CubanMustGo
02-11-2006, 06:42 PM
(ok, I made up the title, but it sounded better than "I don't hate the Heat. Seriously.")
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION
I don't hate the Heat. Seriously.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime.)
My man Dan Le Batard tells me that regular listeners of his afternoon radio show in Miami consider your humble correspondent to be a Heat Hater.
I have a feeling that the following scouting report, crafted after I spent a night with their heroes, isn't going to help my longstanding (and futile) efforts to convince Heat Lovers that it's nothing personal against the team or the town.
The view from Weekend Dimedom?
Heat Lovers care a lot more about the Heat than the Heat's actual players do.
It's only the truth, Miami. The Heat don't care about Sunday's "showdown" with Detroit or the two games left on the schedule with the Pistons after that or anything else until the playoffs start. Alonzo Mourning aside, they don't care enough to dig in on defense. No matter how many times Pat Riley publicly and privately challenges, harangues or mocks them, it's clear Miami's locker-room inhabitants aren't listening to the warnings. The regular season is over in South Florida. The Heaters are simply waiting for the playoffs and praying for something magical to click in.
Fifty games in, they haven't shown even a flicker of passion to match some of the venom in my e-mailbag, going all the way back to my July reaction to Riles' decision to redo his roster totally.
After taking in Thursday's humiliating Heat surrender in Dallas -- as a hater, lover, whatever -- I don't know how you could see anything else. They arrived with a 1-8 record against the NBA's other five division leaders, which was really 1-10 when you include Miami's games against San Antonio. Running out of chances to give us (and themselves) at least a hint of contender potential, Riley's lads decided instead to no-show.
So ...
They'd have to beat the Pistons three straight times, starting Sunday, to make anyone objective believe that it won't be a struggle just getting past Indiana and New Jersey. You can nit-pick about all the problems I (and many others) anticipated when Riles assembled this crew -- too many guys who need the ball when Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade should be the playmakers, not enough shooters to space the floor for Shaq and D-Wade, and no hope of dealing with pick-and-rolls when Shaq and Jason Williams are on the floor together -- but there's no sense focusing on the basketball issues. If the effort isn't there? You needn't bother to wonder about Shaq's ankles or toes or how much dominance he has left as his 34th birthday approaches next month.
"We've got to get a sense of urgency in here," Gary Payton said after Dallas inflicted a 36-point hammering -- and after a testy closed-door meeting after the game -- in a tone that sounded like a plea to his teammates.
Of course, as Riley could have told GP, pleas don't resonate with this crew. Whatever honeymoon followed the inevitable transition from Stan Van Gundy to Riley has long since ended. Or did you miss Riley's jab earlier in the week, when he suggested that maybe "I'll just wait for the playoffs to start" along with the rest of them.
This was Riley in the hours before Thursday's rout: "We're a winning team right now. That's all we are, and that's not good enough. We're a winning team. And for us to get to another level, there's going to have to be a tremendous amount of improvement in the overall commitment to a great effort for 48 minutes. That's what my goal is. I think once you can get that effort, then execution and efficiency and everything else follows."
Trouble is, I don't think we'll see any extended effort before the playoffs. Shaq and Co. know that they can't catch Detroit and that no one in a disappointing East appears capable of beating Miami to the No. 2 seed. So they carry themselves like there's nothing to play for, even though they're so wrong. There are little details like cohesion and momentum that are generally best addressed before the playoffs start.
You know where I stand on Riley's original vision for this group. I've maintained since the day he dealt for Antoine Walker and Williams that he'd have been better off opting for minor adjustments to a team that nearly beat Detroit in the East finals with a half-speed Diesel and Wade. If he hadn't added Walker and James Posey, Riley probably would've scored Wade's pal Michael Finley in free agency. He still could have added Payton and Jason Kapono's shooting to replace Eddie Jones and Damon Jones, who were thriving in Van Gundy's system.
Miami still would have needed some role-player depth in the frontcourt to complement Shaq, Zo and Udonis Haslem, but finding that type of piece seems easier than trying to fit 'Toine in as a third or fourth option. Seattle's Reggie Evans, for example, is suddenly available. Effort men are out there if you know where to look.
Whether or not you still believe that Riley made the changes to doom Van Gundy and set himself up to reclaim the bench -- a charge he has denied for months -- this much I do know about Riles:
He and I have found some common ground at last.
"It's on me," Riley said after the Dallas rout. "It's on us [as a group], but it's on me."
I've done what I can, Heat Lovers, to try to motivate this soulless bunch before Detroit hits South Beach. As Riley says, it's all on him now to reach the players he wanted.
