Miami need a PG?

[Warren2ThaG]

Make a trade then... 1st round pick+ wtvr. Udrih / Jack / Bibby / Nash / Calderon

[Clutch]

heat have chalmers, but he's in spo's cage lol

[Abro]

They need a defensive point who can spot up and hit threes easily. If they find someone like that it will be great. Jack may be the best on ur list for tht.

[magicbalala245]

No PG is needed for Miami LeBron has to step up and go to Erik and tell him to play him at the point then you play Jones at the SF to spread the floor. LeBron is the best facilitator in the league when he wants to be. It would be scary to see LeBron at the point it would cause ton's of mis matches for the league except those that are contending (Lakers, Boston). If LeBron is the PG for this team it will do wonders for this Heat team.

Edited November 12, 2010 by magicbalala245

[Abro]

Seriously! Why isnt chalmers playing more?? I dont understand it at all..

[Clutch]

Seriously! Why isnt chalmers playing more?? I dont understand it at all..

 

well spo probably remembered that chalmers got booked with weed in his rookie season too, and now is using that to treat him like the new beasley

Edited November 12, 2010 by Clutch

[kingfish]

They dont need a PG at all. What they do need is a 7 footer who can play defense and doesnt dissapear in physical games.

[Warren2ThaG]

They dont need a PG at all. What they do need is a 7 footer who can play defense and doesnt dissapear in physical games.

 

Mbenga?

[Real Deal]

LeBron is already facilitating. True point guards aren't needed. They need a legitimate defensive big man and more effort with their on-ball defense, and the big three need to figure out definitive roles on the team. You can't have five guys running around and trying to play help defense on every potential scoring or shooting threat in every game, even if they are getting mismatched.

[Built Ford Tough]

Make a trade then... 1st round pick+ wtvr. Udrih / Jack / Bibby / Nash / Calderon

 

Two problems with this.

 

1) The Heat have no 1st round picks to trade. They gave up all of their picks in the sign and trades for Bosh and LeBron. Since you can't trade consecutive picks, they won't be able to trade a 1st until around 2016 or something like that. No team is going to trade somebody like the players you mentioned for a pick that far into the future.

 

2) All of those players are making more than $5M (Jack might be a shade under actually). The Heat don't have any contracts to make any sort of deal work for any of these kinds of players.

 

The bottom line is that the Heat have nothing to trade. They don't have any picks to trade, they don't have any young talent to trade and they don't have any contracts to make any trades work.

 

They also don't even need a true point guard. They need a guy who can stand in the corner, hit a three and play defense. Bron and Wade make a ball dominant point guard redundant, and this team is already redundant as it is.

 

What they need more than a point guard is a defensive anchor. They are over helping constantly and don't have any real lock down defenders, either on the perimeter or in the paint. Teams aren't worried about driving into the paint because Miami's bigs aren't intimidating. They need a guy who can anchor their defese and make teams think twice about attacking the paint.

 

And no, Erick Dampier is not that guy.

Edited November 12, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[Real Deal]

If they had that defensive anchor in the post, it wouldn't be that bad of an idea starting Eddie House. Probably not a bad idea to begin with, but the Heat aren't going to look for him as much as he thinks. He may be better off the bench.

[moeroadkill]

i doubt the team changes by the dead-line they dont have the room or the peices to make a trade they are in a rut until next offseason when they can go after somebody, someone like nene maybe, hell they could even settle for a guy like krstic if the thunder dont re-sign him at least his a legit 7 footer with a decent stroke from mid.

[Nitro]

If they had that defensive anchor in the post, it wouldn't be that bad of an idea starting Eddie House. Probably not a bad idea to begin with, but the Heat aren't going to look for him as much as he thinks. He may be better off the bench.

 

I think House would be a much better fit at PG than Arroyo. Arroyo is just as crappy of a defender, and unlike House he doesn't have 3pt range and is scared to take shots. House and Z fit the starting lineup so much better than Arroyo and Anthony. When Miller comes back I think it will be interesting to see if Spoelstra (or Riley) will slide Wade over to defend PG's and use the Wade/Miller/LeBron/Bosh/Whoever lineup. Hell, I think they could get away with it now, but instead of Miller sliding in James Jones into the lineup.

