the way we had hoped.
Let’s all hope Riley pulls a rabbit out of his hat/hits a homerun. Otherwise, we’ll all have plenty to bitch about after 3:00 P.M. (ET) tomorrow.
GO HEAT!!!
Time to say something very controversial….
At some point, abd I said this before, it’s not just the quality, it’s the quantity. I know it sounds bad and all, but it’s true., I explain it as non-twoway players being asked to carry responsibilities beyond their skillsets. The tipping point is hard to establish, but it’s somewhere around four.
Chicago got blown out by us, so they just fixed the issue with their trades. Watch as they will be a better team from now on.,Boston, OTOH, just moved towards the edge of being in the tipping zone issue, despite having the sheltering superstar, who can make it less of a problem. Watch from today, Boston was doing really well, even without Tatum, but they just weakened their team.
Utah and the Heat remain locked in, and will not improve until they get under the tipping point. Those non twowayers can also be hard to move. The Heat’s only chance now is acquiring the sheltering superstar. But, that is complicated by that superstar not choosing a team over the tipping point. Zanik and Riley remain two of the worst GM’s in basketball, for this reason alone. Chicago went out and got proactive and fixed their problem. I wish we would.
This is an inconvenient truth and without Norm and Andrew, it couldn’t have been more on display than last night. That’s true despite our three good ones, Pelle, Simone and Jaime, all playing very well. We also had to use two of our three bad ones, and had no sheltering stars. Teams like Atlanta, with many young athletic players, and the proper ratio of non twowayers, will beat our behinds pretty easily under those conditions.
This plays out across the league every night. Even the Lakers have this issue and even with two great non twowayers, have to basically bench other pretty good players to have any chance. And that is with the sheltering superstar effect happening in the strongest way. I predict the Lakers will not go far in the playoffs until they get under the tipping point.
There are other factors in play also, and here is where RC is right. Because quality of the players overall is the most important, and quality of the two wayers is of course another paradyne that has to be considered. There are a bunch of teams that are well under the tipping point that stink also. One of them, the Bucks, just showed the league when Giannis got hurt that the sheltering superstar covers up weaknesses without being over the tipping point. But, being over the tipping point remains a difficult to overcome factor.
This is my honest, inconvenient truth answer to RC, that at some point it’s not just quality, it becomes quantity.
Yeah, so if we swapped those 3 ‘non two-wayers’ for Winslow, Pittman, and Terrel Harris, guess what? You’d have the same issue except for the color of the players. So, no matter how you try to spin it, it is the QUALITY of the players that is the issue.
That was a good answer and you made me reconsider things. But, the problem is you replaced our three most ineffective guys with journeyman, GLeague level players. Let’s stick three very average guys from the Hawks, B players at best, Gueye, Koloko, and Newell (or replace one of them with Daniels). We are talking run of the mill average NBA players. You replace our bottom three (Herro, Niko, and KJ- yes KJ may someday be better, also maybe not), and we are a better team with the Hawks three average two way players. And it’s just because of the quantity issue.
In short, until we get rid of at least Herro and Niko, we won’t be good unless we get the sheltering superstar. And what I define as a sheltering superstar is a Giannis type, or a Jimmy, whose sheer greatness covers up a multitude of weaknesses.
But, I guess you are right as to quality. If you take journeymen, Keshod level players, like the bottom of our bench right now, we won’t be any better. But, take an average Kevin Huerter level player, put five more on your team, and you have the Chicago Bulls before the trades. Take away Huerter, Vuc, and Saric, three average effectiveness nontwowayers, add Simons, Conley, and Ivey, three average twowayers, and you have a better team. It’s only because they also have Buzelis, Collins and Giddey. And Giddey is the best player of all of them. And, watch the Bulls play better from here on.
It’s a weird phenomenon. We all aren’t equal. God gives us all strengths and weaknesses. I’m just an observer. I stand by my comments.
blacks are better athletes 100% true .just the way it is.but u keep on rehashing this obvious fact we know that 30.bring something new to the table.the subject gets old
I’m just trying to advocate for correcting an intractable problem with team building that the Heat have encountered over the last few years that I believe if not addressed, will continue to limit our success.
And, btw, as much as I have brought it up, I can’t hold a candle to your almost daily referencing of some aspect of this discussion. Isn’t it rich, isn’t it grand, that the pot is referring to the kettle.
