I'm looking for a little info on your team

[jazzfan1971]

I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

[dancing2thabeet]

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?

Not sure about the final three spots, so I'll give them to our two players from last year in Beasley and Oden. The last spot goes to the summer league stand out, Tyler Johnson. I could be way off here and we get some FAs for the vet min. Hamilton is not a 100% lock to make the roster too in my opinion.

Chalmers/Cole/Napier
Wade/Ennis/Johnson
Deng/Granger/Beasley
McRoberts/Haslem
Bosh/Birdman/Oden/Hamilton


What are the major story lines to your team this year?

Just proving we can do it without LeBron. Also, can Wade stay healthy? Can everybody else stay healthy? Can Bosh deliver like option #1 or #2, the way he did in Toronto? Can Spo reinvent our gameplan yet again? We were desperate for some youth last year, we got it now: how will our rookies look? Can Oden get healthy enough for rotation minutes so Bosh can finally play PF again? Can we compete with the best once playoffs come? Can we start rebounding?


How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)

Hard to say, really anywhere from 3-6 spots in the East. 5-12 overall. (Too generous?)


Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

There are too many Spo haters and Spo lovers here so I'm just going to leave this to them. Basically, James was supposedly masking Eric's inability to coach, so it's time for Spo to prove everybody wrong and prove he is an elite coach - or die trying. Also, will he play the youngs bloods or stick to the vets (and run them into the ground with the same headless chicken defense as last year)?


The basic theme for the next year's season is change. Change, but not so much.

[MuggsyBogues]

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?

Not sure about the final three spots, so I'll give them to our two players from last year in Beasley and Oden. The last spot goes to the summer league stand out, Tyler Johnson. I could be way off here and we get some FAs for the vet min. Hamilton is not a 100% lock to make the roster too in my opinion.

Chalmers/Cole/Napier
Wade/Ennis/Johnson
Deng/Granger/Beasley
McRoberts/Haslem
Bosh/Birdman/Oden/Hamilton


What are the major story lines to your team this year?

Just proving we can do it without LeBron. Also, can Wade stay healthy? Can everybody else stay healthy? Can Bosh deliver like option #1 or #2, the way he did in Toronto? Can Spo reinvent our gameplan yet again? We were desperate for some youth last year, we got it now: how will our rookies look? Can Oden get healthy enough for rotation minutes so Bosh can finally play PF again? Can we compete with the best once playoffs come? Can we start rebounding?


How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)

Hard to say, really anywhere from 3-6 spots in the East. 5-12 overall. (Too generous?)


Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

There are too many Spo haters and Spo lovers here so I'm just going to leave this to them. Basically, James was supposedly masking Eric's inability to coach, so it's time for Spo to prove everybody wrong and prove he is an elite coach - or die trying. Also, will he play the youngs bloods or stick to the vets (and run them into the ground with the same headless chicken defense as last year)?


The basic theme for the next year's season is change. Change, but not so much.

To add to this:

Depth chart:

I expect to see a lot of two point guard lineups.

The Heat gave 486 minutes to Chalmers-Norris Cole duo last season, compared to just 45 in 2012-13. Now there's no Ray Allen, Wade is not getting younger and will need his rest, and no reliable SG backup has been signed (yet, anyway). Also, the Heat drafted Shabazz Napier -- another point guard, an experienced college player, who's likely to get some minutes.

It's possible that the Heat will still add a quality backup SG. Otherwise, I expect Norris Cole to be the main backup at both 1 and 2.

How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)

I'll guess 14-17. About 40-45 wins. I think the Heat will make the playoffs. But it's an older team, it has played more games over the last 4 years than any other team, and players (especially Wade) will need their rest -- games off and managed minutes. Also, this is not a deep team at all, and it will be very hard to win games if there are injuries, especially to Bosh.

I think the clear priority will be just making the playoffs and being healthy for the playoffs.

I don't expect to win the division, I think the Heat will most likely finish 6-8 in the East. And I think that the West could have 8-9 teams with better records.

