The Rotation: Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat are in control

The NBA playoffs are here. The games are tighter, the lights are brighter, and the narratives are getting thick. It can be a lot to keep up with but don’t worry we’re here to help. Throughout the NBA postseason, FanSided will be gathering together some of the most talented writers from our network for a daily recap of our favorite stories from the night before.

Welcome to the Rotation.

Dwyane Wade and the road less traveled

Adam McGee | @AdamMcGee11 | Behind The Buck Pass

In the era of moving to chase championships, Dwyane Wade has stayed with the Miami Heat and brought the competition to him.

It’s something increasingly rare, and with the retirement of Kobe Bryant it has now become even rarer. Spending an entire career with a single team is unquestionably easier to do with the climate, culture, and tax environment of South Beach. It’s arguably the NBA’s most desirable player destination, but sticking it out for the duration still involves a certain level of commitment.

Wade’s Miami tenure will naturally be remembered for the championships. That’s a position of privilege for any pro, but in Wade’s case it may not do justice to his overall contribution. To a point, it renders the man who has been the franchise’s safety net for over a decade to be only one of a number of faces on a crowded canvas.

The Heat probably didn’t expect to be leaning so heavily on Wade this season. The loss of Chris Bosh would knock many of the game’s best players, especially ones with as many miles as Wade. But with minimal fuss he has assumed the driver’s seat. There’s a noticeable increase in his aggression defensively. Wade’s playmaking has ramped up with an impressive 7.5 assists per game to show for his efforts in this series with the Charlotte Hornets. That’s not to mention his 22 points per game as evidence that he’s still prepared to carry the scoring load in the really important games.

As the ever-present that’s bridged two separate spells of meaningful title contention for Miami, Heat fans are always living in the Dwyane Wade era. Having shared the stage for all of those big successes with at least one of two all-time greats (and dominant personalities) like Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, the question over who history will remember at the forefront of this golden era of Miami basketball remains a pertinent debate.

In making Wade’s case, it’s important not to forget his role in keeping the Heat relevant, even in their more unassuming seasons. It’s easy to think back to the summer of 2010 in shaping a change in the NBA’s team-building culture, but “The Decision” would never have come to pass if not for Wade. The formation of that team extends far beyond his friendship with James.

It’s worth remembering that in the season prior to the assembly of Miami’s “Big Three”, the Heat crashed out in the first round after a 4-1 defeat to the Boston Celtics. What made Miami appealing on the court was the dynamic play of Wade. Wade’s career high scoring season came in 2008-09 with a league leading 30.2 points per game. Following that up with another strong year in 2009-10 when he almost single-handedly willed his team to 47 wins provided further confirmation of his ability. As if that was necessary.

That summer Wade had his own opportunity to move on. The allure of his hometown Bulls must have been strong, but he stayed put. It would be all too easy to then describe the rest as history. The real result of his loyalty is that in spite of an ever-changing cast of teammates, Wade still has key figures like Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra as influential voices in his corner. His focus has remained on basketball, not the outside pressures that have plagued some of his peers.

That kind of familiarity may seem insignificant during the regular season, but it has to contribute to the ease at which Wade takes to the post-season. When playoff nights arrive at the American Airlines Arena, Wade knows that he’s been there and done it all before, and it shows in his play.

If it’s now the tougher choice to stand pat and build a winner where you started, Wade continues to reap the rewards for his loyalty deep into the latter years of his career.

Deng, he’s still got it

Jeremy Karll | @JeremyKarll5 | Hardwood Houdini

After LeBron James left the Miami Heat to rejoin the Cleveland Cavaliers two years ago, Miami was left frantically searching for a small forward to replace him — an impossible task if there ever was one. The Heat settled for Luol Deng, basically making a swap with Cleveland that offseason.

Deng played his first nine and a half seasons with the Chicago Bulls before they decided they sent him to the Cavaliers for the final 40 games of the season to save money. He ended up signing a two-year deal with the Miami Heat that summer — the team that gave his Bulls hell over the past four seasons.

