The Lakers had plenty of depth last year, a lot more than Miami does. The Lakers just didn't have enough chemistry to beat Detroit, a team with plenty of chemistry and talent. Payton was lost in the triangle, Kobe was trying to do too much on his own, and Malone was injured to make matters even more worse. I think Miami will have some good chemistry but they just do not have enough talent. As fishmike and I mentioned earlier, you just have to let Shaq get his points and try to stop the other players. Any team that has Shaq has a big advantage, but if they do not have the right players surrounding him then they have no shot at winning a title no matter how many points Shaq scores. Who can Miami call upon if Shaq, Wade, and Jones need help? I like Dorell Wright but he is a rookie, who else can they depend on to help carry them to a title? Doleac? I doubt it.


I know Shaq makes players around him better but you need some decent players around Shaq in the first place for Shaq to be at his best. Miami will definitely be a top 3 seed just because their division is so weak, but I really don't think they will have enough to get to the Finals. Detroit would destroy them in a playoff series. Indiana could beat them in a series. If we get Dampier then I also believe that we can definitely beat them in a series. Even without Dampier we would still put a very good fight.





[Edited by - s3231 on 08/09/2004 16:10:11]

want to know how desperate the Heat are? The Orlando Centinal is reporting the Heat are trying to lure Dennis Scott out of retirement. Denis freaking Scott. Does anyone remember how bad this guy was? Maybe Nick Anderson and Ronny Seikally are available... Shaq can just have all the guys that nag aroudn his pool come play again.

Do the Heat still have the MLE? Rodney White or Darius Miles would help them. What about the LLE? Keon Clark could help them too.

man screw the Heat......

Jerome Beasley could blossom. He had a good summer league.
Malik, and Adonis are both interchangable. They aight.

Don't Sleep on Rasual Butler....he helped my fantasy league for a hot 2 weeks last season. He can play.

Like I said screw the Heat cuz even with Shaq......they aren't that much better than the Knicks if they even are.....

Right now the team the Knicks have with KT, Timmy, Nazr, Marbs, and Houston can give a good game to a Haslem, Rasual, Shaq, Wade and Jones.

I put the Knicks one up on them.....if we can get Damp and maybe another pick up it's a rap.

just watch the schooling udonis haslem and malik allen will learn with diesel making the difference. no fear factor, just get ready.

remember: shaq made a promise to get miami a ring....instant championship

I think they'll win their division, giving them a top-3 seed in the playoffs, and then what happens?

I don't see anybody on the Knicks who can check Shaq or Wade, and that's a problem.

In fact, I don't see anybody in the EC who can check Shaq, and very few (only DET and IND) with players capable of really slowing Wade down, who I think is going to play very well this year.

I think they could be a very scary playoff team.

Posted by fishmike:

how can you say the Heat are even close to the Lakers last year? DWade cant sniff Kobe's jock. You cant say the Lakers didnt have chemistry, because they beat some bigtime teams to get to the finals. They may not like each other but it didnt affect their play the last 4 years.

fishmike, I think the problem is that a lot and I mean a lot of people are overrating Wade, he is a fantastic player but people already have him as a superstar and that is far from the truth, and the heat don't resemble the lakers because wade is no where near Kobe's level either... The heat bench is thin, really thin, they were thin last year and after purging their team for shaq, they are even thinner, I think people forget the heat had a lot of success last year with Caron Butler playing big and Odom having a career year, those guys are gone and although shaq is here that leaves them thin, very thin...

The knicks as nalod put it can go both ways, but for once lets assume that things click right for the knicks, can you name a team with a better backcourt and better overall talent? There won't be many, and this is not counting the improvement of sweetney..

The fact still remains that if the Heat played anybody in the East in a playoff series the best player is going to be Shaq and the 2nd best player is in almost all cases going to be Wade.

Detroit could beat Miami.

Could Indiana? I don't know, they seem to self-destruct constantly.

Could the Nets? I highly doubt it, with their depth issues and lack of a big man.

Could the Knicks? I think it'd be a series, but you can't really slow him down. You say "run him to death", but it's not like its that easy or teams would've figured this out and he wouldn't've won 3 championships and 3 MVPs by now. Wade may be out of control, but unlike the Knicks, he rises to the occassion. 7 20+ scoring outputs last year as a rookie in 2 rounds, and he absolutely dominated the final 2 minutes in many Heat games. Not to mention nobody on the Knicks can guard him. (and who remembers the triple-double he dropped when Marquette was in the Final 4. Has anybody seen him on Team USA literally jumping over people to slam. Anyone not scared of him hasn't watched him play).

I still think the Heat will be the 2nd best team in the East. They're extremely well-coached, and Van Gundy will get the most out of the scrubs on that team.

You make valid points that you can beat the Heat if you play like a team and overcome their 2 good players with your entire team. Problem is the Knicks haven't played like a team.

If, and that's a big IF, the Knicks can get some chemistry, I think they're very dangerous. Crawford and Marbury, in my opinion, are going to make thing easier for everybody else on this team. Will Sweetney stay out of foul trouble and will the Knicks play team defense and play together will be the two questions that decide how well they do. If they play together, they might be able to make a nice playoff run. If they don't, they'll be bounced early.

I absolutly agree on that. Wade a a very good playoff run, but don't take that for granted. Indiana didn't respect the heat and paid for it. Many teams were unpreparde to stop wade as he flew under the radar most of the season.

what happens in a series when you know your opponent ? adjustments.

If any team can get the ball out of the hands of marbury and cripple us, don't you thing we coudl do the same ?

And now, instead of thinkning at how stopping shaq and wade, answer this :
- who will guard tim thomas
- who will defend our third guard off the bench if he happens to be crawford ?
- who will man their paint while shaq will be on the bench ?
- who will bring the ball up ? wade ? how long will he last if he has to score, defend and playmake all yr long ?

please. This team is overrated. They'll take the league by storm barring injuries, but they'll fall on their knees come the playoffs.

Baker / Nazr
Sweetney / KT / Williams
TT / Penny / Ariza / Shandon
Houston / Crawford
Marbury /Barrett / Norris

Or

O'Neal / Doleac /Zhi Zhi
Haslem / Allen
Butler / Beasley
Jones / Wright
Wade / Jones / Dooling


I take the Knicks roster to tell the truth. Miami has no frontcourt except for Shaq and Doleac. And their backcourt's best player is Wade, and Jones is on the decline. The Knicks roster looks alot better to me. The only reason I would come close to fearing Miami is there is now a motivated Shaq with another great young PG...

Lol at Dennis Scott, I remember him and Nick Anderson shooting 3's all day long for the Magic while Penny and Shaq would run the show.