It’s over. The Miami Heat look old. The Heat players look older than the other old guys, some team called the San Antonio Spurs. Dwayne Wade has turned into Dwayne Fade. Mario Chambers resembles Mario Chambers. Shane Battier should have retired before the start of the season. Greg Oden is useless.
The Heat must have thought it was Throwback Thursday when they kept Chris Andersen and brought in Rashard Lewis. The day the Heat bring in Carmelo Anthony or someone else to give LeBron James some kind of help can’t come soon enough.
July 1, the official day for the first day of free agency, is about two weeks away. LeBron probably has already began the countdown in his head. Who would blame him? The Miami Heat has turned into beach city’s Cleveland Cavaliers. When you go up and down the Heat’s roster, there is no one on that team that can get their own shot besides the all-mercurial LeBron James.
The Spurs have exploited that fact during the 2014 NBA Finals to the point that they are one game from dusting the two-time defending champs on the floor. Clearly, the Spurs felt they were the better team when they fell to the Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals. They have proven as much, claiming a 3-1 series lead with Game 5 back in San Antonio.
Should the Spurs finish off the Heat….it would be somewhat of an inglorious sendoff for the Big Three (James, Wade and Chris Bosh).
Wade, in his heyday known as Flash, is a complete embarrassment to be out on the floor these days. He can’t even finish layups or drives to the basket, which used to be his forte. When you look at Wade, there is just nothing left in the tank anymore. He has no lift. The legs are clearly gone. Unfortunately, Wade is the emphatic photo hardcore reality of a player playing past his prime.
This is still a young man’s game. Besides LeBron, the Heat have all of the old and broken down parts that no one wants anymore. The Spurs, on the other hand, did the right thing in incorporating younger and better suited players into their lineup. It is no coincidence that Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Patty Mills have become more of the focal points in the Spurs’ offense. Sure, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are still doing what they do, but in a year or two, those cats won’t be around.
The Heat decided to stay pat with a lineup that went to three straight NBA Finals before this season. This year would make it four. The problem is that Ray Allen, Battier and Andersen were already removed from being in their prime. The Heat are going to have to rebuild. But it might be a little too late if they want to keep LeBron, still the best player in the league.
For the past two years, LeBron has been doing what he did in Cleveland, carrying the burden of his team. It’s not fair to LeBron. The problem with the Heat is that they play in a weaker and more inferior conference (Eastern Conference) to that of their rivals in the Western Conference, therefore buying into the notion they are that good. Well, they are not.
As the Spurs have shown through the first four games, up and down, the Western Conference is better. And from the looks of it, any of the top three team in the Western Conference-Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers-have too much depth, too much speed and younger legs that would provided problems for the Heat.
To that point, both the Clippers and Thunder could be kicking themselves right about now. However, that’s another story for another time. The sad thing about this whole is episode is what the fans are getting or what they are not getting.
For the first three rounds of the playoffs, fans have been treated to probably the best stretch of basketball in NBA postseason history. Now we have this. It would be such a shame for the playoffs end on a whimper after coming out of the gate with a big bang. Maybe, hopefully, LeBron and his crew will surprise us and take us to a Game 7. That would be only fitting.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com