Deng is far from the player he used to be when with the Chicago Bulls. Back then, he was Jimmy Butler before Jimmy Butler. Deng led the league in minutes per game two years in a row for Chicago and was an All-Star in both those seasons as well. When he was healthy you could count on him scoring a little, helping out on the glass, and guarding the best player on the opposing team for 40+ minutes. He was a solid shooter but thrived on getting to the rim, and later developed a three-point shot — it sounds a lot like Butler, doesn’t it?

Since joining Miami, it’s been clear that Deng is far from his prime. He averaged 14.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game in his first season with Miami. This season, Deng only contributed 12.3 points (lowest since his rookie season) and 6.0 rebounds per game. Deng’s role on the team switched this season as he played the majority of his minutes at power forward — 73 percent, according to Basketball Reference. Chris Bosh’s absence forced the change and Deng was forced into a new role.

At 6-9, Deng doesn’t have terrible size to play the four and it has really benefited the Heat. Miami was able to use Deng, who is most effective off-the-ball, to spread the floor and keep the lane open for Dwayne Wade driving or Hassan Whiteside down low. Deng was able to stay on the perimeter like Bosh, but added more potential for movement..

Of course the loss of Bosh is not something the Heat wanted to experience again this season, and Deng doesn’t replicate his production, however, in the first two games of their series with the Charlotte Hornets, Deng has been one of the most effective players on the court. He scored a game-high 31 points on 11-of-13 shooting in Game 1. His shot cooled off a little in Game 2, although, he still managed 16 points and 6 rebounds and his 6-of-11 shooting reflects his shot selection. Deng isn’t someone who wants to play one-on-one, he prefers sitting in the corner for an open three or cutting to the basket and looking for a pass. He fits perfectly in what Erik Spoelstra wants to do, and is a great complimentary piece to Dwyane Wade. His defense has also helped hold Marvin Williams to two total points in the first two games on 1-of-17 shooting.

Deng’s impact may have been most noticeable late in Game 2 when the Hornets were trying to mount a comeback. Deng jumped the passing lane and stole a pass from Jeremy Lin for an easy layup. The next play, he blocked a driving Kemba Walker, gathered the rebound, and finally sank two free-throws that sealed the game.

Deng is far from the player he was with the Chicago Bulls, however, he still has some gas left in his tank. His playoff performance only brings more attention to him and the depth of veterans the Heat rely on. Dwyane Wade is still their go-to-guy and Joe Johnson has been one of the most underrated signings of the year. For as dominating as the Heat have been through Games 1 and 2, it’s crazy to think this is all without Chris Bosh and has been led by a group of “washed up” vets.

Stan Van Gundy has the right plan but not the right parts

Ben Gibson | @CowboyOnPatrol | Hoops Habit

The Detroit Pistons pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1. But in Game 2, the Pistons looked like a pushover.

The Cavaliers cruised to a 107-90 victory in Game 2 and took firm control of the series. The close nature of first game in the series prompted the idea that Stan Van Gundy might outfox LeBron James and the Cavaliers again, like he did in 2009 with the Orlando Magic. It seemed as simple as replacing that team with this season’s Pistons, and you had a potential first round upset in the works.

Or at least that was the idea.

While two of the main characters are there — LeBron and Van Gundy, the supporting cast in this production isn’t as good for Detroit and is much better for Cleveland. Stan Van Gundy is building a perennial playoff team in the Eastern Conference, but this current Pistons team is nowhere near the one that knocked off LeBron in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009.

Game 1 of this season’s playoff series was a bit of a fluke. Detroit — a 34.5 percent three-point shooting team in the regular season — made 15 of their 29 attempts, or 51.7 percent of their three-pointers. There was a reason why the Cavaliers let them keep shooting. In the first half, the shots were falling for the Pistons with 10-of-16 made but in the second Detroit only made 5-of-13 attempts. Tyronn Lue and the Cavaliers knew those shots were going to start missing at some point, and they were right. It was likely more uncomfortable than expected for Cleveland, but Lue was right to bet on the Pistons shooting to decline. The team Van Gundy threw out in 2009 was the seventh-best team in the NBA shooting from beyond the arc. This current Pistons team in the ninth-worst.

