The Heat's nearly magical decent from their self-proclaimed greatness couldn't of been written better by Shakespeare himself. Losing a game at home on a 20-2 run, losing two games the Heat were dominating for over 40 minuets of the game? Losing the title at home after your team gave up half-way through the 4th quarter? Self-Proclaimed King being outscored by dime-a-dozen players in the fourth quarter? Another team hoisting the trophy in your own place (it hurts Flyers fans)? Storybooks couldn't of written it better.
Everyone's quick to jump on the "Heat are Trash" bandwagon. Guess our nation has such a short attention span. Long forgotten is the fact that in the Playoffs, the Heat were 12-3 against the young, fast, and intense Philadelphia 76ers, the defending East Champion and just as talented as ever Boston Celtics, and my consideration (among many others) for the best team in the NBA during the regular season, Chicago Bulls. Facts are, Star players were shut down by Miami's defense, and Miami flat out took care of business, and couldn't be stopped all playoffs long.
What did stop Miami was one of the old school Boston Celtics teams that was arguably the deepest NBA team I've seen in my lifetime. You will hardly ever lose if you can get 27 points by one player off your bench, regardless of who your playing. Dallas assembled a team of seasoned veterans who were accustomed to playoff basketball, and that showed. Miami's 3 stars and random assortment of players didn't pay off. Yet.
I asked everyone if they thought the Heat would win the Championship this year after Lebron took his talents to South Beach. Most people (including myself) took that stance of "I don't think they can do it this year, but in a couple years, they will have a couple titles." This team has only played together for about 100 games, and they aren't going to get any worse. And remember, they decimated the Eastern Conference. By my pre-season predictions (Bulls-Celtics for the finals), they overachieved. We were all quick to forget that when they started putting up win after win in the 2nd half of the season.
Another fact is, Chris Bosh will most likely not return to this team, due to the NBA negotiations and the pending lockout. It looks like there will not be any NBA next year, and the owners as a collective whole will not let another game of basketball be played until guaranteed contracts are abolished, and the NBA reconstructs rookie salaries. In this case (and not the case with the NFL), I totally agree with the NBA Owners. While I am not fully informed on the NBA labor situation, this lockout is very similar to the NHL's just a couple years ago, which led to a season of no Hockey. Of course we will see every player disagree with money being taken away from them (abolishing guaranteed contracts and paying rookies a little less before they touch a basketball court), but ultimately, that's what's going to happen. Here's some outright robbery some players stole from NBA organizations last year.
Peja Stojakovic = 15.3 Million Salary, 8.5PPG, 2.3 Boards, 0.9 Assists
Samuel Dalembert = 13.5 Million Salary, 12PPG, 12.2 Boards, 1.2 Assists
Rashard Lewis = 20.5 Million Salary, 11.7PPG, 5.1 Boards, 1.6 Assists
Elton Brand = 15.9 Million Salary, 15 PPG, 8.3 Boards, 1.5 Assists
If you guys want some comparison; in the 2010-2011 season, Dwyane Wade made 14.2 Million, Lebron James made 14.5 Million, Kevin Durant made 6.5 Million, Derrick Rose made 5.5 Million, Kobe made around 24 Million, Tim Duncan made 18 Million. And yes, when the Sixers had Brand and Dalembert, that cost them as much as Wade and Lebron cost Miami this year.
Regardless of that, When the lockout is over, there (more than likley) will be a hard salary cap in place, which teams can not go over (which the Heat went over the current "soft" cap). And the blame has to be placed somewhere, which will likley be Bosh. He's being paid just as much as Wade and Lebron, but doesn't have half the affect on most games. I see him leaving and two solid big men coming to Miami, who can rebound in the 4th quarter, and play adequate offense.
On paper, Miami and Chicago will dominate the East. Boston is passing it's prime, and in my opinion not going to win another title anytime soon. Atlanta and Philly will have promising teams, and other teams will take shots and beat the Heat and Bulls in the future (that's why you play the game.)
If your quick to call the Miami Heat a bunch of bums and a bunch of losers, tell me what derogatory words you have for the Sixers who went 1-4 in the playoffs against this Miami Heat team, and that one win came on the shoulders of Lou Willams. The Heat are still a great team deeper than the big 3, but they were beat by a deep time who rode on amazing perimeter shooting. Give the Mavs some credit finally for how great they played beyond Dirk's great performances night in and out.
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