In the short term, the Heat plan to give more minutes to Juwan Howard at the spot backing up starting power forward Chris Bosh. LeBron James and James Jones will be used at that position as well in certain situations, Spoelstra said.

"There's no replacement for UD. We all know that," James said.

Haslem was averaging 8 rebounds a game and playing significant minutes (28 per) behind the three mercs.

Follow the bouncing ball.

Stat (23.1) counterbalances Lebron's (23.4) production. Lebron is already moaning about too many minutes (37 per) so the load just got heavier as someone needs to pick up the rebounding slack.

Gallo (16.7 with a bullet) can match Bosh (17.1) hoop for hoop, or better. Ray Felton (17.5) is not DWade (22.9) but who is?

Now here is the best part. Watch what happens when our second line gets to work:

Ilgauskas or Mozgov/ Turiaf? Fear the beard. Pass the Russian caviar as Mozgov recovers from jet lag.

Arroyo (6 avg), James Jones (9) and Eddie (didn't we drop him?) House avg 8pts per... or the dependable trio of Landry Fields (10), Wilson Chandler (16) and Toney Douglas (11)?

Jerry Stackhouse or Bill Walker? Get real. Mister Bill dunks on him all night long.

Juwan Howard? The Answer Man thought he was dead.

You heard it here first.

I ain't worried about the Heat. Sure, we can take 1 regular season game, but it's not possible right now for a 7 game series.

You need to beat the teams you're suppoesd to beat before analyzing how to beat a good team without one of their role players.

The Heat have tremendous talent no doubt, but it's not insurmountable. They have depth issues and good D can slow down what they try to do. We have more size, depth and a fair amount of athleticism to match up with them. We probably still lose in a series, but it won't be a cakewalk.

nixluva wrote:By the end of the season I don't think there will be that much of a gap between the Heat and Knicks as their seems to be right now. I see our team getting stronger as the season moves along. We too have to be concerned with injuries, but even with Haslem I felt that we could compete fairly well.

The Heat have tremendous talent no doubt, but it's not insurmountable. They have depth issues and good D can slow down what they try to do. We have more size, depth and a fair amount of athleticism to match up with them. We probably still lose in a series, but it won't be a cakewalk.

Let's be real for a second - we've let Blake Griffin and Monta Ellis score 40 a piece on us.

The Heat may be a mediocre basketball team, but Lebron and Wade and Bosh will score at will against the pinball wizard defense of D'Antoni

GustavBahler wrote:

crzymdups wrote:

nixluva wrote:By the end of the season I don't think there will be that much of a gap between the Heat and Knicks as their seems to be right now. I see our team getting stronger as the season moves along. We too have to be concerned with injuries, but even with Haslem I felt that we could compete fairly well.

The Heat have tremendous talent no doubt, but it's not insurmountable. They have depth issues and good D can slow down what they try to do. We have more size, depth and a fair amount of athleticism to match up with them. We probably still lose in a series, but it won't be a cakewalk.

Let's be real for a second - we've let Blake Griffin and Monta Ellis score 40 a piece on us.

The Heat may be a mediocre basketball team, but Lebron and Wade and Bosh will score at will against the pinball wizard defense of D'Antoni

I get the feeling that they are going to flip a switch when the playoffs come around and make a lot of teams look bad. Most squads can't pull it off but I'll bet this one can, unfortunately.

Boston will embarass them if healthy. Lakers will decimate them if healthy.

Unless the Heat make some substantial strides, I don't think they have the size or defense to get by the likes of San Antonio, Utah, New Orleans, Oklahoma, Chicago, Orlando...

The Knicks will eventually become more of a balanced team IMO. We have more size, depth and better supporting players at every position. It's doesn't matter how many points we gave up to Ellis and Curry. They didn't win doing that and neither would the Heat. IF you keep the scrubs from hurting you, it's not going to be enough if Wade and Lebron go off. What happens if only one of them has a great game?

nixluva - excellent point about the physical presence of Bosh in the paint. Ronny Turiaf is active enough to disrupt his rhythm and Mozgov is good to deliver some timely shoves in the back.

Is Eric Spolestra a better coach than Mike D'Antoni?

misterearl wrote:JrZyHuStLa - Have we met?

If immaturity is equated to a random burst of optimism, or a fist bump as our yoots take baby steps right before our disbelievin' eyes...

... or the sheer enjoyment of watching Knicks basketball for the sake of watching Knicks basketball...

(not the eternal Debbie Downer dread, hindsight, gnashing of teeth and hand-wringing of things going wrong)

If immaturity is equated to having a permanent grin on my orange and blue game face because I had the chance to watch a run with Bernard King, meet Patrick Ewing, play tennis with Rory Sparrow, talk "no layups" defense with Oak, watch Ray Williams at the UofM... or own a pair of the same adidas clamshell kicks worn by Dave DeBusschere... then yes sir, you are correct, I am immature.

Party on!

misterearl is really peter vecsey

Andrew wrote:Haslem may be out for the season. Stack waived for Dampier.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5843177

outside of big 3, I think Haslem most important player on Miami.