Best Heat team of all time?

HeatFanSince87 · Post #1 » by **HeatFanSince87** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:22 am

Yes, we all know tecnhically the 2006 Champions are the best Miami Heat team of all time. However, we had some pretty sick Heat teams in the late 90's.

Which team would you say would win in a 7 game series?

Our best record team of 1996-97?

Our number 1 seed who got upset in 1999 by the eventual ECF
Champions Knicks

Our 2005 one Wade rib injury away from my mind winning the title

Our 2006 Championship team?

I say out of all the late 90's teams, our 1999 team, was our best of that bunch. With Zo runner up in MVP, Timmy still all NBA, Mash, PJ, Lenard, Terry Porter, Spoon, Bowen..we just had a deep, talented team that I think would have smashed any team in the East, except the Knicks, who matched up with us so well. Lets not forget, that team beat us on a BS shot from Houston by 1 point and then swept the Hawks and beat Indy 4-2..

As far as the 2000 teams listed, thats a tough one. Thoughts?

Post #2 » by **Lane1974** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:31 am

the 96-97 Heat, we won 61 games, we beat the Knicks (PJ Brown suplex series) and lost to the 69 win Bulls in the ECF, the furtherst we went until we won it all

Hardaway, Lenard, Majerle, Brown, Zo, Mash, Austin, Crotty, Willie Anderson, Askins, Mark Strickland

HeatFanSince87 · Post #3 » by **HeatFanSince87** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:55 am

I agree...that team was just kind of on a high all season. It was such a surprised season, being we were an 8th seed the year prior and won 42 games. Isnt it amazing how good the East was back then. You had the best team off all time the Bulls, Heat, Knicks, Hornets, Hawks, and Pistons.

Bulls won 69
Heat won 61
Knicks won 57
Hawks won 56
Pistons won 54
Hornets won 54

LOL! Our championship Heat team would have been a 7th seed with 52 wins!

All we hear about is the West now, but there was a time, not that long ago, that the toughest teams were in the East, and there was never talk of "realigning" seedings (Don Nelson) Conferences power changes...its amazing how much complaining I hear today.

LOL! You had the Suns with 40 wins, Wolves with 39 wins, and Clippers with 36 wins in the playoffs. Amazes me how it seems no one ever mentions this. The power has shifted as we know, but it always does...

If we had seedings based on record that season, the Cavs with 42 wins and the Pacers with 39 wins in the playoffs, over the last 2 west playoff teams

CRHeel94 · Post #4 » by **CRHeel94** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:48 pm

The 96-97 team was probably the best, they just ran into an all-time great team, Da Bulls. Thankfully, they didn't have Coach Ditka or we would have gotten swept.

Back in the 80s all the power was in the East. The Lakers ran roughsod over the West and it was rather normal to see one or two sub.500 team make it to the playoffs. The media just likes to ignore history.

Riled Up · Post #5 » by **Riled Up** » Thu May 1, 2008 5:44 pm

IMHO, the Championship team would have smoked all of the 90's teams. You would have had Lenard guarding Wade in such a matchup and that alone would be too much for them to overcome.

tessai · Post #6 » by **tessai** » Thu May 1, 2008 7:54 pm

Riled Up wrote:IMHO, the Championship team would have smoked all of the 90's teams. You would have had Lenard guarding Wade in such a matchup and that alone would be too much for them to overcome.

No way would Riles have put Lenard on Wade. It'd have been Majerle, EJ, or Bowen, depending on the team.

Still fun to think about though

Riled Up · Post #7 » by **Riled Up** » Sat May 3, 2008 12:40 am

tessai wrote:-= original quote snipped =-

No way would Riles have put Lenard on Wade. It'd have been Majerle, EJ, or Bowen, depending on the team.

Still fun to think about though

I don't know about that, there were plenty of times where Riley had Lenard guarding Penny Hardaway, Allan Houston and Michael Jordan.

CRHeel94 · Post #8 » by **CRHeel94** » Mon May 5, 2008 4:22 pm

Lenard was actualy decent on the defensive end that year. He just stopped working as hard on that end in the later years.

HeatFanSince87 · Post #9 » by **HeatFanSince87** » Tue May 6, 2008 3:25 am

IDK...that 99 lockout team(obviously NY had our number by 1 point)to me still was just stacked. We had Zo in his prime, runner up for MVP, Timmy was still an All-NBA pg. We obviously had Mash, PJ and Lenard, but our bench was very very solid with Dan Marjle, Bruce Bowen, Terry Porter, Keith Askins, Clarence Weatherspoon..the only real spot we lacked depth was behind Zo, but it didnt matter, he was a machine that season..he played almost 39 mins a game..

Post #10 » by **BFO** » Wed May 7, 2008 8:34 am

Any team with Hardaway.

How awesome was our PG spot back then.....Timmy with either Porter or Crotty behind him. Very, very enjoyable and even more capable. Porter was like a coach out there.

Number34 · Post #11 » by **Number34** » Wed May 7, 2008 12:57 pm

Oh how I wish for a pg like tim to come along for the heat...

GnarlsOakley · Post #12 » by **GnarlsOakley** » Fri May 16, 2008 11:04 pm

from an outsider's perspective, the best Heat team of all time would've been:

PG: Tim Hardaway
SG: Eddie Jones//Dan Majerle
SF: Anthony Mason//Bruce Bowen
PF: Brian Grant
C: Alonzo Mourning

aside from Hardaway, that is a collection of GREAT defensive players. unfortunately, that was the year Zo was first diagnosed with kidney ailment, and only played 13 games, and the rest of the lineup played out of position to compensate.

Post #13 » by **Flash3** » Fri May 16, 2008 11:08 pm

From a stand point of joy and excitement, it has to be the 03/04 team for me. From 0-7 to being 10 secs shy of forcing a game 7 vs the best Eastern Conference team that season and possibly being in the ECFs. That was an enjoyable team to watch play out there.