Dwayne Wade Shuts it Down; Thanks Riley

The Miami Heat continue to do there part for the environment, producing exactly no heat. Dwayne Wade has officially shut it down for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs (AHHHHH HA HA HA). Following move after move that signifies the absolute black hole this franchise is in, this last one can hardly be considered a surprise.

To start the year the Heat were just terrible. The league held it's collective tongue, though. The only comments were to the effect that everything would be fine when Wade returned from his shoulder injury.

As the losses piled up with no sign of improvement, the talk of Wade's return seemed to remind Ricky Davis that there is a glimmer of talent within him some where and he and better shine it up to coincide with Wade's return. When Wade returned assumptions were made about Shaq, Davis and all of the Heat's play rising to meet the ability of Wade.

One problem, Wade's ability seems to be hiding under something thicker than Dan Le Batard's chest hair. Now Shaq has been dealt and Wade has shut it down. Wade certainly can't be faulted, Head coach and GM Pat Riley said recently he was planning to skip a few weeks. Planning on taking the time to scout players in NCAA tournaments.

I can only imagine how that went over with Wade "Sounds great coach. See you next season, my uhhh, let's say... knee hurts."

Now with this season a complete waste, Shaq gone to Phoenix (woo hoo a win, over a team with talent), and Wade on the shelf Shawn Marion has got to be wondering how fast he can get to Boston, or Detroit, hell he's probably take Minnesota right now.

If the team doesn't seem commited to winning—trading away a legendary player for a contract move, the coach doesn't seem commited to winning —yet another early exit when the team plays poorly, we certainly can't expect the star player to grit it out. It will be interesting to see what Marion can do with a team that has zero pressure to win and no real stars other than him.

Shaquille O'neal to the Suns

In a somewhat surprising season that has seen more big trades than any single season in recent memory we seem to have another huge one in the works. I'll keep updating as details fill out.

It seems that the Heat are trying to move unmoving center, Shaquille O'neal. Reportedly the Suns would be sending Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. There is apossibility that the Heat would move Smush Parker, who has great chemistry with the big fella. He also has been in the inactive list since a legal issue involving a parking attendant.

I see it from the Heat's point. Things just aren't working, so it is time for a change. With Dwayne Wade's free agency looming at the end of the 08-09 season, they needed to do something to intrigue him into staying. With the athleticism and abilites of a guy like Marion, the potential could interest Wade. It certainly will look more promosing than a future with Shaq at that point.

What I just can't seem to get my mind around is the Suns. I mean he doesn't fit their style of offense. I think they would be smart to go a little slower. They have quite a few years with this run-and-fun offense, I don't see any banners hanging or rings shining. As good an idea that I think that would be. Mike D'Antoni is way to arrogant to do that. So Shaq just doesn't fit. Oh, he will have a brief spike in production, just like he did when he got to LA, and again in Miami. But the spikes got smaller with each stop and this time it'll be more minimal. Announcers have been touting how he has lost weight and gotten quicker to fit into Miami's offense. There isn't enough weight on him to lose, or enough heart in him to lose it at this point. In order for him to fit with the guys in Phoenix. The only part that makes real sense in this is the fact that the hero rides of towards the suns(et).

I will say the most promosing aspect of this is the Shaq vs. Kobe storyline. If they were facing each other to get to the championship. With both of them now on teams that are relevant. I would love to see that back and forth for a seven game series.

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Heat or the Dolphins Who ya got?

So the Heat finally pulled out of a 15 game slide, by defeating the Indiana Pacers in a close one. The coincidence of the losing streak hitting 15 begs the question.

Which is worse Dolphins 1-15 season or the Heats 15 game losing streak?

My initial reaction was to go Dolphins being worse. I mean the heat lost 15 games out of 82 that isn't nearly as bad as the Dolphins losing all but one of thier games. Right?

After I started looking at the two teams I think I would take the Dolphins scenario. I mean why sit here and figure out which season is worse. Neither are going to the playoffs this year so at that point there is no worse , there isonly didn't get the job done. Now the Dolphins have the number one pick in the draft a new core of executives and a new head coach. A head coach who said in his introductory press conference that he didn't care about what came before he only cared about now.

The heat on the other hand have almost exactly the opposite situation. They have a Coach/GM in Pat Riley who has another year on his deal and he will fulfill that obligation at least upstairs if not courtside as well. The player situation doesn't look much better. They have another year of ridiculously over paying Shaq and they have only that same year to convince Dwayne Wade to stay.

No after giving it some thought, I got the Dolphins.

Heat reach lucky number 13 AGAINST THE KNICKS

I covered the Heat spiraling out of control in this post. I wont go re-rant on all that I have covered there. However I must say this is just ridiculous. 13 in a row? Against the Knicks? I would have been less surprised if the Heat team that one the championship had lost to these Knicks. At least then we could have looked to the playing down to your competition, or underestimating your opponent angle. I just don't see what the justification is.
Part of their performance comes down to leadership. I appreciate the fact the Dwaaaaaaaayne Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaade (you don't get announcer voice 'til you start winning again)Dwayne Wade is not 100% recovered from his shoulder injury. But you know what I don't want to hear out of my leaders mouth "Just our luck, man," Wade said. "The ball bounced. That's been our season, been our luck." Wade said this referring to a ball that got away from him and Udonis Haslem to be rebounded by David Lee.
I am sorry, what!? Don't give me luck. Don't tell me about how the ball bounced. I wanna hear that from the guy in the third row. Fans get to pull the luck card. But I am thinking guys like Chris Quinn and Dorell Wright need a little stronger message from the Captain than that.

The Good News About the Miami Heat 12 Game Slide

As the Miami Heats rapid decline continues I sat down to review the situation and figure out a solution. Here is a post a put up previously

Written Dec 19, 2007
Gather round kids, I want to tell
you a story of a slick looking leader. Who took his young star point guard, a talented starting Shooter, as well as a PF, and SF, a few strong bench players he could occasionally rotate into that starting rotation in order to match up well , and one aging center who is still hanging on to prove he still has it. They had won before, they had dominated before, but now it was nearing the end. What would become of their final
run together, you ask? They had a strong season and made a small push into the
playoffs. Nice story right. Well look there is a sequel.
I want to tell you a story of a silver haired leader. Who took his young star point guard, a few talented starters, a few strong bench players he could occasionally rotate into that starting rotation in order to match up well, and one aging center who is still hanging on to prove he still has it. They had won before, in fact they had been champions before but now it was nearing the end. What would become of their final run together, you ask?
Lets wait to see. Riley seems to have infinite patience with aging centers. I do not see him pushing Shaq out, but the time is rapidly nearing when that Lakers trade is looking less and less foolish. Yes the Heat got their Championship and Kobe has
yet to see a ring since Shaq left but the whole argument at the time was that
Shaq wanted this long deal so he could hang on forever. Well how long is all
that weight going to hold Miami down, at least the Lakers are on the up swing,
Shaq and his contract still has the Heat moving the wrong direction and I think they are a year from hitting the bottom and that they will spend 2 more years there
before they turn it around.

In re-assessing this situation it has gotten both worse and better. Since the situation has continued to spiral towards terrible. Instead of at least leveling off at really bad. It is obviously worse.
This is actually the best thing that the Miami fans could hope for. If this were to become a tolerably bad situation, the Heat would continue to look at minor tweaks and band-aids in order to improve. At this point I think even Pat Riley would have to acknowledge this situation can only be solved with some High Explosive.
Look on the bright side, Heat fan your next game is against the knicks