Sporting News: Blazers a better "team" than Heat

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2011-03-08/aldridge-blazers-bench-roll-heat-105-96

 

No doubt that the Blazers played better team ball tonight. In fact, it was blatantly obvious. Tonight.

My biggest "concern" for the Heat? I honestly believe that there's a subterranean volcano brewing between Wade and James. And it will eventually explode.

 

This is pretty much what I figured since last summer. It's three guys who used to be THE GUY on their respective teams, now they are suddenly thrown together and they're supposed to make it work. This isn't the Olympics or the All-Star game, this is the NBA and "teams" always win out over mere superstars. The Heat are only two superstars, one All-Star, and a bunch of over the hill has-beens.

 

Sounds to me like it's Bosh who is going to have the first meltdown.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=6196012

 

Perfect.

 

Imagine if they had signed Amare instead of Bosh....

 

[video=youtube;KH8faQTaDuI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH8faQTaDuI&feature=player_embedded#at=64[/video]

 

I don't think they'd be any better off. I don't think Stoudemire is a better talent or a better fit. He's also a face-up big man who likes to shoot or drive. Like Bosh, he doesn't provide much interior defensive presence.

The problem, which I suggested was the thing that might derail them (though I was mostly a believer in the summer), is that there are diminishing returns on the value of superstars to a team. The first superstar matters the most, the second superstar matters a lot but less. The third superstar helps less and already starts to get into the "redundant" category. Only one ball, only a certain number of possessions...after two top scoring options, the third one is going to struggle to maintain production.

An example of three major superstars coming together were the Lakers of Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. They were all amazing, a better trio than James, Wade and Bosh, but they didn't win a title. Someone was always being under-utilized. It was only after Baylor was gone that West and Chamberlain won a title (and ran off the NBA record for consecutive wins).

I don't think there have been many such trios. I don't view Boston lately as one...Allen and Pierce weren't superstars, and weren't even in their prime, when their Big Three came together. I think that Miami is doing something rare and not something with an established track record of success. If they had someone like Phil Jackson, a guy with a proven history of getting big-time players to mesh, I'd like their chances a lot better. I think maximizing James, Wade and Bosh is a tricky problem and Spoelstra may not be up to it.

 

As I recall the common perception last summer is they would not win a championship the first year, but after that look out. They will add players each year. I don't think anything has changed. In my mind they are right on track. If they are smart they will trade Bosh for a more physical defensive player.

 

Funny that you mention the Olympics. When these three played together in the Worlds in 2006, they couldn't win Gold. Wasn't till Kobe joined in 08, that they won. They came into this season, thinking it was going to be easy to win 7-8 titles and that they were already the greatest threesome of all time. Then they sucked early in the season and people said it would "take time.". Now, it's March, all three players are in their prime and ace played over 60 games together and they're on a 5 game losing streak with no win in sight. I love it.

 

It's pretty amazing, looking at their roster...they literally are 3 stars and all scrubs beyond that. The highest PER outside their big three is 12.9. They have a bunch of players at around 10 PER or below.

It's interesting...if some of their players were two years younger, they'd have pretty great depth. Mike Bibby, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Udonis Haslem, Erick Dampier, Jerry Stackhouse. All of these are guys who would have been pretty useful support players a couple of years ago. But now they're all terrible.

 

To be fair, their highest usage rate outside of the "Big Three" is House at 16.7, and then Stackhouse at 16. It's tough to have a high PER when you rarely get to be involved in the end of the play.

More noteworthy to me is that James and Wade both have a USG rate >31, yet PERs under 27.

 

Why don't they use House more? I think that's odd. He's a complete asshole, and I really dislike him, but I think he's proven to be a solid outside shooter. He's been dog-housed.

 

This had me cracking up.

 

Its a convergent boundary. One side will give, allowing one to rise over the other. Who will rise remains to be seen, but the lava will flow. Pyroclastic flows may take out everyone below.


/end geeky rant

 

I'm not certain but that might be the funniest thing I've seen in a day or two

 

Hurry, everyone go panic! Its March and the Heat are only the 3rd seed!

Well, Boston barely won 50 games last year then went to a game 7 in the finals.

The Heat will be very dangerous when the playoffs come around, LeBron is the best player in the NBA and Wade is 2nd or 3rd. That team will be fine. Miami may have lost 5 straight, but they didn't lose 26 straight.

I'm proud of our boys for the big win tonight, but I still would fear the Heat in a playoff series more than any team except perhaps LA. Wade had 38 and Lebron was 2 assists from a triple double, and it just looked like ordinary performances from those two. The rest of the team will not play this bad all the time. When a few guys start clicking, the Heat will be more than fine.

 

I didn't know you're a Vulcan.

 

I think your "Big Three" can only really have one top 10 player.
Miami has two and that's a real issue.

For the Celtics, you have a top ten player in Garnett, and three all-star but not all league players who all have one thing they do super well. Rondo passing, Allen Shooting and Pierce clutch play.

The Lakers have something similar with a top ten guy in Kobe, and 2 or 3 all star level players in Gasol, Odom and Bynum.

That's appears to be the magic forumula.

And I think the teams in the league that is both young and has this mixture are the Bulls and Thunder.
Perhaps if LA can continue his excellent play Portland can get there as well.