Miami Heat Still Top Four Team in NBA Eastern Conference
The Summer of 2014 started on a sour note for the Miami Heat. As if the constant barrage of free agency questions all season was not enough, pour salt in that wound by adding an embarrassing defeat in the NBA Finals by the San Antonio Spurs. Compile it with a couple weeks of rumors and the eventual departure of LeBron James and somehow Pat Riley did not have a heart attack.
Even though “The King” left South Beach high and dry, the mastermind known as Riley was able to pull together a roster. I’m not sure if anything or one can replace James, but Riley did all he could to still give the franchise a shot. He threw a bunch of money at Chris Bosh to stop him from going to the Houston Rockets and he gave Dwyane Wade more money than his ailing body probably deserves.
Nevertheless, the 2014-2015 roster of the Heat looks solid. Might I also mention that Miami had one player under contract for this season back in June. Riley basically had all his eggs in one basket and James ran off with the basket. However, with new additions like Luol Deng, Josh McRoberts, and Danny Granger; Miami has given themselves the chance of at least making the post-season.
The good news for Miami: The Eastern Conference looks incredibly weak. One glimpse at the rap sheets of teams and it should come down to the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers with not another team standing a chance. Now, it is very hard to predict if the Heat will be able to compete with either of those teams, but I can confidently say that they will go into the 2015 playoffs as a Top-4 seeded team.
For Miami, it really all depends on Bosh and Wade. Bosh got all the money, which means he is the top dog now. As for Wade, no one has got a clue. We went through all this talk last year about the “maintenance program” and the shooting guard missing games, but in the long run it did not pay off.
To be honest and straight forward, Miami’s season rest on Wade’s shoulders. Will he be healthy or will he miss a third of the season again? As Heat fans and followers, all you can ask for is that James ditching the Heat will light a fire under Wade’s bottom. You have to take into account that Wade has not had to play the star role or give 100% because he had James for the last four years. Well, now we will really see if Wade can still play with the best of them or if he is truly on his way out.
As of right now, Miami is a top-4 team in the East along with the Cavs, Bulls, and Brooklyn Nets. If Wade is healthy and even shows signs of the old “Flash”, then they can compete, but if he falls off the face of the Earth like the last few seasons; who knows where the Heat will end up. All I know is that Wade and Bosh want to prove everyone, including James wrong.