Heat Warning: Expect A Cool Regular Season

by Brett Edwards

Get used to seeing D. Wade and Shaq on the bench.

The Miami Heat continue to lay the groundwork for a below average regular season. You may remember a couple of weeks ago when Shaq and Wade were complaining about the new ball, and how there would definitely be lowered shooting percentages and increased turnovers because of it. Now Riley is buying into the "Wade is tired" hype, and the local papers are reporting about the "long year wearing on Wade."

Riley has always been a master at mind games and media manipulation, and that's exactly what's going on here. He was quoted as saying "I think it's more mental than anything else, so that's a concern," and "I'm concerned about it. I've talked to him about it. But he's got to find a way to replenish himself." He also plans to hold Wade out of practice the next couple of days, limiting him to "conditioning work." Wade's politically correct response: "I told him I really wanted to do my conditioning on the court."

So with Riley being the bad guy, Wade gets to skip practice and rest without looking like he's being lazy. Hey, Wade said he wanted to play, right?! COME ON.

Why do I care about this? Because with veteran coaches like Riley setting the stage to rest his star players, the regular season will eventually deteriorate. You can't have the marquee players taking games off because they had a "long year." History tells us that Shaq is good for a 15-25 game rest at some point during the regular season. It's bad for the league to let teams rest their players during the regular season, just to save them for a run at the title.

The NBA needs to look into this and do something about these phantom injuries and media manipulations if it wants us to care about the regular season. Otherwise just call me near the end of April when the playoffs start, it seems the players would prefer it that way.

Comments

[coach]

wade is not tired . i shd say , shd not be tired . he's in his early 20's . wade , lbj ,melo , bosh can play all summer long and still come out fresh for the new season . one surely remembers how it is to be young . you just play ball non stop !

[Jack]

The Heat just want an excuse for their regular season coasting where they'll sneak into one of the top 4 spots and run hard at the playoffs. I say they better look out or the Wizards or a hot Orlando team might surprise them and win that division.

[Stephen]

That is just sooo lame. Nowitzki has been playing in international tournaments every offseason for the past five or six years. But you never heard him crying like a baby.