What a Bench Do?

I've narrowed it down. Struggles amongst the NBA's elite can be pinpointed to one glaring factor. Because like a beautiful city park during a Midnight Sha-Na-Na with your friends and teammates, NBA teams need a stable bench to succeed.

Take a look at old Miami. A hot topic of discussion coming into the year, Miami's lack of depth now gives them a bleak outlook of their playoff picture. Losers of 5 straight games, the Heat's lack of interchangeable parts has played the main culprit of their cloudy forecast. Miami's superstar super-core of Wade, James, and Haslem (when healthy) are doing their parts, but the overall attitude of their on-court persona as a team is completely one dimensional. The bench and supporting cast is horrible, and as a result the superstar super-core has to do everything on their own, which has lead to a lot of close games, and in those close games, many'a losses. How bad is Miami's bench? In their last 7 games, Heat reserves have shot 33 for 117, or 28% from the field.

Miami's star power is very capable of overwhelming weaker defenses in the league, but as we all know, against the top lineups, Miami's pitiful record stinks of failure. The Atlanta Hawks share the bad bench flaw, and they share the pain of being a second tier contender as well. As the thin rosters of teams like these continue to rely on 40-plus-minute-a-night games from their household name players, close games against the well balanced, luxury-smooth rotations of Dallas, Chicago, San Antonio, LA, and Boston will continue to end with Miami tears and runny noses.

A team with the opposite reserve situation, Chicago, has their workhorse in Derrick Rose (their backup point guard situation is meaningless), but when you look at the other four positions, the Chicago bench has each spot covered. In end of game scenarios, enigmatic head coach Tom Thibodeau can substitute offense for defense (or vice versa) with his entire team. If the Bulls need a bucket he's got Kyle Korver, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, and Rasual Butler. If they need a stop, Thibodeau sends out Ronnie "Don't Call Me Corey" Brewer, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah, and Keith Bogans. Derrick Rose is always their anchor (with Luol Deng damn near him in that regard), but unlike the skimpy Heat, the mix-and-matching bench rotation gives the best teams their edge. It's one of the three most important distinctions of a championship caliber team, alongside lock-down team defense and master coach trickery.

And with the current state of their bench the way it is, the Miami Heat appear doomed as we head into mid March.