 

But yes, as everyone else said, they need muscle inside. I disagree with BFT as I do think Dampier would do wonders. The area the Heat have consistently gotten murdered in has been the offensive glass. If there is one thing Dampier is good at, it's grabbing offensive boards or tipping those rebounds out to wing players. Also, he would give the Heat some much needed size, and he offers a lot more offense than Joel Anthony does (which isn't really saying anything at all). Size has KILLED the Heat all season long, and even if Dampier isn't the most talented big man out there, it's a lot harder to bully him around the basket than it is Haslem or Bosh (who have been playing far too many minutes at C).

[Real Deal]

Thing about Dampier is, he's out of shape...badly. And I'm talking more than he was last year. It's no coincidence every team has passed on him this season, even the Heat. There's either some injury that's keeping him out of shape, or he's just letting it go...but early reports (via Twitter) were that a handful of camp scrubs were outplaying him, and he was having trouble staying on the court for extended amounts of time.

 

Outside of Damp, there isn't much to rake in...so the Heat are going to have to start Big Z, experiment with House (they can run House as a two-guard and have Wade defend the elite PGs, instead of waiting for Miller) and ask Arroyo to do more ball-handling off the bench, in a smaller lineup that features Chris Bosh.

[Built Ford Tough]

Thing about Dampier is, he's out of shape...badly. And I'm talking more than he was last year. It's no coincidence every team has passed on him this season, even the Heat. There's either some injury that's keeping him out of shape, or he's just letting it go...but early reports (via Twitter) were that a handful of camp scrubs were outplaying him, and he was having trouble staying on the court for extended amounts of time.

 

Exactly.

 

Just look at the teams who were rumoured to be interested in him or brought him in for a workout and decided to pass on him:

 

Houston: Yao is a walking injury, Brad Miller is a shell of his former self, Jordan Hill has proven nothing in his NBA career thus far and Chuck Hayes is 6'6. The Rockets still thought better of signing Dampier even with the obvious need for size and depth at the center position.

 

Phoenix: Robin Lopez and Channing Frye get the majority of the teams minutes at center. They are playing Hed Turkoglu at the power forward spot, yet they still felt it wouldn't be beneficial to bring Dampier in.

 

Toronto: Bargnani is a starting center averaging 4 rebounds a game, David Andersen is his backup and hasn't even sniffed the paint all season long. They are putting 6'8, 205 pound Amir Johnson in at center and still haven't signed Dampier despite the fact that he has been to Toronto visiting the team and with management on two seperate occasions. If any team needs a true center, it is the Raptors.

 

Hell, even Miami passed on him late in the summer because he was out of shape so bad and played so terribly when they brought him in for a workout.

 

A motivated Dampier would help Miami, but with him purposefully avoiding training camp, talking about how he wants money and minutes and all of the teams passing on him who could clearly use him, he really doesn't seem to be all that motivated for anything other than a paycheck.

[Check my Stats]

Miami doesn't need anything. No team is flawless, the Heat have more than enough talent RIGHT NOW to compete for an NBA title. Whatever changes are made only need to be internal. Spo deserves at least half the season, but if this team isn't within striking distance of the first seed he should be fired.

 

This team needs another string of [expletive] opponents to get on a roll again. LeBron needs to stop deferring to Wade, he is the best player on this team and needs the ball in his hand, Wade seems to have tunnel vision for the rim whenever I watch him.

 

Bosh needs to get reamed out by someone too, he seems like he is pouting out there.

Edited November 12, 2010 by Check my Stats

[Oliver P]

I don't think that the Heat need anything. It is not because they are not playing as well as most people expected them to play that they need to get something else... Besides when you got two players who can get the ball up court, like Wade and James, you certainly do not need a PG.

 

Now I personally don't understand why some people are surprised that the Heat ain't playing very well so far... I mean sure they have a fantastic team on paper but it's not because you're the best on paper that you're gonna win it all... Basketball is not a video game. Basketball is a collective game and so the most important thing in basketball is chemistry, without a good chemistry no team can accomplish anything.

