Are you in the game?!

Patt Riley, the players and management, and most of all the fans could no longer sing the song, “the Heat is on… the Heat is o-on!” After winning the 2006 NBA crown and a good run in the 2006 season, the Heat now faces its worse standing since the Wade and Shaq tandemn came in. The heat holds the league’s 2nd worse record at 8 wins - 26 losses for a percentage of 0.235. Thanks to the crazyness of the Wolves for letting go of KG, the Wolves now holds the worse record in the NBA.

This post is depressing for me because I am a Heat fan, particularly a D. Wade fan! I admired him the most during the 2005 finals when they were up against Dallas. D. Wade, “The Flash” really showed his stuff and carried the team to the crown. I wasn’t surprised and bothered when the team traded James Posey and other guys during the off-season. I was thinking that as long as D. Wade, Shaq, and Alonzo Mourning (yes, his the 3rd man for me!), the Heat will still be a contender. Unfortunately, Wade didn’t play in their opening games due to injury and I think the bad start really struck Miami. Now with Wade back, Shaq is the one sidelined with injury and other guys are not playing as well as they should be. I would especially mention Jason Williams, the “former” deadly shooter, skip-passer, and deadly finisher is dismaying!

I would also like to comment on the team’s offensive strategies. Everytime I check out their boxscorse of their games in NBA, it is very noticable that Shaq has very few attempts in most of their games. I would say he roughly averages 10 field goal attempts in about 25-30 minutes of playing time! I think this is not a good sign for the Heat’s offense. Despite Shaq’s age and all the issues, I think he still has the Diesel in him, the power, the moves, and the smarts to get to the ring dunking baskets, or end up trying from the free throw line. Shaquille is still a threat down low. He can still get guys in foul trouble and make a couple of three-point plays down low.

Miami will never be a contender with Shaq only having 10 attempts per game. The Heat should not settle for outside shots. Their play must start at the post wil O’neal or Zo, then from double teams, kick-out plays may come for their shooters. Remember that the Heat was very effective playing this type of ball game. James Posey, Antoine Walker, Jason Williams made a living beyond the arc out of the drive-and-dish plays of Wade and the kick-out passes of Shaq from the post.