When a team wins the chip with 2 of thier 3 biggest weapons hobbled, and have the chance to not only get healthy, bring back the most important pieces of a champion, and add even more talent, it is a bit scary to the rest of the league. At least worrying.
I'm not shaking.
Don't get me wrong, Miami earned their title last year. You can argue that we were hurt (we were), you can argue that the shortened season's tougher schedule favoured them (it probably did) and you can argue that the officials tend to favour them (they do) but at the end of the day nothing was given to them - they still had to suit up and they still had to go out there and win, and they did just that.
They could have gotten complascent and cockiness - they could have underestimated our Boston team and turned their back on us, only to let us sucker punch them and knock them out. They didn't though, they won fair and square (more or less) and for that reason they the deserved champions.
Deserved yes - scary no.
See, it's not like Miami were unbeatable last year - they didn't sweep every series and they didn't win every game by 30 points. It took every ounce of their energy and effort to grind their way through Boston and into the NBA finals, and that was against a Boston team who were not only had far more injury issues, but were the underdogs even when they WERE healthy.
We took Miami to the very brink of elimination. The look on the faces of Lebron, Wade and Spolestra after we went up 3-2 was a look of fear. It was the look of a team who just got humbled, knowing full well that they they were one game away from elimination with thir back against the wall. One game away from their season being ended at the hands of a much weaker team (talent wise) who had no business being up on them.
You can bet your butts that Miami wiped a big hunk of sweat off their foreheads when they finally knocked us out, and you can bet they let out a huge sigh of relief knowing that they didn't have to play another game against that pesky Celtics team.
So Miami upgraded in the off season. We all know their biggest weaknesses were point guard play and interior presence, so how many PG's did they sign? None. How many useful bigs did they sign? None.
What they DID do is add two more guys who are pretty much nothing but spot up shooters - a role they are already overflowing with (Battier, Miller, Jones, etc).
Miami may have added talent (Ray will be big for them at some point), but they have done nothing to address their weaknesses. To make matters worse, you're taking a big gamble when the two 'big acquisitions' of your team are both older plaers with declining careers and one dimensional games.
LA's biggest weaknesses were lack of a proper PG (Nash), lack of a legitimate 6th man (Jamison) and the lack of a mobile center who can defend the pick and roll (Dwight). They address all of their issues.
Boston's biggest weaknesses were age/athleticism (most of the team is now under 28), a lack of scoring off the bench (Terry, Lee, Green), a lack of rebounding (Sullinger, Wilcox) and a lack of depth at center (Collins, Wilcox, Milicic). To some degree of other, we have address all our weaknesses.
Miami added more talent, but did they really get that much better? That's yet to be determined, but until they prove otherwise they are still a very beatable team and sure as hell not "scary" to the stronger teams in the league.
Topic: LeBroid thinks the league should be scared!!! (Read 10057 times)