 

Which is why I am not surprised whatsoever to see the Heat having some trouble. And that the Celtics beat them twice already. It's gonna take them some time to develop a chemistry. That is IF they can play together...

 

I've said it the whole summer, the Heat are an exciting team on paper but they still have everything to prove. And there are certainly not the favorites to win it all. When we take a look at the very best teams ever on paper we can see that most of them have not even won a ring :

 

In 1968 Wilt Chamberlain joined Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. I am sure that at the time most everyone thought that this team would be unstoppable. Well they ended their first season with 55 wins (2nd overall in the league), they went to the Finals the first two years and lost to the Boston Celtics then to the New York Knicks. The third year they lost in the WCF and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. The fourth year, 1971/72 then, Elgin Baylor got injured around ten games after the beginning of the season (11 if I am not mistaken) and the Lakers finally won a ring. But there was only Chamberlain and West in that team. And so this unbelievable Big Three failed.

 

In 1989, Tim Hardaway joined Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond in Golden State. It was the "Run TMC". The first year the three stars did not make the playoffs, they only won 37 games and ended the season as the 10th team in the West. The second, and last, year they played together they went to the second round of the playoffs and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. Then the Warriors staff, knowing that the three stars could not achieve anything together, decided to trade Mitch Richmond to the Sacramento Kings. This Big Three was so a failure.

 

In 1996 Charles Barkley joined Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in Houston. At the time everyone was sure that with those three superstars the Rockets could beat the mighty Chicago Bulls. Well the first year they won 57 games and ended the season as the 2nd team in the West (4th overall). They played two seasons together, the first year they lost in the WCF to the Utah Jazz, the second year they lost in the first round to the Utah Jazz once again.

 

In 1998, Drexler retired and the Rockets signed Pippen to replace him. Barkley, Olajuwon and Pippen played one season together, they ended the season as the fourth team in the West and they lost in the first round to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Rockets Big Threes were once again a failure.

 

In 1999 Steve Smith, Scottie Pippen and Detlef Schrempf joined Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, Brian Grant and Damon Stoudamire in Portland. They were even more impressive as a rookie named Bonzi Wells happened to be way better than eveyone was expecting him to be. This team was so stacked with talent that, again, everyone was sure that they would win it all. Steve Smith even said that he was sure that this team could win 82 games ! Well they actually won 59 games (they ended the season as the 2nd team in the West) and lost in the WCF to the Los Angeles Lakers. The following year Shawn Kemp joined this team and they were swept in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

The 2001/02 Kings were considered as one of the gratest starting lineup ever (arguably the best ever, there was no flaw in that lineup) : Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic, Doug Christie and they just signed Mike Bibbyin the 2001 summer. And on the bench three great role players who did their job perfectly, Hidayet Turkoglu, Bobby Jackson and Scott Pollard. They ended the season as the first team this time (61 wins), but it's nonetheless a failure once again as they lost in the WCF to the Los Angeles Lakers.

 

In 2003, Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in Los Angeles. Everyone thought that they would destroy everyone. Yet they ended the season as 3rd in the West (55 wins) and they lost in the Finals to the Detroit Pistons.

 

In 2003 again, Antawn Jamison and Antoine Walker joined Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Michael Finley in Dallas. Not only that but two rookies named Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels had a terric season and played way better than expected. Well they won 52 games and ended the season as 5th in the West and they lost in the first round against the Sacramento Kings.

 

It is hard to find better rosters than those ones, yet none of these teams won a ring indeed. Which shows us that it's not because you have a great roster that you will win for sure. Quite the opposite in fact we can even say that teams of stars usually do not work. And why is that ? well the fact is that a team needs role players to win. You need those players who, even if they know to do one thing only, know their role perfectly and do what they're supposed to do. One of the reasons why teams of star usually do not work is because those stars have trouble to adapt to a new role. Cause when several stars play together they have to change their game indeed, something that some have a lot of trouble to accomplish.

