Question: Rest Big 3 or Go for 1 seed?

[walk with me]

Mods if you feel this thread should be merged somewhere do it up....

My question to everyone in the MH sub-forum: if you are Spoelstra, do you push your team to make a run for the 1 seed OR do you start pulling back the troops and resting our big guns (bron wade and bosh?)


Unless your on the inside of the organization you have no way to definitely know members of the team are fatigued from this and the past 3 seasons but judging by their current play I'm going to have to think that they absolutely are and maybe some knick knack injuries. Personally in my life time I can think of a team that was 'targeted' as much as the heat's "BIG 3" has been. People love getting up for us and random guys who aren't the greatest love having random 20+ point outings against us (telenovic for example). Not only that, but in the past 3 seasons we have been to the finals 3 times (obviously) adding up for about 65+ extra games in the past 3 seasons which is damn near a whole extra year. I can only imagine how mentally taxing that must be. It's interesting to think that jordan took a year and a half off playing baseball and got to totally recharge and had a built in excuse when playing orlando. Now the expectation for lebron is reaching like 8 finals straight since Jordan did 6 in 8 years. Anyways that's irrelevant.


At this point we have two options, man up and make a serious push for the 1st seed but risking being tired in the playoffs and potentially more knick knack injuries OR pulling back the troops in the final 15 games benching and playing guys on reduced minutes. Since YOU ARE SPO for this thread the choice is yours since that's what it has come down to at this point.

[walk with me]

with exactly 20 games left I'm picking push for 1. But if we don't cut it to about 1 game with 12 games left I say we pull back.

[Heat_Fan_87]

#1 seed in east is very attainable. Not sure why people think it can't be done. INdy is playing worse than we are.

[RexBoyWonder]

Rest, without hesitation.

The way we're looking, we won't get in anyway. We have a tougher schedule then the Pacers.

But more importantly, if we don't get some life into some of these old guys we're setting ourselves up for an early exit once the playoffs come.

Battier and Allen look done, pray that some rest can help them.

Lebron looks fatigued, let him get some down time both mentally and physically because if he's not 100% for the playoffs we're in deep trouble.

Birdman is a 35YO playing more minutes then he ever did during his career. Don't burn him out because it looks like he's the only Center we bothered having on this roster and we'll need every minute he could give before collapsing in the playoffs.

While we're in rest mode, give some minutes to Oden, Douglas, Liggins, James Jones and Beasley. Maybe some of them can earn some rotation minutes, it's not like the rest of the rotation is filled with great options. We should have been doing this along time ago. Both as insurance in case someone misses games due to injury and also to see if they could be helpful at certain times.

We had all the chances in the world to go after the #1 seed. We didn't. So **** it. They're not motivated enough to get it, we're not young enough to grind games.

[HeatNation88]

Were really close for the first seed so go for it why rest our games now when were that close we'll get an advantage in the playoffs with the first seed

[MartyCONLONNN]

Like those smart and relentless Celtics team of recent years, we should take it kind of easy especially make sure Wade continues in this upward trajectory. Lebron clearly needs rest, or needs to get that Big Z ceremony out of his head regardless of his upcoming stupid Decision Pt 2.

At this point we shouldn't throw games but Wade should definitely be on full maintenance program again with Lebron's minutes going down... and please Ray Allen needs to not be playing 30 minutes! Not only because of the negative impact, but also because what the **** does Spo expect for him to have left in the tank come playoffs? Same with Battier. A game off here and there could go a long way. Beasley and Shard could fill in and we may hardly miss a beat.

[walk with me]

#1 seed in east is very attainable. Not sure why people think it can't be done. INdy is playing worse than we are.

I don't know about indi playing worse than we are. We are pretty damn bad right now. Indi sucks also but I don't hold them to the same standard as we do. They played their hardest all season so I felt like some decline was inevitable at some point. We on the other hand have coasted all season which I'm not mad at but even going 50% on over the last few games I think we would have the 1 seed in the east. or atleast be much closer than 2 games behind (again).

edit:

I understand the playoff thing but pride has to kick in at some point. But again that comes back to fatigue. Fatigue and playoff readiness is more important than pride at the moment so.

Birdman is a 35YO playing more minutes then he ever did during his career.

this is hilarious and so true. I never thought of it before.

[RexBoyWonder]

Bonus point only semi sarcastic - If we'll continue to suck this bad we could actually get a better draft pick then we expected.

I don't see us catching Indy, Spurs or OKC, but we could get below the Rockets and the Clippers too. They're just 2 games behind and playing great right now.

#25 pick here we come!

[Altered_Beast]

Whenever a question like this is posed I think. WWTSD. What would the spurs do. IMO that's the franchise I want the heat to emulate when it comes to their attitude in the reg season. Play your stars but as soon as a drop of fatigue shows up give em some rest. If you play consistent all year and manage to get the first seed then that is a bonus but imo optimal health and fresh legs in the post season trumps home court. Time and time again we've seen number one seeds get upset.

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[MisterHibachi]

Rest. The seedings are perfect right now.

[Tony15]

Rest please...

[HeatNation88]

Bonus point only semi sarcastic - If we'll continue to suck this bad we could actually get a better draft pick then we expected.

I don't see us catching Indy, Spurs or OKC, but we could get below the Rockets and the Clippers too. They're just 2 games behind and playing great right now.

#25 pick here we come!

Since when we had a First round pick of this year?

[Vertical Limit]

Rest is the way to go in my opinion... too much energy required to fight for the first seed... I rather take the pressure off them till the playoffs begin. I just want them to rest and progress the next month and a half.

[heatlespeatles]

if the standings gonna stay the same, I'm perfectly happy with the 2nd seed.

[TRG]

Are we locked into the playoffs? Cause if no we should tank hard and go for a chance at the #1 pick.

[RexBoyWonder]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JoeGoodmanJr/status/444207734909837313[/tweet]

[MisterHibachi]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/JoeGoodmanJr/status/444207734909837313[/tweet]

READ: Rest.

[Makavalli]

Spo really needs to sub for fresh legs when others are stinking it up. I mean lewis can at least hit a shot put him on tet or haslem for some spurt hustling. Dont burn out your starters for psychology reasons

[MisterHibachi]

How many games we have left? 20? I would give Ray and Battier every other game off, alternating. Their legs seem to be completely done. They need some serious R&R

[Dupas]

We have 2 games against indy. We must grind the first place but not over try it. It is what it is . We already won 2 ships without hca not the end of the world