On Wednesday, the Pistons were only 43.6 percent from the field and a woeful 4-of-17 from deep. In the second half they looked worn out and tired, unable to get enough power behind their shots, clanking them off the from for the rim. Things couldn’t have been much worse compared to Game 1 when it came to shooting for Detroit.

For Cleveland, however, they were now the team making more than half their shots. In Game 1, the Cavaliers shot 46.2 percent from the field and were 6-of-20 from beyond the arc. In Game 2, they were on fire. Cleveland shot 50 percent from the field and were even better from three-point range, shooting 20-of-38.

This Cleveland team is light-years better than the one they fielded in 2009. Would you replace any of the current Cavaliers with from that team? Delonte West, Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Anderson Varejao played the most minutes in that 2009 series along with LeBron. None of them have the raw talent of Kevin Love? Are you going to take Mo or Delonte over Kyrie Irving? Even Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith are better options than any of the starters on the 2009 team.

This Cleveland team doesn’t run on the determination of LeBron James any more, they are simply one of the NBA’s best and deepest teams. And LeBron has only improved since the past 7 years, a much smarter and more effective player than Van Gundy dealt with back in 2009.

As exciting as the Pistons’ future may be, they aren’t like the Magic back then, who had Dwight Howard at the peak of his powers, back when he was clearly the best center and defensive player in the NBA. The Magic had Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston during their best years, and J.J. Redick as he was carving out his spot as one of the NBA’s best shooters. That team had plenty of talent to surround their best player, but this year, and for Van Gundy and the Pistons, that isn’t quite the case.

This Detroit team is still on the rise, with players still perfecting their games, still getting better. Andre Drummond is not at Dwight Howard’s level, not yet at least. His 20 points and 16 rebounds are impressive and his age is similar to Dwight’s, but his peak is a ways off. The only capacity he’s reached a similar level to Howard in is free throw shooting — he went – of-16 on Wednesday.

As you move down the roster, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris have been factors in the series, but Game 2 showed they aren’t as ready to take on LeBron James (and now his All-Star teammates) in the first round, much less in the Eastern Conference Finals. Van Gundy’s game plan can no longer plan to shut down the supporting cast and make LeBron beat you. The cast is too good.

Detroit threw haymakers in Game 1, but they didn’t land a knockdown. Van Gundy has the right formula, but he doesn’t have the right components to take on and ultimately beat LeBron and the Cavaliers in a seven-game series.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Sleeping giants still hitting snooze

Josh Hill | @jdavhill | FanSided

The Detroit Pistons played the Cleveland Cavaliers unexpectedly close in Game 1 of this series. It turns out that game wasn’t Detroit forcing Cleveland to wake up as much just poking the still-groggy bear that will eventually stroll out of its cave.

Despite the fact that the Cavs are going to win this first-round series, there is a myriad of issues they need to work out. Kevin Love’s role with the team is still more complicated than anyone is willing to admit publicly and Cleveland needs to get more bench production than they’ve been getting. To be fair, Cleveland isn’t supposed to be playing the best basketball they can right now. But they’re supposed to be the best team in the East and haven’t looked the part through the first week of the NBA playoffs.

Everyone said that the Cavs were a sleeping giant jarred awake by Detroit in Game 1 of this series. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the Cavaliers still appear to be one step above still sleep-walking through the playoffs. Sure, the final score says Cleveland won by 17-points, but that’s a false-positive when it comes to how consciously dominant the Cavaliers were in Game 2. Yes, they won but they didn’t necessarily blow the Pistons out with brute force so much as blunt trauma.

What Cleveland is doing is what we all do on NBA2K when we sim through a game, only to stop and jump into it when the score looks like it might be starting to get out of hand. Cleveland did exactly this at one point in the third quarter. After watching Detroit take a 60-55 lead, the Cavaliers went on a game changing run that firmly placed the lead in their hands.

