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Overall
Win/Loss Record : 46-20 first place
Southeast division
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Last Season’s Rank
1
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Projected 2012/2013
Finish
1
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Last
season’s Team Statistics and League Rank
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Returning
Individual Statistical Leaders
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Projected Starters Based on Last Season’s Performance, Veteran Seniority and Projected Impact
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Key Reserves Based on Last Season’s Performances, Veteran Seniority and Potential Impact.
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2012/2013
Projection: 62-20, first place in the
Southeast Division—chalk up another NBA Championship ring for this mega
power.
Analysis:
In life there are very
few guarantees or absolutes, especially in the world of sports; however,
there is will be one absolute guarantee this upcoming NBA season and that is
the Miami Heat will remain at the top of the league as it has simply no
equal. They already have the Eastern
Conference on lockdown as most of the team are either in flux or on the verge
of collapsing. The Heat have virtually
no competition in their own Southeast Division as their two biggest rivals,
the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, are going in the opposite direction as
they are both headed on the path towards rebuilding. While at the same time, the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Bobcats, two perennial bottom feeders of the league,
are in nowhere near ready to offer Miami any sort of challenge.
The same goes for
the two other Eastern Conference divisions, the Atlantic and Central despite
the radical improvement of the quality and competition. The Atlantic division may prove to be the
most competitive in the league with four teams capable of winning 45 to 50
games; however, none of those four teams have what it takes to dethrone the
Heat. Despite their delusions to the
contrary, neither the Boston Celtics or the New York Knicks have the ability
to contain the Heat’s trio of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris
Bosh—especially James, who finally utilized his physical and athletic gifts
to their full potential last season.
The same goes for the Brooklyn Nets who will be spending close to $200
million for the next four years on the roster it currently has and will
probably never be any better than a marginal playoff team. As, for the Philadelphia 76ers, save for
their major acquisition of former Laker big man Andrew Bynum, there is little
or nothing else to speak off on that roster.
The Heat’s strongest
rival for the East last season, the Chicago Bulls, have fallen into complete
disarray with the loss of the team’s star player, Derrick Rose, for a
majority of the season in addition to the team’s butchering of its roster due
to financial reasons. As for the four
other teams, two of them—the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers—will
be virtual nonfactors this season while the Milwaukee Bucks will show some
signs of improvement, but will remain marginal at best. The only team that may prove to be a
challenge for the Miami Heat will be the Indiana Pacers who almost upset
Miami during the Eastern Conference Semi-finals last season. Indiana had a rather productive offseason
add more size and athleticism to match that of the Heat’s—they may be only
team capable of dethroning the Heat’s current stranglehold on the Eastern
Conference. Other than Indiana, no other team in the NBA can hold a candle to this Miami Heat team and don’t believe
the hype of the Los Angeles Lakers have even the slightest chance of beating Miami either.
Although the Lakers pulled off two of the
biggest offseason moves in NBA history acquiring future Hall of Fame point
guard Steve Nash along with the league’s most dominant big man Dwight Howard,
they are still not nearly a match for the Heat. They may have gotten stronger defensively
in the paint, but their perimeter defense still remains sketchy as neither
Nash or his future backcourt mate Kobe Bryant are known for being defensive
stoppers. Many have the Lakers winning
it all, but it is doubtful that they will even manage to win their own division
as they share an arena with whom many believe is the second best team in the
Western Conference—namely the Los Angeles Clippers. Even if the Lakers manage to take control
of the West and meet Miami in the NBA Finals, they will still be hard pressed
to find someone capable of containing Lebron James—a player that is so strong
and powerful that he can either blow past his defender or just simply
overpower him to the basket. Last
season the Lakers were simply torched in the playoffs by the Oklahoma City
Thunder’s trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. What makes Laker fans believe that the same
won’t happen with the tandem of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh who
proved to be more than the Thunder’s match in last season’s NBA Finals?
It is almost as if
the Heat are destined to become the next great championship dynasty on the
NBA following the example of the Boston Celtics during the sixties, the Los
Angeles Lakers for much of the eighties, and the Michael Jordan led Chicago
Bulls of the 1990s. Never has been a
team that has looked as invincible as the Miami Heat coming into this
season—there a simply an irresistible force that can be neither stopped nor
contained. With Lebron James finally
coming up front to become the undisputed leader of the Heat and with his
superstar sidekicks, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, supporting him, the Heat
will be simply unstoppable. Right now
as it stands, the NBA belongs to the Miami Heat, while the rest of the league
has been relegated to bystanders. Sure
the Heat may lose the odd game or two; however, short of a calamity, the NBA
Championship belongs to Miami and there is no one in this league who is able
to say otherwise.
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Monday, October 1, 2012
SDH's 2012/2013 NBA Worst to First Previews and Predictions: 1. Miami Heat
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