The Miami Heat lost their 15th in a row and are a lock to miss the playoffs this year.  What happened to the team that won the title just two years ago?  It’s amazing to me how quickly this team aged right before our eyes.  The Heat have suffered from injuries to some of their key big men, losing Alonzo Mourning for the season and Shaq having serious hip problems.  Other than that Dwyane Wade this team is all but dead in the water.  Wade himself is coming back from injuries and isn’t even 100% yet.  He doesn’t have the explosiveness that he had last year and is playing his way into Dwyane Wade shape but he can’t play 45 minutes a night and when he comes out this team is terrible. 

The last game the Heat won was a 104-102 overtime victory over the Utah Jazz and that was before Christmas.  The Heat are bound for the lottery and maybe it is time that Dwyane Wade just shut himself down for the year and Shaq hung them up.  Should Shaq retire?  I watched him a few games ago and he looked really good.  He’s still clearly better than most centers in the league and shouldn’t retire based on his play.  However, he is making way too much money for what he brings to the table now.   After getting beaten up for years now maybe his body is finally shutting down.  Shaq has been one of the most dominating centers to ever play this game and it’s been great to have been able to watch him like we have. 

I broke down the past 15 losses for the Heat and they’ve had a number of chances for wins.  In fact, they have lost these games by an average of 11 points.  In those games you have mixed in a few embarrassing losses by 25-30 points but most of them are under 10 with a number of losses under 5 points or overtime. 

What is it exactly about this team?  They have no depth.  They come off the bench with guys that have no real business being in the league or at least on an active roster.  Let’s face it, Ricky Davis teams never win and never will.  That’s like acquiring a Cub for a playoff push in baseball.  Don’t do it if you want a chance to go the World Series.  Other than Wade and Shaq the Heat have nobody that puts fear into the opposing team and it’s time to blow it up and start over.  I have a feeling Pat Riley won’t stick around for the blow up but I think he’ll bring himself back in 5 years when the Heat are good again.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Discussion, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.