What Next for the Heat?

Pat Riley is at a crossroad.

Behind him are the days as strict disciplinarian and old school coach. Today, he is the veteran-friendly coach who by his own accounts has at times been too harsh on his players. However, if coaching is anything like a classroom, then Riley has been dealing with a pretty disruptive seven-foot-one "student."

As we all know, the man who rode in on the eighteen wheeler takes the regular season about as seriously as baseball took steroids. This laid back attitude has in fact served him and his teams quite well in the past.

The stats show that Shaq has had more playoff success in the past few years than anyone not named Jordan. As the man himself has said many times, it has never really mattered what seed his teams had earned, he has won championships as the first and as the fourth seed. While it is easy to fall into this attitude (after all the season is 82 games long right?), at this point in his career, the notion of simply waiting to "turn it on" is hazardous to say the least.

It did work at one point, but this is not the same twenty-something year old Shaq we're talking about who put up 30 point, 20 rebound nights on the regular. This Shaq is the one who averaged thirteen points per game in last years Finals against Dallas. The same man who "makes the free throws when they count" and "turns it on when it's time to play" could not do either against Eric Dampier of all people.

As painful as it can be to admit, there does come a time when a man has to accept his limitations. That is not to say that Shaq is not still a great player, simply that the self-professed "Most Dominant Ever" is just not as overpowering as he once was.

This Chicago series painfully proved that talk is cheap. The Heat players all said the right things about being ready for the big games, but when Miami's season ended in early May instead of late June, it was clear that the last minute approach finally caught up to them.

Keep in mind that while he may not be as dominant on the court anymore, he is still very much the controlling force in the locker room. That being said, in order for Miami to have any chance of recapturing the magic of 2006, there not only has to be a new influx of talent, but a change in the collective mind state.

This year Dallas demonstrated that regular season dominance is by no means a free pass to the finals, while Miami also proved that the opposite approach can also lead to an early exit. At the very least, if not for the sake of winning meaningless division titles, the regular season should be taken seriously enough so that there is at least continuity and some semblance of team chemistry on the court.

Just like any corporation, a change starts up top, so while Riley has said all the right things, it will be on Shaq to set the tone for next year.