Why the New-Look Miami Heat Have Been a Spectacular Failure

AP Photo/ Bahram Mark Sobhani

There are many reasons why the Miami Heat have managed to fail spectacularly in all the games that actually matter this regular season. Although it is generally accepted by this point that the only function for the regular season is determining playoff seeding and draft lottery chances, there still are important statistics to take into account, the most important being that the team that wins the regular season series almost always goes on to win in the playoffs if the two teams should meet. When it comes to West vs East matches, they become even more significant if its a match-up that could potentially by any chance be an NBA Finals preview.

During this past season, the Miami Heat have not only managed to accumulate a losing record against teams with a record of .500 or better, but they have yet to beat a team with a .700 record or better. The Heat have also become notorious for being unable to maintain huge leads and win games decides by 5 points or less. With that in mind, I present to you the reasons the Heat have been such a failure in no particular order:

1. LeBron James' Arrogance Coupled With His Teammate's Lack of Heart
• In every game decided by 5 points or less that the Heat lost, LeBron James ended up taking the go-ahead shot to either tie or win the game. If he had actually made them, we'd all be talking about how clutch James was, but he didn't make them so instead, we're all talking about how LeBron needs to stop being such a ballhog at the end of games... except the only teammate he can honestly trust to make a game-winning basket is Dwyane Wade. No other Heat, specifically none of the supposed expert 3-point shooters, is known for being clutch.
2. Shitty Point Guards and Centers
• LeBron James hates being called a point guard and would rather be referred to as a small forward. That would be fine by me if he would actually play like an SF and not a Combo Guard. James has gathered the most triple-doubles of any small forward in the history of the NBA in his short time playing. Well, if James wants to keep playing SF, let him. In the meantime, the Heat has an incredibly poor selection of PGs because they were really counting on Derek Fisher leaving the Lakers to go to Miami. Making things even worse, the Heat have horrible centers as well, having to rely on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the man once known as being THE Cavalier, as their go-to center. Although it's true that the Chicago Bulls won championships without dominating centers like Shaq, Duncan, or Bynum, they still had a great rotation of point guards and backup centers. This Heat team is basically relying only on the SG, SF, and PF positions. Which brings us to...
3. Chris Bosh Either Doesn't Give a Shit or He Has Been Massively Overrated
• I don't need to explain this one. Chris Bosh is having his worst season ever and either had inflated stats playing for the Toronto Raptors, or he just likes living in Miami getting lots of attention rather than living in obscurity in Toronto. My guess is that Bosh was just a massively overrated player.
4. Erik Spoelstra May Be A Student of Pat Riley, But He Has No Leadership Skills
• Spolestra's style of coaching and the plays he designs are straight out of the Showtime Lakers and Wade & Shaq Heat handbook. Yet, LeBron and the newest members of the Heat generally run their own plays and give Spoelstra lots of eye-rolls. It's sad to say, but if Spolestra were canned and Riley were to step in, he'd design the same plays and use the same rotation of players, but the players would likely follow them more because Riley is THE Pat Riley.
5. Hubris and Hype
• Here, I'm not quite sure which has been worse: the Heat's continued excuses that "Rome wasn't built in a day" or "These things take time" or "It's unrealistic to expect results so quickly," or the unbelievable amount of hype ESPN has been feeding to the masses. Whatever the case, the arrogance on part of the Heat as well as ESPN's (until recently) continued hype of the Heat has been this continuing perpetuating cycle; the more ESPN hypes the Heat, the more they make excuses, and then ESPN hypes them more. With the embarrassingly hilarious losses to the Magic and Spurs two days in a row, all the Heat need is another loss to the Bulls on Sunday to cement ESPN stopping all hype.

In order for the Miami Heat to live up to their hype, they need a massive overhaul at this point. At this rate, I expect them to be a first round exit come Playoffs.