 

For example I had a debate with another poster once, Coldj3 (some of you might know him), he was trying to convince me that the Bulls would have been better with Webber instead of Rodman as Webber was definitely a better player overall. Something that I highly disagreed with because even if Rodman was not as good as Webber I doubt that Webber would have done the same things that Rodman did. Rodman was a role player, he couldn't do all the things that C-Webb could do, but he was the best at what he did best. That's why even if Webber would have done a lot of things that Rodman couldn't do, especially offensively of course, he would not have been able to be as efficient defensively and would not have gotten as much rebounds. Let's not forget about all the little things that Rodman did to help his team win, like entering his opponents mind to destabilize them. Same if Webber had been a Laker during the three peat, he was much better than Horry but he was not even close to Horry's level in the clutch, and we know how important was Horry's role in the clutch for that team. That is why I don't believe that the Lakers would have been better with Webber, despite the fact that Webber was a superstar and Horry a role player.

 

So for all these reasons, and as I said it the whole summer, there is no doubt that the Lakers are still the favorites to win it all, they're the champs anyhow, so they're the team to beat.

 

This Lakers are still at their best, and they're even better this season. They know each other very well, they've played together for 3 years now, and it shouldn't take long to Barnes and Blake to adapt to their new team. Besides there are also a lot of great teams in which the players know each other for quite some time, teams like Boston, Orlando or Dallas. Those teams all have a better chance to win a ring than Miami this season IMO.

 

It's still the beginning of the season though, and Miami still has a lot of time to improve and develop a chemistry, and I hope for them that they will, but as I said the whole summer, I am not as enthusiastic about this team as most people and I personally would not be surprised to see them fail this year, no matter if they get another PG or C, or if Riley replaces Spoelstra as the head coach (which I would like to happen by the way, as Pat is my favorite coach of all time, don't have anything against Spoelstra though).

[Real Deal]

In 1968 Wilt Chamberlain joined Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. I am sure that at the time most everyone thought that this team would be unstoppable. Well they ended their first season with 55 wins (2nd overall in the league), they went to the Finals the first two years and lost to the Boston Celtics then to the New York Knicks. The third year they lost in the WCF and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. The fourth year, 1971/72 then, Elgin Baylor got injured around ten games after the beginning of the season (11 if I am not mistaken) and the Lakers finally won a ring. But there was only Chamberlain and West in that team. And so this unbelievable Big Three failed.

The problem with that example is that Baylor was 34 years old, Wilt was 32, and West was 30...when they first started playing together. If there was any window for them, it was already closing. This Wilt wasn't even averaging the 30's he did in Philly just three seasons prior to joining LA, and in those last two seasons with Philly, his scoring was already taking a hit. Elgin played nearly a full first season with them...but in that second year, he played in 54 games. Third season? Just two games.

 

Jerry West was the only guy on that team that looked as if he was still in his prime. Wilt was declining, and Baylor was irrelevant after the first season, played injured in the second one and saw the court just 11 total times the rest of his career (wasn't even there for them in the third season).

 

In 1996 Charles Barkley joined Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in Houston. At the time everyone was sure that with those three superstars the Rockets could beat the mighty Chicago Bulls. Well the first year they won 57 games and ended the season as the 2nd team in the West (4th overall). They played two seasons together, the first year they lost in the WCF to the Utah Jazz, the second year they lost in the first round to the Utah Jazz once again.

Same thing with these guys...all about age. All three were 33-34 years old when they started playing together. Barkley missed 29 games, Drexler 20. Charles played the final ten games of the season and went into the playoffs injured, struggled with his shot and Houston lost.

 

In 1999 Steve Smith, Scottie Pippen and Detlef Schrempf joined Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, Brian Grant and Damon Stoudamire in Portland. They were even more impressive as a rookie named Bonzi Wells happened to be way better than eveyone was expecting him to be. This team was so stacked with talent that, again, everyone was sure that they would win it all. Steve Smith even said that he was sure that this team could win 82 games ! Well they actually won 59 games (they ended the season as the 2nd team in the West) and lost in the WCF to the Los Angeles Lakers. The following year Shawn Kemp joined this team and they were swept in the first round by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Age again. Pippen was 34, Sabonis was 35 years old, and Schrempf was even older than Arvydas (37). Plus, despite the age, they still ran over the Wolves and Jazz before they lost to the eventual dynasty Lakers, so it's not like they weren't on their way to greatness. Had they beat the Lakers in just one more game, they were going to win a championship.

