When LeBron James decided he was going home this off-season, it was generally positively received around the NBA as a mature and, importantly, smart choice.
While Cleveland erupted in jubilation, less visible in the background were the Miami Heat bravely soldiering on.
The Heat brain trust made the admirable decision to continue on as well as they could without the world’s best player. LeBron had left because he correctly saw the Heat on the decline, but when Miami retained Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade and added Luol Deng, they still had the makings of a team that could be respectable.
There’s no denying now though that the Heat have lost their fire.
Since December Miami are 6-14, losing to teams like Philadelphia, Orlando and Utah in that stretch that even the departure of James doesn’t account for.
It can’t be chalked up to injuries, either, as the notoriously frail Wade has played big minutes in most of Miami’s games this year. Bosh, likewise, has not had any real health problems.
The Heat are just kind of inexplicably bad.
At 15-21, they risk not even making the play-offs out of the Eastern Conference, with a resilient Indiana team, ambitious Charlotte and surging Detroit all hot on their heels.
How has it all gone so wrong for a team still composed of many of the parts that went to four straight conference finals series, albeit with one glaring subtraction?
Primarily the Heat have become one of the worst defensive teams in basketball.
James is an all-word defender, and especially at the peak of his powers last season did a lot to mask the deficiencies of some of his teammates, namely Bosh and Wade.
Wade does not have the quickness or dexterity to be much of a deterrent on the wings anymore and Bosh has never had the strength to be a true stopper inside.
When LeBron shared the floor with them for heavy chunks of minutes last season, however, they were both smart enough defenders to slow down opponents one-on-one just enough for LeBron to bring help or snuff out a developing play before it even reached them.
On their own, now, both are being exposed as weak defensively. The Heat allow about 1.5 points less per 100 possessions when Bosh and Wade are off the floor.
They both are still effective offensive players, but the Heat have the fifth-worst defensive efficiency rating (106.7 points allowed per 100) in the league.
The Heat could maybe overcome some of that if they decided to emphasise offence at all costs in a run-and-gun scheme, but they play at the slowest pace (91.62 possessions per 48 minutes) of any team in basketball.
That’s not all that different from last season, actually, when the Heat used just 93.26 possessions per 48 minutes.
In fact, a lot about Miami isn’t different. Their assist percentage is largely the same, as is their typically indifferent rebounding. They still go for, and pluck, steals at a high rate and their shooting is still largely very good.
But that may be the fatal flaw for this year’s Heat – they are trying to do many of the things consistent with what they have done the last few years.
They’re slow and methodical, and they can’t quite get inside for easy buckets at the same rate without James, a dominant force near the basket.
They go for corner threes, but they can’t generate quite as many open ones without LeBron, and they’re hitting fewer and more often drifting out into the deeper three-point zones.
Some supporting players, like Shabazz Napier and James Ennis and Josh McRoberts, when he was healthy, have held their own defensively. Others, like Chris Andersen, Deng, Norris Cole and Shawne Williams, have picked up some offensive slack.
But the Big Three-centric game plan has largely the same look as their two-time championship sides.
Only now there’s just two central figures, and an awkwardly constructed supporting cast that feels more like it was built for LeBron and less than the sum of its parts.
The Heat at their best were designed entirely around LeBron’s strengths. He was the driving force into the middle. He created the open threes. He was the balancing force for a defensive scheme which was aggressive in its rotations and gambled often for steals.
And LeBron isn’t here anymore.
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE