The Flash Is Out

Two days ago Dwayne Wade announced that he is going to sit out the final 21 games of the Heat’s season in order to nurse his surgically repaired knee back to health. Even though Wade injured the knee during last year’s first round playoff exit to the Chicago Bulls and underwent a routine operation immediately after, it has been clear that Wade has not been healthy all season long. The decision to hold Wade out of the lineup for an extended amount of time, which has ended up being the season, comes at least twenty-something games too late. All year long Wade has not looked like himself and I know the logic behind keeping him in was to keep the Heat’s playoff chances alive by this time, but clearly if he is not close to healthy there is no chance that he can carry this team on his back anyways. If nothing else, former teammate Shaquille O’ Neal mailed his season in around December, and once they traded O’ Neal a few weeks ago, the Heat should have just explained to Wade that they were mailing this season in too.

I refuse to understand even with injuries, an unhealthy Wade, an unhealthy and uncaring Shaquille O’ Neal up until recently, how Hall of Fame coach, Pat Riley can only have 11 wins and play in the Eastern Conference at this point in the season? Even the Timberwolves and Grizzlies, who play in the much more difficult West, have three and four more wins respectively than the Heat. While I do not fully intend to blame Pat Riley for this or question his past achievements, I do think that a lot of this falls on him. He has chosen the players on this team and decided to put the knife in Stan Van Gundy’s back to put one more ring on his finger a few years ago, which was probably unethical, but there is no chance they would have gotten it without Riley, so he made a good decision for him and the city of Miami. Other than the Championship the Heat won, or I should say the championship that the Mavericks gave them, Riley has been unsuccessful in Miami following his tenure with the New York Knicks in the early 90's. When he arrived in Miami, he pretty much got owned by his former team the New York Knicks, year in-and-out come playoff time. That is what eventually led to him stepping down as the head coach of the Miami Heat. Then once he landed Shaquille O’ Neal, he decided his team was a title contender and wanted to step in and take over again. It makes me wonder if Riley is as good as we think he is, or if he has was just lucky to coach a team like the Showtime Lakers, or the Ewing-led Knicks, both of which were already very good teams no matter who called the plays like Phil Jackson has been accused of over the years?

This is relatively the same team that “won” the Championship not too long ago. Even then they were filled with many players who were past their respective primes, everyone could see that they were a two man team between O’ Neal and Wade and eventually headed towards problems. Riley should have made moves to get younger over the last two off seasons, but largely has not moved towards that, perhaps due to his age he was unwilling to start over with a very young team? I love that the Heat managed to get Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for Shaquille O’ Neal before the trade deadline, this will ensure that the Heat will move towards getting younger during the upcoming seasons and field a supporting cast around Wade. Pulling Wade out for the rest of the season, will ensure that they get more balls in the lottery (and probably three more wins max. this year) and that should result in a higher pick in this year’s draft. That should lead to the team getting another young player who can immediately step in and help Wade and Marion get the Heat back to being a playoff team relatively soon. My guess is that Riley will give it one more season as head coach, staying around primarily to see how far Wade can get a team without O’ Neal. This time we should get a better picture of what Wade is capable of without a presence in the middle, unlike before when he was the star of the team as a rookie without O’ Neal, his experience in the league should make everything much clearer this time. Providing that Wade fully recovers from his knee injury, the recent addition of a solid number two player for any team in Shawn Marion, and the almost guaranteed addition of a top five player in the upcoming draft, remember the Heat still play in the East, I can almost guarantee that the Heat will be in the playoffs at the end of next season avenging this disastrous one.