Bit if our Miami Heat would jell together and be like Michael Jordan’s dual 3-peat Chicago Bulls, with LeBron , Wade, and Bosh leading a savvy group of veterans who will properly play their roles and step up when they need to, I think our Heat will be very capable of toppling the Magic. But honestly, we need a power-based center to battle Dwight Howard and the likes of Kendrick Perkins and Andew Bynum. Why did we let go of Jermaine O’Neal? I was expecting him to be retained!

Can Dexter Pittman battle those experienced young centers? It’s a very long reach if you ask me.

C – Jermaine O’Neal (but he’s with Boston)
PF – Chris Bosh
SF – LeBron James
SG -Dwyane Wade
PG -Keyon Dooling (but he’s with Milwaukee)

So this will happen…
C – Zydrunas Ilgauskas
PF – Chris Bosh
SF – LeBron James
SG -Dwyane Wade
PG – I don’t know… (maybe Mario Chalmers????)

He may be bitter about LeBron James not choosing CP3 to join his new team. Paul should not have chosen to re-sign with the Hive. What good is loyalty to a team that cannot cultivate a very good culture of family and winning at the same time?

The heat are still the better team. Flat out. No other explaination necessary. Look at the teams. I do think they’d be close games tho.

I honestly can’t believe how many homer fans there are. I thought this was an interesting topic but did not expect there to be so much blind optimism of the Heat.

Yes, Lebron and Wade will be hard to guard, but Pietrus, Carter, and Quentin Richardson are all good defenders who are all 6’6’’-6’7’’ range with good length and the ability to defend the 2 or the 3 solidly. None of these guys alone can guard Lebron or Wade effectively, but if you rotate them a lot, it can be successful. Rotating solid defenders on Lebron has slowed him down in the past. They also have a rookie SF/PF named Stanley Robinson who has great size, length, athleticism, and quickness. He has a lot of great physical tools, plus was a shut down defender in college. He is 6’9’’ and could be useful at defending Lebron.

Orlando also has a Plethora of big Forwards/Centers who have excellent shot blocking ability and can defend in the post or defend the weakside and control the basket area. Obviously they have Dwight Howard, but they also have Gortat who has elite wingspan and great shot blocking ability, and they have a natural shot blocker who blocked shots well in college in Daniel Orton.

Miami will end up relying too much on their Big 3 while Orlando can beat you a variety of ways at this point. They can go inside to Howard, or Outside to richardson. They are much more balanced at this point than Miami, and even without CP3, they would still put up a good effort against Miami and in a playoff series, I see it at least going to 6, quite possibly 7. CP3 gives them that dimension of a shutdown defender at the PG position and is an elite passer and shooter. While Nelson is good, he doesn’t have the passing ability or D of CP3.

Orlando may not be better with CP3…this is all speculation and you can’t say anything for certain. However, they can make an excellent case for being better if CP3 was there.