Where do LeBron James and the Heat go from here? They were just blown out of the NBA Finals while they were seeking their 3-peat. All of the Spurs wins in the Finals were by 15+ points and they manhandled the Heat on both sides of the court. Credit is due to the Spurs on how lights out they played, and Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker were simply the better “Big 3”. With all that being said, all eyes are now on the 2nd place team and how they will react to this beating.
First off, it’s time to address whether or not LeBron is staying or leaving. With a loss in these Finals, some basketball “geniuses” think that LeBron will leave for Cleveland or some other team. What does Cleveland have to offer that Miami can’t offer as well? Why did LeBron leave Cleveland in the first place? If LeBron were to choose to leave Miami, Cleveland doesn’t seem to make much sense. He plans to go on vacation with his family to discuss what he will do with his contract however, so everything is still very much in the air.
Now the Miami Heat organization on the other hand has plenty of work to do. The Heat’s one big weakness was exploited heavily by the Spurs, which is that the Heat aren’t balanced whatsoever and they struggled against balanced teams like the Spurs. In Game 3 Chris Bosh only touched the ball on offense 13 times. A member of the Big 3 can’t touch the ball only 13 times and still expect to win. The Heat in the off season need to add several pieces to their bench to help keep the offensive and defensive ends in check while LeBron heals up from his cramps. Shane Battier declared his retirement after Game 5 and he was a huge leader off the bench which means the Heat have a long and difficult road ahead of them to rectify their weaknesses.
From a bigger picture standpoint, the Heat need to lose or upgrade a member of their Big 3. It makes sense to keep LeBron there obviously because he’s the best player in the world. The Heat almost always lose when Chris Bosh doesn’t get a sufficient amount of touches on offense, which means that Bosh adds that final push they need over most teams. Wade shows up in the big games and still has the ability to explode on offense. All three have their weaknesses as well though: LeBron causes most players to just stand around and watch what he does, Bosh can be inconsistent, and Wade has struggled heavily with his health. Whoever the Heat choose to drop or upgrade, they have to make several changes if they want to be back on top of the NBA mountain.