The Heat Have Long Moved Past the “Whose Team is It" Question

Throughout this NBA season, when it comes to the Miami Heat, the media has been obsessed with questions such as “Is this team Lebron's team or is it Dwayne Wade's team?”. I do not know for certain why these sort of things come up, but I believe it tends to occur most often in situations where Wade is used as the go to guy down the stretch, and media members (and fans) try to portray this as some sort of weakness on Lebron's part. An example of this line of questioning came up in a press conference after the Heat had won Game 3 of The NBA Finals over the Mavericks, in Dallas, on Sunday - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho3_xNSHE6Q (hopefully the video is still up). A reporter in a not too subtle way questions Lebron about his forth quarter performance, suggesting that he is not performing like a “superstar” and "shrinking from the moment". The reporter is alluding to the fact that Lebron only scored a combined 9 points in the fourth quarters of the first three games of the championship series. Lebron responded to him in a matter of fact way, saying that he felt he had been playing strongly on the defensive side of the court, and that the team had chosen to use D Wade as the number one option in the fourth quarter of these games.

The thing that people don't get about the Miami Heat is that this team does not have a “Number 1 guy” and a “Number 2 guy”, it has two “Number 1 guys”. They have two guys who have the type of skill-sets that allow them to be the focal point, and number one option of an effective offense. Though it is annoying, I could understand the media's fixation with trying to determine who the number one guy on the Heat was at various stages in the regular season. An NBA team having two “Number 1 option superstars” who both like to play with the ball in their hands, on the wing, is unique. On the vast majority of teams, there is a clear number one option, ball in hand player, and a number two option player. Additionally, role definition questions of this type must to a certain degree have been a source of difficulty at various points of the season for the Heat coaching staff and players. Practical decisions need to be made such as who will be given the ball in situation A? What will the other player be doing at this time? How should the play that will be run look? Though this is the case, and at certain points in the season Lebron and Wade's roles had to be defined, anyone watching the playoffs would need to acknoledge that the roles have ben clearly sorted out: both players are number one options, but at different times.

The way I see how the Heat have operated offensively during the playoffs is that they essentially have two offensive modalities, one that revolves around D Wade and the other that revolves around Lebron. When I talk about offenses here, I am not necessarily talking about any specific plays, or schemes, just that in one offensive mode the ball is going to rest in Wade's hands more often for a period of time, and in the other it will be in Lebron's – think of a football team having two different quarterbacks, who they rotate on a regular basis to take the snaps, while either player's counterpart lines up as a running back. The value that is inherent in this sort of approach is that you can alternate the roles to the team's strategic advantage. For example, if Lebron's jump shot is falling, he will be the number one option for a quarter; if no one on the other team can guard Wade, and he is feeling it, he will have the ball in his hands on the wing more often. The reason this type of dynamic is so powerful is that basketaball is a game of streaks in which some nights you cannot miss a shot, while on others, for whatever reason you cannot make one. Also, in basketball it is very important to consider which player on your team is matched up against a relatively disadvantaged defender. In this series so far, we have seen both of these dynamics come into play: Dwayne Wade has been exceptionally “hot” in the first three games, and Wade is matched up against Jason Kidd who has a difficult time guarding Wade due to differences in size and speed, while Lebron has been guarded by Shaun Marion who  is well suited to covering James. It is therefore reasonable that the Heat have shifted to an attack where the ball if more often in Wade's hands than it is in Lebron's.

From my point of view, it is rather ridiculous for reporters to try and suggest that there is anyway in which Lebron has perfromed in a manner that detracts from his “superstardom” in the first three games of the series, by allowing Wade to get the majority of the offensive touches in the fourth quarter and lead their team to a 2 to 1 series lead – would they suggest the same of Wade for allowing Lebron to lead their team in a similar manner at the end of a number of games in the Celtics and Bulls series. Basically, Eric Spoelstra and his team implemented a plan at some point during the season, and some people for whatever reason haven't realized this. Sometimes, it will “be Lebron's team”, sometimes it will be Wade's. The role definition is necessary fluid, and it changes whenever it is advantageous for the change to take place. Neither Lebron nor Wade should be criticized when for periods of time they abdicate their role as central offensive to the other player, for the betterment of the team – they should be praised. This degree of trust in each other and the dynamic it creates, combined with both players improving their away-from the ball play for periods when they are temporarily the second option, should make this pair very difficult to stop for years to come, regardless of the other role players they are surrounded with. Furthermore, Eric Spoelstra and his coaching staff should be applauded for working with Lebron, Wade and the rest of the team to commit to this unconventional offensive approach.