[Maroko]

I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

Where will you post your offseason preview ?

I will change that question : "How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)"
It's better to talk about conference ranking (making the playoffs or not)

Look forward to read you

[HIF]

I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

Depends who you ask.

Lebron has left, we have no depth and no starters, we will finish 30th without Lebron, Our coach has gone to Cleveland.

[HIF]

I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

Where will you post your offseason preview ?

I will change that question : "How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)"
It's better to talk about conference ranking (making the playoffs or not)

Look forward to read you

Why and1 the OP?

[Maroko]

Spoiler:

I'm starting up my offseason preview and wanted to get some info and feedback from you guys before I got going.

So, I come to you folks.

How do you see your depth chart breaking down?
What are the major story lines to your team this year?
How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)
Tell me a little about your coaching situation.

Thanks in advance.

Where will you post your offseason preview ?

I will change that question : "How do you think you will finish record wise in the league? (what place? 1-30)"
It's better to talk about conference ranking (making the playoffs or not)

Look forward to read you

Why and1 the OP?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtVaDMolW0c[/youtube]

[SA37]

For storylines:

1. How are Wade's knees? Can he be an impact player going forward?

Miami had the luxury of LeBron and being able to sit Wade for a third of the season. They won't have that this year. For Miami to be successful, they'll need Wade to be a playmaker more than anything. He'll need to score enough to keep defenses honest (15-17ppg), but with Bosh and Deng able to provide 20-25 per game each, his scoring becomes less necessary.


1A. Did Miami overpay Bosh?

I think Miami overpaid for Bosh bigtime. It's not so much about what numbers he'll produce (I assume he'll produce around 20-10), but: does he make the game easier for others? I don't believe he does.

Where Miami will finish:

Wade's knees will be the determining factor here (assuming no other major player misses more than 15 games). Luol Deng is an underrated player and will mitigate a lot of what Miami lost with LeBron. If Wade can give Miami 70 good games (aka games where he isn't hobbling and going through the motions), I think Miami can win 50-55 games.

Coach: Lots of opinions here about Spoelstra, who I think is a very good coach. His job is in no danger whatsoever, but it will be interesting to see if he can get Miami to finally play TEAM basketball vs the one-on-one nonsense that has endured over the last few seasons. Defensively, I am interested to see how well he gets the team to play because there are many guys on the team who are very good defensively (Bosh, Deng, Andersen, Haslem, and Wade -- when he decides to play his man vs the passing lane). Offensively, it will be interesting to see what kind of offense he runs on a team with no real playmakers outside of Wade.

[HIF]

I think he's asking Miami fans for their thoughts not outsiders!

[SA37]

I think he's asking Miami fans for their thoughts not outsiders!

Sorry, the irony of the name did not occur to me. However, I have been a Heat fan since '88.

[HIF]

I think he's asking Miami fans for their thoughts not outsiders!

Sorry, the irony of the name did not occur to me. However, I have been a Heat fan since '88.

Fair enough, you must post on the general board a lot more than here. Post on.

[dolphinatik]

you got to be careful with HIF he is very sensitive when it comes to telling the truth, i mean opinion of Spo. So we usually try not to bring up coaching. I agree with all points excpet 1a. I dont think the league sentiment is that we over-payed Bosh. Bosh is a max player that we have been lucky that has been sacrificing his earnings for us. Bosh Wade and Lebron are all 20 million dollar guys so the amount we pay him i dont think is an issue. His production though will be under a microscope all season.

[ifrosty13]

If I'm not mistaken SA was one of the first moderators here. Am I wrong about this? Or was it somebody else? Username seems very familiar.

[SA37]

you got to be careful with HIF he is very sensitive when it comes to telling the truth, i mean opinion of Spo. So we usually try not to bring up coaching. I agree with all points excpet 1a. I dont think the league sentiment is that we over-payed Bosh. Bosh is a max player that we have been lucky that has been sacrificing his earnings for us. Bosh Wade and Lebron are all 20 million dollar guys so the amount we pay him i dont think is an issue. His production though will be under a microscope all season.