 

In 2003, Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in Los Angeles. Everyone thought that they would destroy everyone. Yet they ended the season as 3rd in the West (55 wins) and they lost in the Finals to the Detroit Pistons.

Gary Payton was 35 years old, Karl Malone was 40. That team would've actually went seven games with Detroit had Malone not been injured, made us play Medvedenko for 20-25 minutes in those last three games against Sheed. Age played a huge factor especially with Karl...he missed 40 games (never missed more than two games his entire career until he was a Laker), and both Kobe and Shaq didn't play 70 games.

 

As far as Run TMC goes, they never played defense, but they were probably the best example of a bunch of young all-stars getting together and failing.

 

Dallas ran into a Kings team that had just stuck Webber back into the lineup (he didn't play hardly any games in the regular season, played all 12 playoff games), and they still had Peja (who looked like an MVP candidate), Bibby, Christie, Jackson, Divac and Miller. But, like TMC, the Mavericks played absolutely no defense, so the Kings/Mavs series in the playoffs was about who was going to shoot the lights out, and what team was going to go cold.

 

However, only two of those teams had two real superstars on them (the Lakers, old and new), yet the age was the difference between that Lakers team and the Heat team today. LeBron, Wade and Bosh are all under 30 years old, and LeBron and Bosh are what...26? All three are in their primes. All three have not shown any decline other than their numbers falling slightly due to them being on the same team. Two of them are supposedly excellent defensive players (help defense) and one is supposedly an underrated defender (Bosh), and all of them have made the playoffs leading a team by themselves.

 

The talent alone...they shouldn't be struggling this bad already, and they shouldn't be expected to be anything less than a top three seed in the East when the smoke clears. Losing in a seven-game ECF series is where the bar sits, and they should actually exceed that. Going 5-4 to start the season, losing two home games already, is not something to dismiss just because other "super teams" have had the same problems, because those other "super teams" were all much, much older, most of the time suffering from injuries, or they just didn't have this kind of talent.

[Erick Blasco]

That was a gutless Blazers team...I remember how scared they played when the Lakers came back from 20 down in the fourth in Game Seven. Nobody wanted to make the right play. It's a shame an injured Detlef Schrempf has to be associated with those losers.

[Oliver P]

The problem with that example is that Baylor was 34 years old, Wilt was 32, and West was 30...when they first started playing together. If there was any window for them, it was already closing. This Wilt wasn't even averaging the 30's he did in Philly just three seasons prior to joining LA, and in those last two seasons with Philly, his scoring was already taking a hit. Elgin played nearly a full first season with them...but in that second year, he played in 54 games. Third season? Just two games.

 

Jerry West was the only guy on that team that looked as if he was still in his prime. Wilt was declining, and Baylor was irrelevant after the first season, played injured in the second one and saw the court just 11 total times the rest of his career (wasn't even there for them in the third season).

 

No I honestly do not believe that age was really a problem for that team.

 

First of all the reason why Wilt didn't average more than 30 PPG in his last two seasons with Philly wasn't because he declined but because he didn't take as many shots as he used to. As a matter of fact the last time Wilt averaged more than 30 PPG, in 66, he shot more than 25 times per game. The year after, the year he won his first ring, he shot less than 15 times per game... Huge difference. I would add that I'm not surprised that it's the year that Wilt shot less than 20 times per game for the first time that he won a ring for the first time. Wilt understood that he needed his teammates to win that year and he never averaged more than 20 shots per game for the rest of his career, which explains why his scoring per game was not as impressive and also why his FG% was his best in career. Wilt just became a more intelligent basketball player in his Sixers days. The year before he arrived in LA Wilt averaged 24 PPG (59.5 FG%), 24 RPG and almost 9 APG, he was still on top of the world. I'd say that Wilt really started to decline the season the Lakers won, in 72, but he was still Finals MVP that year nonetheless.

 

Same for Baylor, well it's true that he got injured the second year and started to decline after that, but the first year (and the second before getting injured) Elgin was still at his very best. Yet the three players just failed together.

