HEAT

If you ask most serious basketball fans to tell you the stories of the Eastern Conference playoffs during the 1990s, they’re likely to tell you the stories, but you’ll have to excuse them if they begin to cry, yell, or throw furniture across the room. The playoffs in the East were very difficult to watch because of the style of play and no match up exemplified that more than when the New York Knicks would meet up with the Miami Heat. While games in the 1980s often saw teams end up with 130 points a piece, the games between the Heat and Knicks often ended up in the 130 point range combined. The 1998 playoffs even saw Alonzo Mourning take a swing at Larry Johnson while Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy grabbed a hold of Mourning’s leg and wouldn’t let go. The Heat played one of the slower styles in the NBA and played it successfully for many years before losing to the Bulls or Knicks in the later rounds. After drafting Dwayne Wade last season and putting him in the backcourt with veteran Eddie Jones, the team still played deliberately but they could also play a fast pace game as well if needed and it was definitely more fun to watch. This season will be even better for many reasons.

This summer, the Miami Heat made one of the biggest off-season moves ever when they acquired Shaquille O’Neal from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Brian Grant, Lamar Odom, and Caron Butler. Shaq is still considered the most dominant player in the game and he’s also quite frustrated with how things ended in Los Angeles so he might post one of the best season of his career this year. The team lost three starters in Butler, Odom, and Grant but they drafted Dorell Wright, a small forward from South Kent Prep, with the 19th overall pick in this year’s draft. Forwards Pape Sow and Matt Freije were also taken by the Heat in the second round of the draft. The team lost point guard Rafer Alston to the Toronto Raptors in free agency but they made other key moves by signing Wesley Person, Michael Doleac, and Keyon Dooling, among others, as free agents.
The Miami Heat admittedly lost three starters from last year’s team to acquire a 32-year old center that is coming off one of his worst seasons in recent memory but the story is bigger than that. Shaq is still the most dominant player in the game and will work himself into the best shape of his life in the hopes of showing everyone around the league that the Lakers made a huge mistake by trading him away. Shaq has already promised to bring a title to Miami, a promise that will be difficult to fulfill but will bring the fans to the stadium like never before. Brian Grant was a player from the 1990s teams and had trouble adapting to the quicker pace of the team while Lamar Odom was a player who could lead the team but was also quite inconsistent. Caron Butler was a star rookie that never panned out and got caught in a numbers game.

The Heat will play this season in the Southeast division, a division that might be theirs if they want it. They’ll match up with the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Bobcats, the Orlando Magic, and the Washington Wizards and if the Heat weren’t the favorite before the Shaq trade, they’re far and away the best team now. They’ll likely bring out a starting lineup with Dwayne Wade and Eddie Jones in the backcourt and Shaq teaming up with Wesley Person and Malik Allen in the frontcourt. The Heat have all kinds of depth at each position so they won’t have to worry about players getting tired or going down with injuries. Their main competition in the division will likely come from the Hawks and the Wizards, two teams notorious for their losing ways, but each team in the division seemed to improve in the off-season so the Heat will have to play well night in and night out if they want to achieve Shaq’s dream of a title on the beach.

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