I like Spoelstra. Part of coaching is being able to have your stars co-exist and to maximize their talents while keeping them happy and making them feel like an important part of the team even if they aren't the number 1 option on offense. He did that very well over the last 4 seasons. It's not easy to take ANY team to 4 straight Finals and he's done it.

I am sure I am in the minority here about Bosh, but that's fine. Don't get me wrong: the guy can play. I just don't think he's worth $120 million (or whatever the exact salary is), mainly because I don't think he has a dominant game (aka he be THE go-to guy) that makes the game easier for other guys.

Guys like Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, David Lee, Serge Ibaka, and Paul Millsap are comparable to Bosh and they're not making 20+ million a season. Bosh will be making ~$28 million in the final year of his contract (assuming his contract is structured normally)!!! That's nuts!!!

If I had been in Riley's shoes, I'd probably have offered Bosh about $100 million (since I'd have been bidding against Houston, which would have given him a starting salary of roughly $16 million and made him the 4th highest paid PF in the league (behind Amare, Griffin, and Randolph).

The thing to me is about context. And the context of Miami's team over the next two seasons (since Miami has an eye on 2016) is not congruent with championship aspirations since LeBron left and Wade has bad knees and is going to turn 33 the middle of next season. If overpaying for Bosh would have kept the big 3 intact and you have to cross your fingers Wade can give you 60 good games per season over the next 2-3 seasons, then ok. But why overpay Bosh for a Miami team that will be, at best, the 8th or 9th best team in the league next year and is basically a bridge to 2016? Do you believe in 2016 that Miami will be an attractive destination for FAs when your team's 3 best players will all be on the downsides of their careers? I don't.

[SA37]

If I'm not mistaken SA was one of the first moderators here. Am I wrong about this? Or was it somebody else? Username seems very familiar.

Indeed I was.

[DWadeno3]

For storylines:

1. How are Wade's knees? Can he be an impact player going forward?

Miami had the luxury of LeBron and being able to sit Wade for a third of the season. They won't have that this year. For Miami to be successful, they'll need Wade to be a playmaker more than anything. He'll need to score enough to keep defenses honest (15-17ppg), but with Bosh and Deng able to provide 20-25 per game each, his scoring becomes less necessary.


1A. Did Miami overpay Bosh?

I think Miami overpaid for Bosh bigtime. It's not so much about what numbers he'll produce (I assume he'll produce around 20-10), but: does he make the game easier for others? I don't believe he does.

Where Miami will finish:

Wade's knees will be the determining factor here (assuming no other major player misses more than 15 games). Luol Deng is an underrated player and will mitigate a lot of what Miami lost with LeBron. If Wade can give Miami 70 good games (aka games where he isn't hobbling and going through the motions), I think Miami can win 50-55 games.

Coach: Lots of opinions here about Spoelstra, who I think is a very good coach. His job is in no danger whatsoever, but it will be interesting to see if he can get Miami to finally play TEAM basketball vs the one-on-one nonsense that has endured over the last few seasons. Defensively, I am interested to see how well he gets the team to play because there are many guys on the team who are very good defensively (Bosh, Deng, Andersen, Haslem, and Wade -- when he decides to play his man vs the passing lane). Offensively, it will be interesting to see what kind of offense he runs on a team with no real playmakers outside of Wade.

You're overrating Luol Deng's offensive abilities if you believe he can score 20-25 a game. We just lost a guy who averaged 27 per night on 56% shooting and despite that, we still sort of needed Wade's 19 a game on 54.5% shooting. Deng's best scoring season was 19 a game on 45% shooting, his career averages lie at 16 a game on 45% shooting. He can't just suddenly be a guy who gives you 23 a night on good efficiency. Plenty of good Bulls posters have said that a 3rd option role is perfect for a guy like Deng. If we want him to score the ball at decent efficiency (meaning 45%+), we can't expect more than around 17 a night. Bosh himself has never averaged more than 24 per game and that only happened once in his career while he was usually somewhere in the 22 PPG area as the clear-cut number one option. Expecting more than those 24 is a huge stretch, so let's count him in at around 23.

