The Miami Heat’s season started with the promise of seeing a team with enough potential to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a challenge as the No. 2 seed in the East, setting up the long overdue LeBron James versus Dwyane Wade matchup in the Conference Finals.
Four months later, the team finds themselves with more questions than answers. Like when is Chris Bosh returning? Why was Hassan Whiteside being held out so long in the first and third quarters against the Milwaukee Bucks when his play constantly started comebacks? Or when is the right time to insert the big man back into the starting lineup?
Only someone like coach Erik Spoelstra could fill in those blanks, but at this point it may be time to give the starting five its latest shakeup. Not that an 8-3 record after All-Star break is bad, but Amar’e Stoudemire’s production is beginning to taper a bit while Whiteside’s numbers continue to blossom to the tune of averaging 19 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in 10 of the Heat’s last 11 games.
It is entirely possible that coach Spoelstra does not want to toy with his reserves while they are excelling in their rotation minutes. He has been known to avoid such moves dating back to his days of staring a seldom-used player like Mike Miller over Ray Allen anytime Wade sat out for maintenance.
Spoelstra’s philosophy usually resulted in the odd man out being used as the next man up. Udonis Haslem took over that role last year when Bosh went out, but this year’s option would most likely be Josh McRoberts.
The lefty has only seen the court in five of the team’s last 10, however, he could fit into a more Bosh-like center role of stretching the floor with his shooting or using his passing skills to help facilitate the slashing skills of Luol Deng, Wade and Goran Dragic. Best-case scenario is that the answer to one of those early questions is on course to being solved.
With Bosh’s announcement that he is once again blood clot free and waiting on team clearance comes the hope that his 19 points and nine rebounds would be the piece to round out the starting five with Joe Johnson’s three-point shooting by his side. Couple that with Whiteside’s 13 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks per game coming off of the bench and the Heat’s two lineups could be as dangerous as envisioned heading into the season.
