rayonsports.com

From left: Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James.

The National Basketball Association regular season begins tonight with the league’s new Barnum & Bailey Traveling Circus Show, also known as the Miami Heat, meeting the Boston Celtics in a much-anticipated game. This off-season the NBA was all about free agency and player movement, and Heat general manager Pat Riley made the biggest free agency splash of all time. He signed Chris Bosh, a talented big man, away from Toronto, and convinced LeBron James to join Bosh and Heat star Dwayne Wade in Miami to form an NBA “Superteam”. LeBron didn’t just sign with the Heat, he scheduled an hour-long special on ESPN to announce that he was “taking my talents to South Beach”. So the Heat now become the odds-on favorites to win the league championship, and the guy I feel the most sorry for right now is Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. If the Heat do indeed win the title, he’ll get no credit at all, and if they crash and burn, he’ll be the scapegoat. He’s in the ultimate “no-win” situation. I would be inclined to predict that the Heat will have a pretty good winning season – they were already a decent team before adding Bosh and James – but that they won’t win a championship since putting together “fantasy” teams of all-stars rarely works in pro sports. Just ask Washington Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder. The trouble is the NBA has become such a playground game these days that it probably is possible for Miami to win the title. Tonight’s opener will be a good measuring stick actually. It will pit the SuperHeat against the Celtics, a team that has had recent success by playing the game the way their ancestors in Boston did – unselfishly. One weakness that Miami has is the lack of a dominant big man in the middle. Bosh is a talented player but more of a finesse strong forward type than a center. Boston, meanwhile, added Shaquille O’Neal to what was already one of the NBA’s toughest front lines. The result of this game should tell a lot about which direction Miami’s season goes.

As far as the rest of the league, even though Miami made all the off-season headlines, the Los Angeles Lakers are two-time defending champs so it’s hard to bet against them. The Western Conference had eight 50+ win teams last year while the East had seven clubs with losing records, so it’s obvious which conference is stronger. The West is loaded with teams that are always impressive in the regular season, then underachieve in the playoffs, teams like Phoenix, Portland, Dallas, Utah, Denver, and recently, even San Antonio. The exception is the young Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder played a hard-fought playoff series against the Lakers last season and should be even better as their young star, Kevin Durant, gains more experience. They are the second best team in the conference right now. I would place Dallas next, as owner Mark Cuban resigned star Dirk Nowitzki to keep his team intact. Phoenix lost Amare Stoudemire to the Knicks, Utah saw Carlos Boozer leave for the Bulls and Denver has star Carmelo Anthony begging to be traded, so they should all take backward steps this year. San Antonio is a proud championship franchise but they are aging. A team that could come out of the woodwork to contend is the Houston Rockets, if center Yao Ming stays healthy.

Despite all the Miami hype, the best team in the East is the Celtics. Their Achilles heel is their age, but it didn’t seem to affect their play last year. The Orlando Magic faltered in the post-season last year, and didn’t change their roster at all. Still, they are probably also better than the Heat, based on having a player, Dwight Howard, that Miami won’t be able to stop. The Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks have talented rosters but aren’t elite teams. If there’s a sleeper in the East, it’s the Chicago Bulls. They played a tough playoff series against the Celtics 2 years ago and were expected to improve last year but wound up with a disappointing 41-41 record. The free agent signing of Carlos Boozer immediately improves this team however, and should make them a force in the conference. The addition of Boozer was a case of adding the perfect missing piece to an already talented young team.