Who is the Heat's MIP?

[Poe]

So far this year, who would you say is the most improved player on the Heat team?

 

 

Here is a bit of a background I wrote on each of these players:

 

Quentin Richardson

Last summer, Q was tossed around from team to team, clearly unwanted everywhere he went, until Pat Riley decided to give up Marc Blount for him, and he finally found a home in Miami, alongside his best friends in Dwyane Wade and Dorell Wright. Even though he was traded 4 times in the offseason, he found the motivation to lose 25 pounds, which has enhanced his defensive abilities greatly, while making him seem like a completely different person.

 

In the past, he had a reputation as a threat in the post for the Clippers, then proved to be a dangerous three point shooter for the Suns. This year, he has changed his reputation yet again, proving to be a tremendous team defender drawing nearly 10 charges so far in the season, and his lost weight has allowed him to guard multiple positions effectively, while still remaining the same threat from the 3 point line attempting over 4 threes per game while making over 40% of them, and also remaining effective in the post plus shooting a career high 46% from the field for his first 17 games of the season. He has also proven to be an efficient rebounder for this team, filling in on the boards when he's needed averaging 4.7 rebounds per game, plus having 5 games of 8 rebounds or more.

 

Udonis Haslem

UD has always had the reputation for being among the NBA's most underrated players. His leadership, on-court production statistically or non-statistically, effort, coach-ability, work ethis, selflessness, and willing to to truly do whatever it takes to win and be the first to "take one for the team" is something to respect.

 

Despite being such a solid role player in the past, including being a key part of the Heat's championship squad, he has made some of his own improvements. First of all, he has adjusted rather well to coming off the bench willing to, once again, "take one for the team" in accepting his bench role in order to develop the potential future superstar in the 20-year-old Michael Beasley, while giving him veteran advice and being a role model to him as a player. The ability to hit the open midrange shot has grown to point where it feels like an automatic weapon. He has shown the ability to drive to the basket and hit baskets in the post. He is also the type of player who just knows how to win games, whether he puts up 20 and 10 when his teammates struggle to score and rebound, or whether he is simply holding his own on the defensive end, drawing charges, and setting good screens to give his teammates open looks. He is even developing the reputation as a clutch player willing to take the big shot late in games.

 

He is turning more and more into the model Power Forward in this league, and I fear that there could be a high chance he may leave this team this coming summer for a chance at a higher role and possibly a bigger paycheck, much like what Ariza did after his contributions to the Lakers.

 

Dorell Wright

A 6 foot 9 athletic freak with a 7 footers wingspan, a decent career midrange jumpshot shooting nearly 50% for his career, point guard playmaking abilities with great passing skills and the ability to set up the offense after defensive rebounds, plus the ability to defend almost any position. With all these rare abilities packaged into one player, he could be the most versatile player on the Heat team since Lamar Odom. Despite his talents and high potential, he has been buried on the bench for the past 6 years, that's right SIX years, on the Miami heat team, averaging 18 minutes per game in less than 140 total games played. Would you believe me if I said he was actually on sidelines for the championship squad and still a part of this team today?

 

His lack of playing time was apparently due to his lack of maturity and consistency on the basketball court. That began to change three years ago, when Dorell became a key part of this team for short stretch. In the beginning of the 07-08 season, he averaged 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 44 games playing 25 mpg. In January that year, he had a 5 game stretch of 16 point and 8 rebounds per game before falling to a season ending injury (some sort of knee injury I believe) that sat him out for the next year and a half. This year he is starting to make a comeback, becoming a key rotation player once again averaging 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block in 26 mpg over the past 5 games, including a 19 point 5 assist performance against the Kings, and two 16 point performances against the Grizzlies and the Raptors.

 

Erik Spoelstra and Dwyane Wade have each claimed that Dorell has shown himself as the best player in some recent practices. Not one of the best. The best.

 

Michael Beasley

The best memory I have of MB was last year when he drew his first charge. It felt like the whole team ran over to pick him up. Beasley had a huge smile on his face and just the look of pure joy. You could see it all right there that all of his hard work was paying off.

