How The Miami Heat Can Make Another Championship Run

By Court Zierk @courtzierk on February 2, 2015

It seems crazy to think the Miami Heat have been in existence for more than a quarter of a century. When they formed in 1988, I was a youngster, still very susceptible to the attraction of that which is shiny and new. That summer, there were four new teams added to the NBA, bringing the total number up to 27 at the time. The Heat were one of those teams, along with the Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic, and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

For whatever reason, in my wide-eyed, and youthful state, I took a liking to the Hornets, probably because they had a modern and flashy look, that capitalized on my susceptible opinion. But, the Hornets, as you well know, have had a checkered history at best, and now exist as the New Orleans Pelicans. The Timberwolves haven’t had much more success despite a few seasons with Kevin Garnett in his prime. The Magic, despite their flaws, have appeared in two NBA Finals series, but lost both of them.

The Heat, on the other hand, have had more success than most franchises that have been around prior to the NBA/ABA merger. In fact, only the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs have more championships under their belts than the Heat. The Celtics and Lakers have been around since the 1940’s. The Bulls were formed in 1966. And the Spurs joined the NBA as part of the merger in 1976.

The point being that the Heat have found a way to do something few other franchises have proven capable of, and they did so in a much shorter timeframe. Pretty impressive.

But, things have changed quite significantly, and their future isn’t quite as clear as it was even a year ago. When the 2014-2015 season started, opinions seemed to be all over the board related to how the Heat would perform. In case you have been in a cryogenically frozen state for the past year, the Heat lost the services of arguably the best player on the planet in LeBron James during the offseason.

Few actually thought they’d be able to rebound from that loss to remain a legitimate title contender this season, but there was a healthy amount of optimism that existed following the re-signing of Chris Bosh, and their other key free agent acquisitions. I even saw them predicted to finish as high as third in the Eastern Conference, despite the loss of LeBron.

As we approach the All-Star break, the Heat’s performance thus far has been mediocre at best, and the fan optimism is slowly deteriorating as quickly as Dwyane Wade’s lower extremities.

Currently, the Heat hold the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but while that seems commendable on its surface, once you begin to break this team down further, you start seeing some major flaws.

For starters, while they are currently the seventh seed, they are only 20-25, and even more concerning, they are 8-14 on their home court. They are 12-11 on the road to put that into perspective.

They are ranked dead last in the league in team rebounding, with a lowly 45.7 per game.

They are in the Top 10 in field goal percentage (45.9%), but are in the bottom third for three-point percentage (34.1%). The only saving grace is that they don’t take many of them (20.3 per game).

They are 26th in the league in blocks per game at 4.1. They do get steals though, and they are ranked in the Top 10 in that category (8.1 spg).

They are ranked 29th in assists per game (19.9 apg), so their ball distribution is atrocious.

And while their scoring defense in ranked second overall (96.4 points allowed per game), that is probably more of a product of the slow pace they play at than anything else. They have by far the fewest possessions per game out of any team league-wide (91.8 per game).

Lastly, their bench scores the second fewest points in the league (17.8 ppg), ahead of only the Cleveland Cavaliers who just made several major moves to upgrade their bench, so I’d expect them to be in last place soon.

The emergence of Hassan Whiteside is helping them in several of those categories, specifically in blocks and rebounds, but his presence alone won’t fix what ails them. The Heat need help, not only for the rest of the season, but looking ahead to the future as well.

Fixing The Heat

When attempting to fix a complicated problem, the first thing to do is to address the most glaring issue, and that issue for the Heat is their bench.

When healthy, the Heat can trot out one of the better trios in the league. Wade, although less reliable now from a health perspective, remains one of the best shooting guards around. Bosh is still a top-20 talent, and one of the best stretch bigs in the game. Whiteside has burst onto the scene, and appears to be a real piece the Heat can build around for the future.

But, beyond those three, the Heat’s talent level drops off significantly. Luol Deng is a serviceable small forward, but is on the backside of his career, and has a player option after this season, likely choosing to become a free agent. James Ennis has shown flashes of promise, as has Shabazz Napier. Mario Chalmers started strong, but has since dropped off precipitously, especially when coming off the bench when Wade is healthy. After that, you start talking about players like Danny Granger, Shawne Williams, and Norris Cole, and it gets really ugly, really quickly.

Bottom line, the Heat need help in a lot of areas before they can return to contender status, and they’re definitely more than a few minor moves at the trade deadline away.

So, where do they start?

I think their most glaring need is at the point guard position, and that is something they could certainly address through free agency this summer. Assuming Deng decides to leave, they should have around $15 million to spend in free agency, assuming a revised salary cap of around $67 million. That is certainly enough to bring in a couple of decent players.

Looking at who will be available, there are a couple of players that the Heat need to put on their radar immediately.

Brandon Knight will be an unrestricted free agent, and would be an ideal fit in combination with Wade while bringing some much-needed perimeter shooting into the fold. Given his performance this season, however, he will likely command a max salary, which would bring the Heat right back up to the cap line. Goran Dragic would be another option, but he would probably command a similar salary.

Probably a more likely option is to bring in someone like Jeremy Lin for much less money, and hope that Napier makes the leap in his second year, and/or select another point guard in the draft.

That would also leave room for the Heat to go all in on a player like Kawhi Leonard, who would provide them with the versatility and athleticism they need on the wings. Since that would be very unlikely to happen, other options include going after Tobias Harris or Wilson Chandler, both of whom are more than capable of starting at small forward in this league.

With their reserve cash, they could go after Gerald Henderson or Mirza Teletovic for some additional shooting acumen.

One overlooked factor is the fact that Josh McRoberts will also be coming back from injury next season, and could be a key piece in stabilizing their frontcourt rotation as well.

Of course, the Heat could decide to go over the cap into the luxury cap territory, in which case they could go all in on two near max-level players such as Knight and Leonard. Imagine a starting lineup of Knight, Wade, Leonard, Bosh and Whiteside. Combine that with McRoberts, Chalmers, Napier and Ennis coming off the bench, and they would certainly be a real title threat.

The bottom line is that the Heat will have options entering next season, and with their winning pedigree, players will most definitely have a desire to come play in Miami. They could be two moves away from returning back to the pinnacle of the game. And with the Spurs aging core, they could realistically be challenging them for total number of titles sooner than you realize, especially once you consider the massive influx of television revenue that will begin inflating the salary cap in 2016.

It may even be possible that the Heat win another title before LeBron and the Cavaliers win their first together. Now wouldn’t that be the ultimate revenge for Pat Riley? Who needs the King when you have the Godfather?

Court Zierk is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @CourtZierk, “Like”him on Facebook or add him on Google.