Since he was at 16 a game last season, that gives you 8 of the 10 points we lost in the LeBron-Deng swap, meaning we'll still need 2 more from somewhere. We didn't exactly add scoring threats this summer and lost a guy who was good for 9.6 PPG a night. Wade will have to be a lot more aggressive this season and since he doesn't have that many options to pass it to, he'll need to up his scoring rather than have a dip in it. This is just a numbers game obviously, but I just don't see anybody who can pick up the scoring that we'll still need. Deng is a massive downgrade to LeBron in that regard.

As for Bosh: Of course he makes players better, he was one of the main reasons the Wade-LeBron tandem worked and that our offense was so efficient. His offensively versatility gives you a lot of different ways to use him on that end, so while he isn't a playmaker and makes players better in the traditional sense, he'll make your offense better and by doing that his teammates better. We probably overpaid for him, but not by that a large margin and I'd rather invest a little more in him than let him walk to Houston and have us stuck with the scraps that were left after he signed.

Regarding our offense: We played pretty good team basketball. Last year isn't really a great indicator since it was a down year in terms of execution and effort in general, mostly due to fatigue from going to three straight Finals I suppose. But in 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, we were playing some really good basketball, even creating easy basket opportunities for Wade and James, which is part of the reason our offense was as efficient as it was. Spoelstra made the offense work, although Bron and D-Wade had overlapping styles of play, so it wasn't as easy a task as some make it to be. Spo didn't do anything genius, but we weren't some one-on-one OKC type of team and had plenty of nice sets with a lot of options to finish them.

[NBAMAN4LIFE]

Long time lurker here.. SA use to post here on a regular YEARS ago. I miss the days he will go at it with bballfreak about Pat Riley lol. I miss the good old times on the heat board. bballfreak, Lane, SA, Heatteam something ? The good ol days of realgm.

[NBAMAN4LIFE]

i forgot the user names of the some australians who are huge heat fans that posted on here often.

[SA37]

You're overrating Luol Deng's offensive abilities if you believe he can score 20-25 a game. We just lost a guy who averaged 27 per night on 56% shooting and despite that, we still sort of needed Wade's 19 a game on 54.5% shooting. Deng's best scoring season was 19 a game on 45% shooting, his career averages lie at 16 a game on 45% shooting. He can't just suddenly be a guy who gives you 23 a night on good efficiency. Plenty of good Bulls posters have said that a 3rd option role is perfect for a guy like Deng. If we want him to score the ball at decent efficiency (meaning 45%+), we can't expect more than around 17 a night. Bosh himself has never averaged more than 24 per game and that only happened once in his career while he was usually somewhere in the 22 PPG area as the clear-cut number one option. Expecting more than those 24 is a huge stretch, so let's count him in at around 23.

Let me clarify: I don't believe Deng or Bosh will necessarily average 20-25 a game, they're just capable if scoring that amount on a given night. (Although, given that Bosh will have more opportunities, he may get more than 20 a night.) I'd much rather see Miami have balanced scoring (ex: Bosh 21ppg, Wade 19ppg Deng 17ppg) than a dominant scorer (say Bosh 25ppg, Wade 21ppg, and Deng 14ppg).

No single player will replace LeBron's production, but that is why this is a team game. And that is why I said Deng will help mitigate what Miami lost in LeBron. Ok, so Deng will help with the scoring and defense. Bosh will get more opportunities to score, as will Wade (who will get more opportunities to be a playmaker.) Maybe McRoberts' passing and intelligent play helps replace some of that we're losing with LeBron. Granger might be a guy who helps mitigate what we lost with Ray Allen....

