Can't wait to see how the Heat do this season

[Roundball_Rock]

Miami has 2 superstars and an all-star. They should walk to the Finals.


right??

Exactly. The Heat are the only East team with 2 superstars in a conference with few of them (LeBron, Carmelo, Rose, Wade and Bosh). They also have a third all-star--and Deng was no fluke. He was an all-star in consecutive years and this was in 2012 and 2013 so he isn't a washed up long ago all-star like Rashard Lewis. Deng will be 29 next year and Bosh 30 so both are still in their peak years and Wade will be 33 but he just came of a 19/5/5 on 54% year as the #2 option.

[TheMilkyBarKid]

I feel granger & Mcbob will become great bench players, although Mcbob may start.
Bird man + Mcbob front court is full of hustle.
Any idea if Beasley & oden are staying? If so I'd like to see an effort to give them minutes, that'd probably be the best way of getting oden up to game speed.
Anyway I wouldn't be suprised if wade and bosh come out with a mindset of proving their worth and suprise a few people.
Basement is 1st round back and forth series/2nd round, ceiling is ecf/finals with some luck.

[Hoopz2332]

Heat should be a solid team but..they wont be a top 3 seed though.

[FPJ]

Would be hilarious if the Heat somehow managed to ship the rings.

[Magic731]

How many minutes will Bosh get at the 4 as opposed to the 5?

[FLDFSU]

Heat should be a solid team but..they wont be a top 3 seed though.

As stacked as Miami is, we don't needs a top 3 seed to win our 4th ring this upcoming season.

[choppermagic]

Agree, this season will be much more interesting in the East with actual competition between teams. They still mostly suck but at least the Heat and Cavs can duke it out for good battles.

[GimmeThat]

4th-6th seed, and they make it to the 2nd round.

roughly 10 games in the playoff for Wade with veterans, no bench and Bosh sounds about right.

[Hoopz2332]

As stacked as Miami is, we don't needs a top 3 seed to win our 4th ring this upcoming season.

Heat are not getting by the Bulls or Pacers w/o homecourt

[InfiniteBaskets]

Miami doesn't have the same rotational players coming back.

Last year's rotational guys:

Bosh / Birdman
Lewis / Udonis / Beasley
LeBron / Battier / Jones
Wade / Ray Allen
Chalmers / Cole

This year

Bosh / Birdman
McRoberts / Udonis
Deng / Granger
Wade / Ennis
Chalmers / Cole / Napier

And this year's line up isn't fully set in stone yet. Napier could easily beat out either Cole or Chalmers for more minutes.

Granger and Deng is a massive downgrade from LeBron. Bosh is still going to be unhappy playing C. Unless they get McRoberts to play C, which will be equally pathetic. Miami's defensive philosophy is going with a quick thin PF to play Center while quicker perimeter guys trap and rotate. Having guys like Ennis and Napier replace Ray Allen and Shane will help some. But Deng's not a suitable replacement for James and Wade is still old.

Where the Heat will struggle most is on the offensive side. No more feeding LeBron in the post and no more LeBron pick and roll with Bosh. Spo will have to create some good motion sets because there are absolutely 0 elite playmakers on this team right now.