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Let me begin by saying congrats to the Mavs because they earned this championship, as disappointed about losing as I was, it was clear by the end of Game 6 that they had a fire in them that the Heat lacked. They played to their potential and them some hitting shots that they normally might not.

That Mavs team, Dirk Terry and Kidd in particular, didn't just want to win. They needed to win.
The Heat? They really wanted to win and were riding the high of proving all the haters wrong, which clearly wasn't enough.

Say what you will about Lebron, but they wouldn't haven't gotten to the finals without his performances in the first three rounds. However, it was crystal clear why the Heat were in the finals and it wasn't their burning need to win or execution. It was talent, pure talent got them there. What should be scary for other teams and fans is that with all the turnovers, poor offensive sets, and injuries to a player who could have played a huge role in helping create good offense (Miller and his broken hands) the Heat were 2 wins away from the Championship.

So here is the question I pose to all of you, in the Big Picture was losing more beneficial in creating a Heat dynasty (not championship) than winning in the first year?

I think it might just be the case that it will be and here's why:
1) The Heat's lack of execution was finally exposed. There is no more thought that if it isn't broken then don't fix it excuse. Not that I believe there ever was, but how do you get your players to work hard over the summer and commit to a new offensive style in the upcoming season if what they did worked last year? The Heat committed too many turnovers and played an offense that was carried by pure talent. This lose will force the Heat front office to spend a lot of time looking at what worked and more so what they can't allow to happen for the offense to flow smoothly. Hopefully a healthy Miller will allow them to establish an offense with a dead-eye three point threat without losing rebounding. I'm confident they will look into using Bosh as a start for the offense (if he is kicking out or allowed to score it opens up a lot of looks).

2) You have to lose before you win. If the Big Three won this year it would have felt great, but would they have improved in the upcoming years? Maybe, maybe not. The parties would have started and the players and fans would feel entitled to the Finals each year after. It's hard to over look your opponent when you've been beaten before when it hurts the most (in the Finals). It was clear that Lebron and some of the players don't have the fire and the need to win that Dirk had this year (which he lacked in 06). When you hit rock bottom you stop overthinking your game (which I believe Lebron was guilty of) and to just play with a focus and anger that only losing can bring about (see Dwyane Wade in 08).

3) Cliches aren't going to cut it. I like Spoelstra (he even played at my college) but his methods were fairly cliche. "Grinding" might work in the early rounds and the regular season, but the Finals require brutal honesty and quick adjustments. He may get there, but he doesn't yet command the respect the a person like Pat Riley does. If Spoelstra stays it is clear Pat may need to be a little more visible in calling the players and the offense out as he sees it. I'm not calling for Riley to coach, but there aren't too many other people in the world that could tell Lebron or Wade to shut up and change what you are doing and get away with it and see results.

4) Stress tests are required to find the weakest link. It was clear that Miami needs an active and near 7' 0" center to compete with an aggressive and long rebounder like Tyson Chandler. Everyone knew Miami was weak at center, but Joel proved he could be a Very good back-up especially against smaller teams. If the front office can find someone that can negate some of the value of a Tyson Chandler type player you would probably see a +4-6 point Miami boost (either by extra possessions or the opponent losing 2-3 offensive rebounds). Miami also needs a healthy Mike Miller, when he was on the floor and able to tough it out and hit 2/3 threes (I'd like a healthy number to be around 3-4/5-7 a game from 3) and grab 5+ boards Miami is near unstoppable. A better constructed offense should allow a healthy Miller to have a HUGE impact and James Jones is a serviceable pinch hitter if need as a sub in that position.

4b) Line-ups Miami needed to beat Dallas
Going big to pound the boards
PG Lebron (proven to be a great facilitator even if he shies from shooting)
SG Wade
SF Miller
PF Bosh
C A longer (7') center to help stop O boards

Go small hit threes and crush zones
Look to possibly play Jones and Miller together to absolutely punish any collapse on the Big Three
If Chalmers keeps watching film and working on his 3 he can be a huge part too

5) Restructure the offense. Either hire an effective O coordinator, spend the summer on film with Spo, or something along those lines. Riley needs a plan to create a flowing offense that works inside to out with Bosh and a zone buster. He has every reason on why the players would need to buy into it (no, but we won w/o it excuse)

5b) Another season of learning players hot spots/tendencies will hopefully cut 2-4 team TO's a game and turn into a few more better shots. Familiarity and chemistry are key for this much talent, but it was obvious a better suited and followed offense is required for better execution.
More executions turns 90 ppg in the playoffs into 95-100 ppg and with a defense that starves teams to around 85-90 ppg that makes games a lot easier to win.



