Prior to the start of the 2014-15 NBA season, most journalists, analysts, and television personalities alike had written off the Miami Heat due to the departure of one LeBron James. NBA.com, ESPN, and Yahoo all attributed the Heat to a lower tiered ranking in the East, while attributing the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers a top seed in the conference.
Now seven games into the season, a lot of people are beginning to swallow their own words as the first couple weeks of play are beginning to indicate how the East will unfold. The current standings have the Heat sitting as the 3rd seed, while the Cavs are 8th, almost a complete reversal of what analysts had predicted prior to the start of the season. Although it’s too early to tell how the East will ultimately play out, we believe that when it’s all said and done, the Heat will finish higher on the totem pole than the Cavaliers.
Here are five reasons why the Heat will finish with a better record than the Cavs this season:
1. Battle Tested
When it comes to adversity, the Heat have been through it all. From being put under the microscope in their 2010-11 season, to being booed at almost every arena across the country, the Heat know how to to deal with the outside pressure. Dwyane Wade has been doubted countless times this year as to whether or not his injuries would prevent him from performing at a high level this season, while Chris Bosh has been repeatedly poked fun at in the media for his “softness” and inability to bang inside the paint.
What do the naysayers have to say now? D3 has now played in as many back-to-back sets this year (three) as all of last season, while his points, blocks, and assists all have increased. In the same fashion, Bosh’s averages have skyrocketed now with James playing elsewhere. With a higher usage rate, Bosh is currently averaging a career best 23.6 points, while pulling down 10.3 rebounds a game.
On the other hand, the Cavaliers haven’t hit a major roadblock yet, and when they do, who knows how the inexperienced team will respond. Neither Kyrie Irving nor Kevin Love has ever seen a playoff game in their careers, and playing in Minnesota and Cleveland has allowed them to sneak under the radar without any judgement. However, now that LeBron is on the team, the spotlight will follow. It will ultimately takes days, months, maybe years until the new-look Cavaliers get used to the media focused solely on their every move throughout the season.
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2. Defense
Defensively, the Cavs are going to be in a lot of trouble this season. Cleveland currently ranks 25th in the league in opponents’ points allowed, while the Heat rank 11th. This isn’t a misnomer. As exceptional as the Cavs are on the offensive end of the floor, they have a multitude of players that are incapable of playing solid defense. Both Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters’ perimeter defense is suspect. Their inability to stay in front of the opposition and close out on shooters is not good enough for a top seed in the East. Not to mention power forward Kevin Love, who averaged just .6 blocks last season on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Although the Heat did not end up winning a championship in the 2010-11 season, the reason they finished with the second best record in the East (58-24) and a trip to the NBA Finals was because of their stingy defense. They had a defensive rating of 103.5 (5th out of 30) and had one of the best perimeter defenders the league in Dwyane Wade to go along with one of the best help-side defenders in the league in Chris Bosh. Not to mention both Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers, who are both light years ahead of Irving and Waiters on the defensive end of the floor. Combine that with Luol Deng to supplant the versatile defense of a LeBron James, and the Heat have barely lost a step on that side of the floor.
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3. Coaching
Speaking of battle-tested, Erik Spoelstra has also been through it all. Remember when the Heat started the season 9-8 in 2010-11 season? Sure, LeBron took a lot of the heat, but an equal amount of the blame was placed on Head Coach Erik Spoelstra. Fans were clamoring for Spo’s head in the midst of that season, and now four years later, he is one of the most respected coaches in the league. Sure the two championships and four finals appearances help, but Coach Spo is an upper echelon coach in this league because he stresses defense and a willingness to sacrifice.
How does head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers David Blatt compare? Well, since it’s only the first season Blatt has ever coached an NBA team, I would say it’s not even comparable. Even if Blatt did turn out to be one of the greatest coaches in NBA history, it will take some time for him to adjust to the NBA. Coaching an Israeli professional basketball team is light years different than coaching an NBA team. To deal with the egos, expectations, and to carry the weight of an entire city in your first coaching campaign will surely be too much for the rookie coach to handle.
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4. Chemistry
Most, if not all the players on the Miami Heat have bought into Coach Spo’s system just seven games into the season, and it’s easy to tell. From Bosh being the team’s number one option to Chalmers accepting a new role off the bench, it’s quite clear that all the players on the roster know what role they play on the team. The Heat currently have five players averaging double figure points and have topped the 20-assist mark six times this season out of seven games (19 for the other game), meaning the players are sacrificing individual numbers for the good of the team.
The same can’t be said of the Cavs. Six games into the season, and the Cavaliers are having major chemistry issues. As a shoot-first point guard, Kyrie Irving is struggling to set up his teammates and has no idea how to play off the ball. Dion Waiters is not accepting his role off the bench, and David Blatt still doesn’t know who to play at what portions of the game.
LeBron even stated himself, “It’s going to be a long process, man. There’s been a lot of losing basketball around here for a few years. So a lot of guys that are going to help us win ultimately haven’t played a lot of meaningful basketball games in our league.”
While also adding, “There’s a lot of bad habits; a lot of bad habits have been built up over the last couple of years and when you play that style of basketball it takes a lot to get it up out of you.” In other words, it’s going to take a lot of time for this team to start gelling and building their chemistry where they want it to be.
Compared to the Heat, the Cavaliers have only topped the 20-assist mark three times this season, with their season low (6) coming against the Utah Jazz.
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5. Motivation
Simply put, the Heat, especially Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, have a lot more motivation than the Cavs this season to prove the naysayers wrong. Nobody is expecting the Heat to make any noise in the East this season, while the whole world is putting the Cavaliers high up on a pedestal. With this chip on the team’s shoulder, the Heat will have that extra motivation and fuel to go out and compete for every single regular season game.
As Bosh put it best, “It’s refreshing, a bit, to appreciate every victory,” meaning that the Heat have not put the regular season in cruise control as they were so accustomed to doing last season.
The Cavs are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They have been given so much firepower prior to the start of the 2014-15 season that anything short of a championship will be perceived as failure. The Cavs are 5 to 2 favorites to go all the way this season and a lot of spectators are already crowning the team as champs. Without a chip on their shoulders and only lofty expectations to arise to, I can’t see the Cavaliers finishing with a better record than the Heat this season.
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