I'd give him better odds if these guys cared as much as the Stein Haters.
SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION
I don't hate the Heat. Seriously.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this around-the-league notebook edition of the Daily Dime.)
My man Dan Le Batard tells me that regular listeners of his afternoon radio show in Miami consider your humble correspondent to be a Heat Hater.
I have a feeling that the following scouting report, crafted after I spent a night with their heroes, isn't going to help my longstanding (and futile) efforts to convince Heat Lovers that it's nothing personal against the team or the town.
The view from Weekend Dimedom?
Heat Lovers care a lot more about the Heat than the Heat's actual players do.
It's only the truth, Miami. The Heat don't care about Sunday's "showdown" with Detroit or the two games left on the schedule with the Pistons after that or anything else until the playoffs start. Alonzo Mourning aside, they don't care enough to dig in on defense. No matter how many times Pat Riley publicly and privately challenges, harangues or mocks them, it's clear Miami's locker-room inhabitants aren't listening to the warnings. The regular season is over in South Florida. The Heaters are simply waiting for the playoffs and praying for something magical to click in.
Fifty games in, they haven't shown even a flicker of passion to match some of the venom in my e-mailbag, going all the way back to my July reaction to Riles' decision to redo his roster totally.
After taking in Thursday's humiliating Heat surrender in Dallas -- as a hater, lover, whatever -- I don't know how you could see anything else. They arrived with a 1-8 record against the NBA's other five division leaders, which was really 1-10 when you include Miami's games against San Antonio. Running out of chances to give us (and themselves) at least a hint of contender potential, Riley's lads decided instead to no-show.
So ...
They'd have to beat the Pistons three straight times, starting Sunday, to make anyone objective believe that it won't be a struggle just getting past Indiana and New Jersey. You can nit-pick about all the problems I (and many others) anticipated when Riles assembled this crew -- too many guys who need the ball when Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade should be the playmakers, not enough shooters to space the floor for Shaq and D-Wade, and no hope of dealing with pick-and-rolls when Shaq and Jason Williams are on the floor together -- but there's no sense focusing on the basketball issues. If the effort isn't there? You needn't bother to wonder about Shaq's ankles or toes or how much dominance he has left as his 34th birthday approaches next month.
"We've got to get a sense of urgency in here," Gary Payton said after Dallas inflicted a 36-point hammering -- and after a testy closed-door meeting after the game -- in a tone that sounded like a plea to his teammates.
Of course, as Riley could have told GP, pleas don't resonate with this crew. Whatever honeymoon followed the inevitable transition from Stan Van Gundy to Riley has long since ended. Or did you miss Riley's jab earlier in the week, when he suggested that maybe "I'll just wait for the playoffs to start" along with the rest of them.
This was Riley in the hours before Thursday's rout: "We're a winning team right now. That's all we are, and that's not good enough. We're a winning team. And for us to get to another level, there's going to have to be a tremendous amount of improvement in the overall commitment to a great effort for 48 minutes. That's what my goal is. I think once you can get that effort, then execution and efficiency and everything else follows."
Trouble is, I don't think we'll see any extended effort before the playoffs. Shaq and Co. know that they can't catch Detroit and that no one in a disappointing East appears capable of beating Miami to the No. 2 seed. So they carry themselves like there's nothing to play for, even though they're so wrong. There are little details like cohesion and momentum that are generally best addressed before the playoffs start.
You know where I stand on Riley's original vision for this group. I've maintained since the day he dealt for Antoine Walker and Williams that he'd have been better off opting for minor adjustments to a team that nearly beat Detroit in the East finals with a half-speed Diesel and Wade. If he hadn't added Walker and James Posey, Riley probably would've scored Wade's pal Michael Finley in free agency. He still could have added Payton and Jason Kapono's shooting to replace Eddie Jones and Damon Jones, who were thriving in Van Gundy's system.
Miami still would have needed some role-player depth in the frontcourt to complement Shaq, Zo and Udonis Haslem, but finding that type of piece seems easier than trying to fit 'Toine in as a third or fourth option. Seattle's Reggie Evans, for example, is suddenly available. Effort men are out there if you know where to look.
Whether or not you still believe that Riley made the changes to doom Van Gundy and set himself up to reclaim the bench -- a charge he has denied for months -- this much I do know about Riles:
He and I have found some common ground at last.
"It's on me," Riley said after the Dallas rout. "It's on us [as a group], but it's on me."
I've done what I can, Heat Lovers, to try to motivate this soulless bunch before Detroit hits South Beach. As Riley says, it's all on him now to reach the players he wanted.
I'd give him better odds if these guys cared as much as the Stein Haters.