So do you think that addressing some of these issues will be more successful in the long run due to a gut-wrenching lose this year? Would winning (even winning 2 in a row) through nothing but talent put the players in a bad place when a team came along that outplayed their talent with desire/execution?

Let me know what you think of the potential going forward and what points need to be addressed before next year? Remember this is a team who's best shooter (and most well rounded shooter) basically played through 2 injured hand the entire year and only got their energy guy back in the playoffs. And I do in no way think we should even think about trading any of the big three or Haslem (not that Dwight isn't a good player, but that scenario is a different discussion).

great thread and great points i agree 100% and i'm thinking about printing this out to carry to work and show to all the heat haters because everything you said is true and easily fixable and if the heat do these things every other team in the league and their fans should be scared

Thanks; although, some of these changes may be easier than others. For instance, a healthy Mike Miller makes a huge difference (just watch the game clips where he manages to contribute despite two bum hands) and is a simple fix. Just get healthy! This is an easy fix, but may take a month or two into the next season to see him fully integrated. He could easily become a player who makes an impact in 15-25 min a game (more in games where we need all positions rebounding or 3 point shooting to break down a specific offense).

Others, like a well integrated offense that hopefully uses Bosh more, are not "easy." However, this is why I said losing may benefit creating an evolved and efficient offense because it leaves no room to doubt that there needs to be time spent addressing it.

I don't believe it is a stretch to say even a slightly better (and hopefully more studied and planned) offense, a longer center to combat 7 footers, and MM could give the Heat anywhere from a +4-10 point boost in the playoffs and some added regular season consistency.That being said, GO HEAT!

i agree. this loss hurt, really bad. i hope the heat follow the lakers lead after they lost to boston in '07. that laker team bounced back with a vengeance turning their weaknesses into strengths, something that the heat can easily do especially with all their talent. i do agree, we need to run a more complex offense and spo needs to adjust. i don't get why he's so stubborn, it's not like he's a hof coach that's done it before who's to stuck in their ways to change.

It definitely did, but I found some positive in it, which is why I wanted to make this thread.

I believe that some of the reason Spo couldn't implement a better was for 3 reasons:

1a) Old habits die hard, Lebron and Wade both have had the most success so far by taking advantage of their talent regardless of the offensive system which will create bad shots which sometimes go in despite how well they fit an offense. However, now that they couldn't win the finals using a "talent" based offense it's time to make it clear these habits need to die.
1b) Talent was working for the last 2/3 of the season and the playoffs up to the finals. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective for the most part. It was also the reason for extremely low scoring but also rare quarters and games. (Also the reason we lost almost every 4th quarter in the finals). At this point like I said above it is proven broken and needs to be fixed. Spo, Riley, and the staff have a whole summer to watch film, make hires, and devise a system they believe will work and sell it to the players.

2) Spo, the team, the fans, and the media did not know how the team would play together. There was no precedent for how to make a team work like this. Talent like this requires almost a custom built offense high light the players strengths, give role players their hot spots, and reduce low percentage shots. It is doable and after a summer of film and 4 rounds of the playoffs to find plays/shots that worked and didn't work there is no reason that it can't be created. Spo was a video coordinator no excuse to go into next season without a plan.

3) The fourth and fifth options were injured. Mike Miller was supposed to be a reliable 3 point threat who played most of the reserve minutes at 2/3. He injured both hands, but should be able to make his way back into being an effective in game shooter (watch his workouts he still can shoot an unbelievable percentage at practice). Haslem was also supposed to be that guy off the bench who gave guys energy on low nights. You saw the boost he gave in the Chicago series and he is capable of 10 and 10 each night.

+1 to OP

with time our guys will gel.
they gained some valuable experiences this year

Losing against the Mavs was good for the Heat, although they feel different (duh). Players and coaches will learn from this defeat.

and since the Heat have so many haters out there...

I think it would be a good idea for the Heat to 'embrace the dark side'

Play every sunday home game in black, and have fans dress in black as well. Play the imperial march (star wars) during the Heat intro's and do a 'join the dark side' marketing thing.

it would be kinda cool

daam wrote:Losing against the Mavs was good for the Heat, although they feel different (duh). Players and coaches will learn from this defeat.

and since the Heat have so many haters out there...

I think it would be a good idea for the Heat to 'embrace the dark side'

Play every sunday home game in black, and have fans dress in black as well. Play the imperial march (star wars) during the Heat intro's and do a 'join the dark side' marketing thing.

it would be kinda cool

That would actually be a great idea. Also Spo can coach in a Darth Vader helmet and Riley has to wear the emperor costume and shoot lightning out his fingers whenever spo screws up