 

This year, his reputation as a bad defender is beginning to change. He gave me another memory of strong defensive effort in his very first game of the season, where he poked the ball loose from a Knicks player at the top of the key. They both chased after it, and the ball got knocked to the sideline where another player in blue was in position to grab the ball. Beasley dives for the ball and hits it off the Knicks player out of bounds. Heat ball.

 

His improved defensive effort gave him the #1 play of the day at NBA.com today where he blocked Bosh's shot, pushes the break, dished it to Wade, and slams in the alley-oop.

 

Perhaps Beasley hasn't completely developed into the most fundamental player at the defensive end, but you have to be bull[expletive]ting me if you think his effort is lazy in any way. He's is proving to me each day that he is becoming a playmaker on both ends of the court. With consistent starter minutes, his offensive game is beginning to improve as well. Last month he had a slow start averaging 14.2 points with only 42% shooting plus 6.9 rebounds. This month he is proving himself as the clear #2 option averaging 18 points on 48% shooting plus 7.4 rebounds.

 

Jermaine O'Neal

Jermaine O'Neal has made some improvements this year, although his stats don't show it... yet. First off, we need to set his past aside. I think we all can agree that he won't ever regain his status as an MVP candidate ever again. But for what he is now in terms of his abilities, he has shown flashes of becoming a key player on this team at both ends. He worked with Tim Grover over the summer, and like Q-Rich, in the beginning of the season he looked like a completely different player. He had much more of a spring to his step, much like the JO of old, yet he has had some other setbacks this season, unfortunately. He broke his nose early in the season and he refused to wear a mask, which made him much less aggressive in traffic and hurt his rebounding. Not too long after, he injured his hip, which made him sit out for a couple more days. He also had to take time off due to the death of his uncle.

 

On a positive note, he is shooting a very high percentage at 56% in only 10 shot attempts per game, while still leading this team in rebounding, both are a clear improvement to last year. With more consistent time when all these setbacks are put aside, hopefully we'll see even more improvement, and becoming the "dominant" presence we've been hearing about last offseason.

 

Mario Chalmers

For Chalmers, his main improvement has been on the offensive end. He's becoming a better and better playmaker, and his FG% really improved up to nearly 48%. He's doing a better job driving to the basket, hitting open threes, and becoming a solid role player with flashes of growth beyond that. The biggest reason I wouldn't call him the most improved is because of his lacking effort defensively. It has gotten bad enough where coach Spoe decided to bring him off the bench yesterday for the first time in his career against Toronto, and will probably keep him coming off the bench until he rediscovers himself as a defensive minded PG.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Poe

[Poe]

For some reason, I can't get the poll options to work. I'll edit this thread with a poll later when it's working for me.

 

BTW, sorry I wrote so damn much. I did put some effort into this post, so any kind of feedback would be nice.

 

EDIT: Poll's up.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Poe

[The Regime]

Michael Beasley. He can be a good number two option on offense he just lacks the consistency. The Heat can be a dangerous team down the stretch and into the playoffs if he can take some pressure off D Wade.

[ChosenOne]

Right now I would say no one they all have played very inconsistent some are close but they need to make plays everynight not every other night.

[SRV]

The only player who always does his job is Haslem, but he is not really improving, just doing what he always does. Wright needs to play way more to make an improvement. Beasley would be my choice, he has games where he looks dominant, he just needs to do this more often.

[Poe]

Remember, it's who's improved the most, not who is the second best on the team.

 

Beasley has had some great flashes, but still lacks consistency. If I made a list in order, for me it would be Dorell, Q, then Beasley, then JO, Haslem, then Chalmers. D Wright has really come a long way since his rookie year. The 12, 4, and 2 in 5 games don't look ultra impressive, but he's actually been the 2nd best player against the Kings, and I'd say he was the best player against the Grizzlies (though everyone pretty much sucked out there that day except for him). The numbers that he's putting up recently have all been off the bench, and he has yet to play more than 30 minutes.

 

SRV could be right, though. It might be a bit early to tell if he's truly improved the most. He still gets my vote.