I'd like to see Miami move away from the idea that our star player has to play 40min per night and do everything. Miami will be a much more dangerous team if it gets contributions from several players as opposed to depending on 1 guy for everything (whether it's Bosh or Wade and his shaky knees). McRoberts is supposed to be a good passer, Deng moves well off the ball, Norris Cole will attack the rim...these are talents I'd like to see Miami take advantage of.

[DWadeno3]

You're overrating Luol Deng's offensive abilities if you believe he can score 20-25 a game. We just lost a guy who averaged 27 per night on 56% shooting and despite that, we still sort of needed Wade's 19 a game on 54.5% shooting. Deng's best scoring season was 19 a game on 45% shooting, his career averages lie at 16 a game on 45% shooting. He can't just suddenly be a guy who gives you 23 a night on good efficiency. Plenty of good Bulls posters have said that a 3rd option role is perfect for a guy like Deng. If we want him to score the ball at decent efficiency (meaning 45%+), we can't expect more than around 17 a night. Bosh himself has never averaged more than 24 per game and that only happened once in his career while he was usually somewhere in the 22 PPG area as the clear-cut number one option. Expecting more than those 24 is a huge stretch, so let's count him in at around 23.

Let me clarify: I don't believe Deng or Bosh will necessarily average 20-25 a game, they're just capable if scoring that amount on a given night. (Although, given that Bosh will have more opportunities, he may get more than 20 a night.) I'd much rather see Miami have balanced scoring (ex: Bosh 21ppg, Wade 19ppg Deng 17ppg) than a dominant scorer (say Bosh 25ppg, Wade 21ppg, and Deng 14ppg).

No single player will replace LeBron's production, but that is why this is a team game. And that is why I said Deng will help mitigate what Miami lost in LeBron. Ok, so Deng will help with the scoring and defense. Bosh will get more opportunities to score, as will Wade (who will get more opportunities to be a playmaker.) Maybe McRoberts' passing and intelligent play helps replace some of that we're losing with LeBron. Granger might be a guy who helps mitigate what we lost with Ray Allen....

I'd like to see Miami move away from the idea that our star player has to play 40min per night and do everything. Miami will be a much more dangerous team if it gets contributions from several players as opposed to depending on 1 guy for everything (whether it's Bosh or Wade and his shaky knees). McRoberts is supposed to be a good passer, Deng moves well off the ball, Norris Cole will attack the rim...these are talents I'd like to see Miami take advantage of.

I agree about playing team basketball, but I just don't see where the productivity is supposed to come from. We moved the ball pretty well and played team basketball with LeBron, but we were better off with him scoring 26 or 27 a night than having Mario Chalmers or Norris Cole for example attempt more shots. Right now, I don't see how we can justify Rio, Cole, Granger or McBob attempting a significant amount of shots while we're keeping Wade's shot attempts low. If healthy, Wade is our best offensive player and if not healthy, probably still our second or third best. He could score 16 or 17 a night on about 54% shooting, but at what price? So that Rio, Cole, McBob, Granger and Deng attempt more shots despite being less efficient scorers?

And we have used Cole as somebody to attack the rim for example, but he's just not a high volume option.

The way I see it, we'll probably have Wade and Bosh hover around 22 to 23 a game, Deng chipping in around 16 to 17 and then we'll have Rio between 9 and 10 a night, Granger at 7 to 8 if he can bounce back, Cole, Bird and McRoberts at around 5 to 6 and then depending who receives the remaining minutes 4 to 5 a night from those guys. That's pretty decent balance while not putting too much pressure in the hands of individual players.

We won't have a Spurs type of balance because we simply don't have a Spurs type of depth. They're playing Parker, Duncan and Leonard 29 minutes a night and those are the ones with the most time on the court. We don't have the likes of Diaw, Ginobili or Belinelli coming off the bench.

That's why we could probably use a guy like MarShon Brooks. He can't do anything but score, but that he can do well, which is why he could be a very valuable asset to us.