 

Besides the thing that shows that age is irrelevant in that case is that the Lakers finally won the year Baylor eventually decided to retire for good (in 71-72 after playing 9 games), so despite their age Wilt and West were able to win together. And if they could win in 72, they sure could have won three years earlier with Baylor.

 

 

Same thing with these guys...all about age. All three were 33-34 years old when they started playing together. Barkley missed 29 games, Drexler 20. Charles played the final ten games of the season and went into the playoffs injured, struggled with his shot and Houston lost.

 

Well it is true that the three players had a lot of injury troubles the two years they played together. Especially Barkley who already had to deal with a lot of bad injuries in his last years in Phoenix. I even remembering him announcing his retirement every year and then changing his mind every year... Until his terrible leg injury at the beginning of the 99-2000 season.

 

So it's true that Barkley and that the three players got outta their prime together... But they were all still playing at an All Star level nonetheless though, especially the first year they played together, I do not believe that age and injuries are the only reasons why they didn't win together.

 

 

Age again. Pippen was 34, Sabonis was 35 years old, and Schrempf was even older than Arvydas (37). Plus, despite the age, they still ran over the Wolves and Jazz before they lost to the eventual dynasty Lakers, so it's not like they weren't on their way to greatness. Had they beat the Lakers in just one more game, they were going to win a championship.

 

No I definitely do not agree about age for that team. You mentioned only three players, this team is certainly the deepest ever, and having only three players who were not in their prime is not a problem. Sheed was the leader and he was 25, Mighty Mouse was 26, Smith was 30, Grant was 27, Wells was 23.... I mean most of those players were all at their prime.

 

And in fact Pip was still at his best either, he didn't average as many PPG as he used but again the reason why was because he just didn't take as many shots as he used to, for the first time of his career he averaged just a bit more than 10 shots per game. Which is pretty logical as he had never been surrounded by as many offensive talents in all his career, so he obviously couldn't take as many shots and scored as many PPG. He also didn't play the same amount of MPG, which is once again pretty normal as that team was so deep, he just couldn't play the same amount of minutes as he used to before in his career. But other than that his stats were exactly the same everywhere else, he averages the same amount of pts, rbds, asts and blks as before, and had the same FG%.

 

Only Sabas and Schrempf were past their prime. Sabas was never at his best in the NBA anyhow, when he joined the big league his body was already totally broken by injuries. Which is too bad as I think that he could have become one of the very best centers ever, even maybe the best... But that's another story.

 

So anyway no, age is definitely not an excuse for that team. And saying that had they beat the Lakers they would have won a ring is just pure assumption. I mean yes I think too that they would have won, but there is no way that we can assert that for sure as it just did not happen, maybe they would have lost against Indiana. We just do not know. The fact remains that they did not win anyhow.

 

 

Gary Payton was 35 years old, Karl Malone was 40. That team would've actually went seven games with Detroit had Malone not been injured, made us play Medvedenko for 20-25 minutes in those last three games against Sheed. Age played a huge factor especially with Karl...he missed 40 games (never missed more than two games his entire career until he was a Laker), and both Kobe and Shaq didn't play 70 games.

 

Again saying that they would have went seven games is pure assumption. We just can't know that for sure.

 

Although I agree with you that age played a factor with Karl. Not with Payton though, Payton was still at his best the year before and didn't have any injury troubles that year. Although he had more trouble to adapt to his team than Karl, but this had nothing to do with age. It's just that first Payton had trouble to play with his new teammates and second he was VERY uncomfortable in the triangle. He just wasn't made to play in that team. I remember that Magic was heavily criticizing him at the time, all year long...

 

But for Malone it's true that it was the season he shouldn't have played. I mean the year before he still had around the same stats that he had all his career and still seemed unstoppable, but he had the first serious injuries of his career. I agree with that. But it's also important to consider that this team was really able to play together for a couple of months, in December-January. During that time they had a fantastic chemistry, I was really impressed by them. But after that, even when no one was injured, they were never able to have this fantastic chemistry back. Especially because of Payton...

 

As far as Run TMC goes, they never played defense, but they were probably the best example of a bunch of young all-stars getting together and failing.