That’s not a sleeping giant waking up. That’s what happens when you hit the snooze on your alarm only to wake up in a panic 15-minutes later thinking you overslept and are now late for work. Cleveland may be a giant but they’re still looking at the clock and seeing they still have time to sleep before they really have to get up.

Maybe Cleveland is just setting the bar really low; flying under the radar so much so that when they meet up with San Antonio or Golden State in the Finals, we’ll all be pleasantly surprised when they come prepared. Credit Cleveland with attempting 38 three-pointers in Game 2, a clear attempt to try and master the Dubs style and beat them at their own game. But that’s the equivalent of Cleveland cramming for a test they had all year to study for. You don’t try these things in the playoffs, it’s supposed to be figured out by now.

Almost all of those points in Cleveland’s third quarter run were scored by LeBron James or Kyrie Irving. Kevin Love hit some free throws, grabbed some rebounds and J.R Smith contributed but that’s it. Golden State puts you down the right way by numbing you up with 40-points in the first quarter before letting the unit operate on you. Cleveland’s weird inverse of this involves letting Detroit play you close for almost three quarters before falling back on the two best players on the floor to finally push through.

That may work in the flimsy East, but good luck trying that against Gregg Popovich or Steph Curry.

Perhaps the real kicker in this is that Cleveland might not have to wake up and out of bed until the NBA Finals. Atlanta or Boston might put up a fight in the next round and Miami will attempt to go full Tasmanian Devil in the Conference Finals, but Cleveland — even when half awake — is still the best team in the East.

They probably won’t truly be awake until they’re shook by a Western Conference team in June, but by then it might be too late.

Damian Lillard and overthinking the instinctual

Ian Levy | @HickoryHigh | FanSided

I am a terrible golfer. Like unsightly bad. I don’t play often but when I do, it’s always a rapid spiral of self-doubt and errors of misplaced focus. I’ll pull my head on my first drive and hook a ball into the trees. Drop another on the fringe and now, so focused on keeping my head down, I won’t follow through. Or keep my feet straight. Or any of the other ten thousand physical elements that are required to hit a golf ball far or straight. Usually it takes about three full holes for my swing to completely devolve, and I’m out there like the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, every appendage operating completely independently with a will of its own. I’ve tried everything, up to and including moderated and unmoderated doses of malted barley and hops. Nothing can disrupt the cycle.

Damian Lillard is a much better basketball player than I am a golfer, but he’s also battling the pull of an Ian-Levy-athletic-cycle-of-destructive-paralysis. In Game 1, the Los Angeles Clippers repeatedly blitzed Lillard in pick-and-rolls forcing him to battle double-teams 25 feet from the basket, or pass the ball and try to re-enter the offense later in the possession. It’s not like this is the first time Lillard has seen this defensive strategy but throughout Game 1 you could see the hesitation build. He began expecting the blitz, trying to anticipate instead of just reacting. He scored 21 points and racked up 8 assists, but also 4 turnovers and he shot just 7-of-17 from the field, as the Trail Blazers lost big.

Lillard was clearly expecting the same strategy in Game 2, but the Clippers mixed it up on him. The pick-and-roll strategy was more conservative, corral and contain, offering space for jumpers but always making sure they were contested. This is normally the environment where Lillard thrives. Other than Stephen Curry there is probably not a better off-the-dribble jump shooter in the NBA right now and Lillard has plenty of experience turning slivers of space into points. But his rhythm was disrupted, as much by the weight of his residual anticipation and hesitation from Game 1 as by the defense himself. His instincts were carefully boxed in and, if you’ll forgive the sports-speak, he was playing with his head instead of his gut. The results were even worse — 17 points, 3 assists, 4 turnovers, 6-of-22 from the field.

Good defense is about throwing all sorts of impediments at an offensive player, physical and mental. Right now, the Clippers have Lillard’s number. The solution is obviously for Lillard to mentally and emotionally separate himself from what happened in the first two games, to push that to the side and start fresh. He’s better than this and he knows it. Which, unfortunately, is a big part of the problem.

It’s never quite been enough for me on the golf course, but just putting his head down, letting it fly, and having some fun out there might be just what Lillard needs right now.