(Disclaimer: I am NBA stupid.)

It seems like there are two possible theories as to what happened this season:

1.) The Heat were pretty easily the best team in the East, but sandbagged it for most of the season because the big 2.5 knew they could turn it on when they were ready.

2.) It took some time for the Heat to play team basketball, but once they learned they because the best team in the conference.

If it is #1, that might be good for the Bulls, especially if the Heat win a championship (laziness has a peculiar habit of reappearing). But it also reflects quite poorly on the NBA; why the hell should anyone ever watch an NBA game in November or January?

If it is #2, the Bulls are probably fucked unless LeBron and Wade's court age is truly much older than their real ages.

(Further disclaimer: I am NBA stupid)

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Fire Phil Emery

Unfortunately I think its #2.

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Sandbagged? They still won 58 games.

Yea, it's number 2.

Wade has about two more years left in his tank in regard to being "Wade". LBJ.... much more.

Bulls get a scoring 2 guard they'll have a shot next year. Heat will still be the favorites. Noah needs to be what he was to start the season for next years playoffs. Don't know what happened to him.

80/20 #2

But this is not anything close to terrible

After last years finals people were saying Kobe was gonna get 7 rings. Magic got jealous and hired mike brown, now they will always be tied for the best laker ever.

IB I think you'd better understand alot of my points if this was the NFL. You're not the reactionary type.

If Miami beats Dallas they are clearly the best team of this season. And any good coach will tell you that guarantees you what next year kids?

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Agreed. They need a 6 man who can get his own shot as well.

I think there's definitely some truth to the idea that Miami's stars have gotten better at playing with each other, but I would also note that the slower pace of playoff basketball has actually helped them as well. The conventional wisdom was that the Heat would have real problems on offense come the playoffs because of their inability to consistently work well in the halfcourt. Their struggles with top ranked teams during the regular season further fueled the belief that the Heat would run into huge problems if they were unable to consistently score in transition.

The overlooked flipside of this however has been that the pace of the playoffs has also forced teams to have to contend more with the Heat's own halfcourt defense, which is probably the best or second best in the league. This series has been about both teams playing great defense and struggling on offense, but when push comes to shove, the team with more guys who can create their own shots has won out.

This might make it sound like I'm actually pushing closer to your first theory, but I think the situation is a bit more complicated than a mere matter of sandbagging the season. The schedule of the post-season simply facilitates better defensive execution, as coaches and players have extra days to scout and rest. This is especially true for a team like Miami, where their defensive performance is largely determined by how well their biggest stars are playing (as opposed to a team like Chicago which has many interchangeable parts on that side of the ball). Does this change make the regular season worthless? I'm not really sure about that. Most of the recent champions had the best or second-best records in their conferences, and it's not like the Heat were complete slouches during the regular season this year anyway. I'll happily grant that a random, game played in November or December is not going to be very predictive of playoff success, but I do think a certain level of execution during the season has to be demonstrated.

I've thought for a while that the long regular season encouraged players to take games off, not because they are lazy (or, pace Scorehead, black), but because it is so damn hard on the body. So the defense stuff makes sense, especially since that's the side where players are most likely to take a little bit off.

If the NBA is going to have mammoth, randomness-free playoff schedules (which I'm not necessarily opposed to), they could probably stand to cut back on the regular season a bit. Of course that will never, ever happen, although it half the league is struggling to pay the bills maybe it's not that crazy.

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Fire Phil Emery

Wait...so your saying that Balcks are lazy???

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Yeah, or I guess the other option is to make the playoff schedule resemble that of the regular season more/reward the same things by having games on consecutive days. There again though the financial incentives all push in the opposite direction.

I think the most pertinent example of a team purposefully deciding to take off games during the season was last year's Celtics. They pretty much packed it in for the last month and a half of the season with the expectation that their veterans would be better off in the playoffs, and ended up coming very close to winning the championship. At least in the case of the Heat, they were still competing for a top two seed during the last few weeks and stayed near the top of the conference for the entire season.

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Fire Phil Emery

Take it elsewhere. That reference with your named attached was well earned awhile ago, i highly doubt even spmack found your disingenuine response provocative

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

the reality is there are no truly great, complete teams in the East

I actually think Boston wins that series if Rondo doesnt get hurt...yet even Boston had a gaping hole at center

Miami is a 3 or 4 man team...but they are in the finals because the conference is weak, meaning even the top teams have holes (Boston, Bulls, Magic)

the West is loaded with deep talented teams

next year Miami should be better, now that they know what holes they need to fill

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