Filed under: Heat, NBA Injuries
MIAMI -- One of the many reasons given this past summer as to why the Miami Heat wouldn't land LeBron James and Chris Bosh to go along with Dwyane Wade was because they wouldn't have enough left under their salary cap to sign anyone else and would be relegated to playing with minimum-salaried players.
However, the three took less money and Michael Beasley was essentially given away to the Minnesota Timberwolves which allowed the Heat to be able to add highly-coveted free agents Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem before running out of cap space. Pat Riley's gamble was that All-Star talent would be preferable to get back to the NBA Finals than surrounding Wade with a solid group of complimentary players with the money he had to spend.
While the Heat were able to add several decent players with the veteran minimum who were attracted to the prospect of playing with the Big Three, the top-heavy talent on the roster meant that injuries to their top five players would set the team back immensely. Which is exactly what happened when, in quick succession, Wade went down with a strained hamstring in the preseason, Miller suffered a major hand injury weeks later and Haslem was lost for several months with a foot injury. With Miller still struggling to return to form after returning, the Heat have now had to deal with concurrent injuries to their superstar trio which has them mired in a season-long four-game losing streak.
James understands the reality that any elite team will suffer a huge setback if their star players get injured.
Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/19/heats-lack-of-depth-exposed-with-injuries/
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