It takes courage to even bring up these un-pc narratives. I always say, if this was any other team than Utah, now Boston, or the Lakers, this would be the last thing I would discuss.
vanillas are limited in bball because of their athleticism so theyre always playing from behind.some can overcome it cuz of their inate god given ability but most always playing with that disadvantage hard to overcome it.just way it is.why pats drafting mostly vanillas recently is one of the main reasons for mediocrity.only fix here is athens otherwise mediocrity could last for who knows how long.
Exactly. That’s what I am saying in my long winded way. I was just trying to explain why it’s not a good idea to have more than four, even if they are all decent players. I’m done for now until it smacks me in the face again like it did last night. Atlanta isn’t even that good. Yes, we were missing two of our best, but we played as good as we could and it still wasn’t close.
A GM should be judged on the quality of a team and the results. You can’t argue with success. However, when a team is mediocre season after season, the GM should be judged harshly.
Pursuing greatness requires risks. Accepting mediocrity requires much less risk. Riley has gotten comfortable accepting mediocrity because he doesn’t want to gamble going through a losing and rebuilding process. He doesn’t want to tank. By accepting being average, he’s lost before he even starts.
Sports like life has its cycles, it’s ups and downs. Poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran describes a life without risks as “a seasonless world where you laugh, but not all your laughter and you weep but not all your tears.”
The Heat players and fans have been living in that seasonless world for too long. It’s time for Riley to make a hard left turn or a hard right one. Staying on the same path will only lead to more mediocrity. He can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. Time for Pat to s*** or get off the pot.
Words of wisdom. I can’t say for the others, but for me, throwing in a Gibran quote makes your words ascend to a higher plane.
Forgot to mention Rozier. Another waste of money. He’s a journeyman on a $26M+ contract who was underperforming when he was playing and is sitting home collecting a big fat check now without lifting a finger.
Quality players are only good if they are available. Rozier is neither. He alone covers the salaries of Fontecchio, Jovic, Jaquez, Larsson and Jakucionis. So it is about quality -and-availability. The problem is Miami has no A or A+ players and is trying to compete with teams that do.
Your ideas seems really strange to me , so I start to think, if there is something similar to that.
Actually, there is.
In Slovenia, and I believe, around Europe too, there is quite a strong believe from some, that black players are strong, athletics, but not smart. This is supported by often low quality of American players in Europe, which are also mostly black.
So, if you go to the game, you will often hear “what this f***g stupid n****r is doing”
That’s a terrible thing to say, and I don’t like to hear that.
But its an exact equivalent of what you are saying for white players. In different words, but the meaning is the same.
You dont like white players. You want them no more then 2-3 in the team.
Ok, I get it. I have no problems with that. As long those white players are good players, and those black players are good players too.
Exactly. BTW, I never talk like that and don’t think anyone else should either.
I love our three quality nontwowayers, I have a totally heterosexual man crush on Pelle, but I think Jaime is great also. And Simone, last night showed that burly man ruggedness that I only wish Niko showed. Simone can knock people flying on the inside and he should do it more. In short, we can win with all three.
We need more than Bam, Norm, Andrew, Davion, Dru, and Kel’el, to do go with those three. A backup big twowayer, not a scrub either, and another quality SF twowayer, as good or better than Andrew, and we are a contender.
It’s just when the numbers get too much and players are forced into roles they can’t handle, that the weaknesses become evident. And that’s true of any player, of any type.
But, there is something to quantity also. I even question whether RC’s contention that if you had a team with Stockton, Walton, Bird, McHale, Nowitzki, Maravich, Cousy, Petit, Doncic, Jokic, West, and Nash, whether they would be as effective as one would think because of the quantity issue. I guess we will never know.
Taking this one step further, that compilation of the best white players to ever play the game, which I believe I came pretty close on, especially if you distribute it with guards, forwards and centers, would go, maybe 54-28. The same team of the twelve best blacks goes 77-5.
54-28.. you mean in todays league?
Yes. What do you think their record would be, and I realize we are both just guessing with nothing to base it on except our observations over many years?
I think that that team would be much better then OKC.
We’ll never know but thanks for playing along. I’m too excited about the next day to try to convince anyone anymore. All our dreams may be fulfilled (which is what they say in French in the song Psycho Killers by the Talking Heads).
Why we have to watch this?
What’s happening with Powell and Wiggins? What’s happening with the Rozier situation.
Just 1 more shopping day until the trade deadline. I hope Riley doesn’t wait too long to act and lose out or become inpatient and sell the ranch pursuing fool’s gold. We find out Thursday if he has ice water in his veins or is asleep at the wheel.
Ware needs to be an everyday starter or to be sent to a team where he will get plenty of minutes and time to develop quickly. He isn’t getting it in Miami.