Miami Heat: Playoff Contenders?
For the last three seasons the Miami Heat have been playing well below the city’s standard quality, leaving their fans feeling burned. But with some brilliant manoeuvring by the team’s recruitment staff, 2010 may be the year Miami finally gets its place in the sun.
In the 2007-08 season they had a 15-67 won-loss record. It was the worst record in the NBA and they received the dubious honour of being the only team since the 1968-69 San Diego Rockets to go from 15 wins all the way to the playoffs in the next year. They were soon eliminated by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round after a full seven games.
In 2008-09 their record was 43-39, just above 50%, way below anybody’s standards of a highly oiled performance machine. In 2009-10 they once again struggled, to a slightly lesser degree with a final wins-losses record of 47-35. But that doesn’t tell the full story because in their first 69 games they were at 35-34. That 2010 season saw Miami get eliminated in the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoff run against the Boston Celtics.
They entered the NBA Free Agency in 2010 with $45 million in salary cap to play with. What they started with was making sure to keep super star forward Dwyane Wade happy. They re-signed him to the tune of $107.59 million for six years. What they did next was earth shattering.
After months of rumors, talks, and speculation, they signed Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James and Toronto Raptors all-around hero Chris Bosh. It was arguably one of the biggest, most team-altering deals in NBA history.
With a supporting cast composed of Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller and forwards Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Joel Anthony the Heat’s head coach Erik Spoelstra finally has the colourful cast he needs to paint a picture of success for Miami this season.
The James, Bosh, Wade combination is already known as the Three Kings, and even though the season hasn’t even started yet the fans have dubbed this the Miami Thrice Era.
LeBron James was named NBA Rookie of the Year in the 2003-04, Most Valuable Player in 2008-09 & 2009-10, and he’s been both an All-NBA selection and an All-Star every single season since 2005. He has led his team to the playoffs every year since 2006 and 2007 was the first time the Cavaliers advanced to the conference finals since 1992 and the first time they ever made it all the way to the NBA finals. The Spurs swept the Cavs 4-0 in the best of seven series but LeBron’s efforts cannot be ignored.
Dwyane Wade was the fifth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. He was a part of the All-Rookie team that year and the All-Star team for the six seasons that followed. Wade led the Heat to their first NBA Championship in franchise history. In 2006 he was named NBA Finals MVP. In the 2008 Summer Olympics he led the United States Men’s Basketball team in scoring and in the 2008-09 NBA season he led the league in scoring. In the 2009-10 season Wade made what was described as one of the greatest dunks of all time on Anderson Varejao and in the next game he scored a clutch three-point shot at the buzzer to give the Heat the one point 81-80 win. He’s a scoring machine, a great passer, and a brilliant player.
Chris Bosh is an amazing power forward. He’s a five-time NBA All-Star, and former leader of the Toronto Raptors. In 2007 he lead the Raptors to their first playoff run in five years and their first division title in franchise history. When he signed to Miami he was Toronto’s all-time number one in points, rebounds, blocks, double doubles, free throws and minutes played.
Coach Erik Spoelstra is in a very good position right now with three star players that have more heart than box office bank, and they do have chalk full of that. These three great all-around team-oriented players never let their egos get in the way of the team or the victory and if the 39 year old Spoelstra has the talent Miami management thinks he does, the Three Kings might well be headed for some gold rings this spring.
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