 

Dallas ran into a Kings team that had just stuck Webber back into the lineup (he didn't play hardly any games in the regular season, played all 12 playoff games), and they still had Peja (who looked like an MVP candidate), Bibby, Christie, Jackson, Divac and Miller. But, like TMC, the Mavericks played absolutely no defense, so the Kings/Mavs series in the playoffs was about who was going to shoot the lights out, and what team was going to go cold.

 

Webber's return is not enough to explain this failure honestly. Because first even if Webber just got back, well the team just started to lose his basketball because of his return. As Divac said that year the Kings were just better without Webber.

 

Besides the Mavs struggled the whole year, they were certainly not supposed to win only 52 games... As for "no defense", well it's true but at the same time the Suns managed to win more than 60 games and make it to the WCF at least with no defense, so it doesn't explain it all once again... The stars just couldn't play together.

 

However, only two of those teams had two real superstars on them (the Lakers, old and new), yet the age was the difference between that Lakers team and the Heat team today. LeBron, Wade and Bosh are all under 30 years old, and LeBron and Bosh are what...26? All three are in their primes. All three have not shown any decline other than their numbers falling slightly due to them being on the same team. Two of them are supposedly excellent defensive players (help defense) and one is supposedly an underrated defender (Bosh), and all of them have made the playoffs leading a team by themselves.

 

The talent alone...they shouldn't be struggling this bad already, and they shouldn't be expected to be anything less than a top three seed in the East when the smoke clears. Losing in a seven-game ECF series is where the bar sits, and they should actually exceed that. Going 5-4 to start the season, losing two home games already, is not something to dismiss just because other "super teams" have had the same problems, because those other "super teams" were all much, much older, most of the time suffering from injuries, or they just didn't have this kind of talent.

 

Well maybe but the fact is that I personally am not surprised that they're having trouble. I mean first of all it's just the beginning of the season, as I already said in that thread, even if that team were to win a ring this year, you just can't expect them to be at their best rightaway. They need time to acclimate to each other, once again it's not a video game. And I don't see how can some people be surprised to see them lose twice against Boston, the players are together for quite some time there, they had all the time they needed to develop a great chemistry, their defense is great and they actually even won together. They all know each other very well. As talented as the Heat are on paper they just do not know how to play together yet.

 

In fact even when the Spurs were still at their best, I remember that some years they started the season real slow as well, which made a lot of people believe (me included I have to admit it) that they were done. Yet they were always back to their best in March-April and ready to win another ring, or get far in the playoffs. It's just the beginning of the season, all of this is just meaningless, and it's certainly not because the Heat are 5-4 or that they lost twice against the best Eastern team that they're gonna lose for sure. That's a first thing.

 

And again about this age thing, well first I already showed that some of the super teams I mentioned were actually not that old, but I'm gonna give you another example : Team USA.

 

As a matter of fact the least we can say is that Team USA had a lot of trouble this past decade. Yet not only they were even better on paper than all the super teams I mentioned, but the teams they met actually not as good as the NBA teams, as they all had AT BEST one NBA star and a couple of NBA players. Yet Team USA almost lost against Lithuania in 2000 and Spain in 2008. And they actually lost in 2002, 04 and 06. In 2006 they even lost against Greece, and in that team not only there weren't any NBA stars but not even one NBA PLAYER. Yet Greece won. Which proves once again that it's not because a team is way better than another on paper that this team is gonna win for sure.

 

I can also talk about the 2000 Magic. That year this team had no star whatsoever, its best player was Darrel Armstrong (a player that I used to like a lot but he was nowhere near an All Star level...), everyone at the time was sure that they would be the worst team in the league. Yet thanks to Doc Rivers' coaching and a terrific chemistry they surprised everyone and almost made the playoffs, had they won the last game of the season they would have been a playoffs team.

 

That year the Magic showed once again that talent is not everything. Sure it's better to have talented players, but it's not because you have the most talented team in the league that you will win for sure. That's the only thing that I wanted to say here, I never said that the Heat wouldn't win, I want to be clear about that. No I wouldn't be surprised to see them win it all. But the only thing I'm saying here is that I wouldn't be surprised to see them fail at the same time.