How the Miami Heat can now turn their season around
By Ivan Mora
Can the Miami Heat, now with the additions of both Dwyane Wade and Luke Babbitt, turn their season around in time for the playoffs?
There is more hope now than ever that this Miami Heat team can find an actual balance and stability to ride that wave to the playoffs. They entered the All-Star break barely hanging onto the 8-seed and are 1-2 with Dwyane Wade back in Miami. But even with all their recent struggles considered, that locker room has more optimism now than before the month started.
This isn’t a repeat of last year though, when Miami struggled to stay afloat and ended up caught in an eighth seed battle with the Chicago Bulls, which saw the Heat losing and slipping away from the playoffs.
This year shows much more promise than last year’s 41-41 record. The main and obvious reason is of course the addition of Dwyane Wade, and that should speak volumes on how they can adjust to their already awful and gloomy season closing in on a .500 record with 30-28.
How?
Well they are now entering what you might call the crunch-time season — the most important and crucial part of the season. This time, Wade, although past his Flash prime, can and will definitely help.
Just last month, the Heat were fighting for that third seed ready to take it away from the Cleveland Cavaliers when they barely missed that opportunity with a two-point loss. Since then, they have been riding an awful 1-6 losing record before resuming play next Friday in New Orleans.
They are now acclimating Wade back into the system with a new role: first option and leader off the bench. While his stats in his first three games back don’t magnify differential production, it shows that he can change his pace of game to whatever coach Erik Spoelstra needs it to be.
Live Feed
Sir Charles In Charge
He debuted with only three points, but quickly followed that with a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The last game against the Philadelphia 76ers saw Wade finish with just eight points and three rebounds, but that does say something about what he can still do.
It shows that he can still consistently provide an average of 10-12 points per game in a bench role that drastically needs a leader. The bad issue, he is averaging four turnovers per game in his first three games back.
Wade has shown signs of quick chemistry build up with both Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo. That needs to continue because it can attract attention while liberating spot-up positions for the other guards.
Josh Richardson can still play off the dribble, averaging 13.2 points while shooting an efficient field goal percentage of 53.3 percent. His versatility will help if Wade is constantly dragging out the pick-and-rolls with the bigs to switch it up and hit Richardson on the outside. The same goes for both Wayne Ellington and James Johnson.
The first unit, consisting of Goran Dragic, Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and Hassan Whiteside can hold down the fort defensively while they figure out their offensive woes. Having Wade off the bench in different rotation switch-ups can definitely help as a facilitator to both the frontcourt and the backcourt.
Wade’s vision and basketball I.Q. can provide that and he needs to continue to do so. The 1-3 record shouldn’t spark any concerns, especially since those losses all came with down to the wire losing by an average of four points. They can fix that.
The Miami Heat need Wade to trim down those turnovers and handle the playbook better by focusing on his initiating the point while setting up the second unit in their designed roles. The rest need to continue shooting while keeping their pace and momentum.
Next: 2017-18 Week 18 NBA Power Rankings
This can be done, it’s only a matter of how soon they can get it rolling.