Time to preview the 2010-11 Miami Heat
Music to listen to: Push it to the Limit from the movie Scarface soundtrack
I canโt help but think about the Scarface movie when it comes to Miami and this song is a classic.
Last season/offseason changes: The Heat finished last season with a record of 47-35 and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics. The squad overachieved and were pushed by the brilliant play of Dwayne Wade, who I had third in my MVP voting last season behind Kevin Durant and LeBron James.
Speaking of James, you may have heard that he and Chris Bosh joined Miami. There was a certain Decision where a player decided to take his talent to South Beach.
Strength: When you have three of the top 15 players in the NBA on your squad and two of those guys are in the top-five, including the two-time defending MVP of the league, things are looking up.
As much as many of us were vexed with the process of James heading to Miami, you canโt deny his talent. Heโs the most physically imposing player in the league. James can drive to the basket at anytime and is the top finisher in the NBA. He has also become an elite defender in the league to the point of being a first-team All-NBA defensive team member.
Wade has already proven that he is an elite player as well. Just think of James with less physical play, better ball handing and a better jump shot. Wade has established himself as the leader of the franchise by leading the Heat to an NBA title. James is coming into his world.
I look at the James/Wade situation in a similar way to the Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez duo with the New York Yankees. If you canโt figure out which one is Jeter or Rodriguez, you shouldnโt be reading this post.
Bosh is a good interior scorer and not much else, speaking of whichโฆ
Weakness: The Heat are going to score a lot of points and provide plenty of highlights, but there are some major red flags with the squad.
The biggest one is the interior play. Bosh has been a below-average defender and rebounded since heโs entered the league. The Heat need him to do the dirty work and he isnโt equipped to do that.
The Heat will be fine for the regular season but in the playoffs, whoโs going to guard Dwight Howard in Orlando or Shaq and Kendrick Perkins in Boston or Joakim Noah in Chicago or even Andrew Bogut in Milwaukee? Thatโs just the East. To take it further, what about Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol with the Lakers?
The Heat re-signed Udonis Haslem and brought in Zydrunas Ilgauskas to help with this situation but that may not be enough.
The other issue is the rest of the roster. Mike Miller is a nice player but not a championship caliber player. If one of the top three players gets hurt, the Heat are screwed when it comes to the playoffs.
You may want me to say that a potential weakness will be the โwho will take the last shotโ argument. The answer is Wade and thatโs an easy answer. James seems to be on this quest to be a distributor like Magic Johnson, even though he doesnโt have the ball handling skills of the Lakersโ legend. The point is that Wade will be the main offensive scorer for the squad so that issue is not an issue in my opinion.
Most important player: The Heat are going to score plenty of perimeter points but if they donโt have a balanced attack, Miami will not win a championship.
Thatโs why Bosh is the most important player for the team if it wants to win a title.
Celebrity crush from the city: Miami has plenty of talented women in this category but Iโm going to go with rapper Trina. Sheโs an underrated attractive woman because people focus on her raunchy lyrics and just see her as a sex symbol. However, if you just say her in your local mall, you would be feeling her, even if you didnโt say anything to her. Thatโs a crush to me.
Coaching: I donโt think thereโs as much pressure on head coach Eric Spoelstra as people think.
First, the pressure isnโt on him. Its on the players. This may be the rare case when an elite NBA team fails on the court and its all on the players, especially James. Unless the Heat implode and do something impossible like miss the playoffs, Spoelstra is safe.
Second, team president Pat Riley isnโt going to come down and start coaching the team. Spoelstra is a protรฉgรฉ of Rileyโs and the public relations move of swooping down to take over the squad wouldnโt be positive for Riley. He was able to do the move a few years ago when he fired Stan Van Gundy and led the Heat to a title, but doing it a second time would look tacky.
First memory of team: I go back to a time when Rony Seikley was considered one of the top post players in the NBA.
However, I do remember the ugly Heat/Knicks games from the late 1990โs and early 2000โs. People talk about the intensity of the rivalry and the defensive effort but looking back at those games, it was crappy offensive basketball between two teams with limited talent that had to slug it out to get wins. They were carbon copies of each other.
My favorite moment is below. Why would Jeff Van Gundy do that?
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Best case: NBA Championship
Worst case: Eastern Conference finals and that may even be low balling it. There are only three teams in the NBA that can beat Miami, but two of them are in the East.
Uniform grade: I like the combination of red, black and white. I donโt like it when they wear the black jerseys because theyโre too dark and the numbers and lettering lack distinction, so I hope they stick with wearing the red road uniforms. The white unis are one of the better ones in the NBA. Grade: B+
Overall outlook: Offensively, the Heat should be the favorite to win the NBA title. However, titles are won with defense and Iโm not sure Miami has the ability to win with its defensive unit.
If the Heat donโt get abused on the inside, there isnโt a reason a title canโt come to South Beach.
You can forget about the squad winning 72 games. They arenโt going to push for it and focus on resting for the playoffs.
If I had to make a choice right now, I would say that Miami wonโt win the title this season because its tough to get it all together in the first year with a new unit but they will be contenders for the next few seasons.
Those are my thoughts, what about yours?
2010 Backdoor Cut Previews:
Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southeast
The Sports Inquirer 
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