The East is the Heat's to lose, and no team can change that

The East is the big 3's playground

The Miami Heat are the defending world champion and the back to back Eastern Conference champions. Once the month of May comes in it should be "back to back to back" Eastern Conference championships. They are first in the Conference right now, and will head into the All Star break with three All-Stars and Their whole coaching staff along the ride for the All Star game. The scary thing is, the Heat haven't even played their best basketball yet. Lebron James is playing his usual MVP dominating self, Wade is finally rounding up into his old elite self after being scrutinized for starting out slow despite coming off knee surgery, and Bosh continues to be the least talked about star in the league. When You think about potential threats to the Heat this year from the Eastern Conference, three teams come to mind: the New York Knicks, the Indiana Pacers, and the Chicago Bulls. However, the reality is none of these teams will be able to beat the Heat in a 7 game series (barring injury to any of Miami's big 3 of course).

Melo will look to take the Knicks past Miami this year

Lets begin with the New York Knicks, who are having their best season in over 10 years and led by Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks have two victories against the Heat this year and one happened to be without Anthony. Don't think too highly of these two victories though, in the first year of the Big 3 era in Miami, the Heat went a combined 1-7 against the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls in the regular season and proceeded to beating both the Bulls and the Celtics in 5 games each once the playoffs arrived. The Heat dismantled the Knicks in 5 games in the first round of last year's playoffs and that one loss was a product of a monster night by Carmelo Anthony. How can you expect a Knick team that will depend heavily on scoring from Anthony, JR Smith and Amar'e Stoudemire to handle the fire power of the Heat? The Heat know they can get stops down the stretch, but can you say the same about the Knicks? Who really only have 2 elite defenders in Tyson Chandler and Iman Shumpert (who happens to be coming off major ACL surgery). The Knicks are also very dependent on the three point shot, something that will not hold up in the playoffs where the game slows down and defenses key in more. Then theres' the Amar'e Stoudemire problem, Stoudemire is clearly the second best player on this team, and if you cant find a way to have both your superstars on the floor, how do you expect to beat the defending champion four times? Amar'e was putting up monster numbers before Anthony arrived, but it seems that its impossible for Anthony to have a second star alongside himself who can score 20 plus points a game. Speaking of Anthony, what makes anybody think that Carmelo Anthony can lead a team to a championship? Carmelo Anthony has been in the playoffs every year of his  career, and he's only been out of the first round ONCE, in 10 years. That one year he got out happened to be the year that Chauncey Billups arrived to Denver and who came in with a streak of multiple years of making it to the Conference finals. Carmelo Anthony is not the elite defenders, that Lebron James and Dwyane Wade are, and quite frankly he has done nothing to merit the trust of being able to beat the defending champion let alone make it to the NBA finals. How about they win a playoff series first before we deem them good enough to dethrone the Heat.
Then there's the Indiana Pacers, who many credit (me included) as the main reason the Heat won last year's NBA title. Indiana could not beat the Heat with Chris Bosh out and Shane Battier guarding power forwards and Centers for 6 straight games and with a Healthy Danny Granger. The Pacers are a great defensive team, but they lack a true star even with Granger, and while Paul George is having a marvelous season, he cannot carry the Pacers in a 7 game series.  You know where the points are going to come from the Heat, but where are the Pacers going to get enough fire power to match the defending champions?
The Chicago Bulls are having a great season, but all hopes are on Derrick Rose coming back and being the old Derrick Rose, and thats not realistic. Even with a healthy Rose, two seasons ago the Bulls could not match up with the Heat. That wont change, the Bulls should be good enough to win one playoff series, but thats about it. Remember Derrick Rose scored primarily on his explosive assaults on the rim, something he wont have back for a while, maybe until next year.
So in the end, the east is the Heat's to lose, and no team in the East will change that. The Heat have defeated each of these teams in the playoffs, and there should be no reason why it wont happen again.

Images from Bleacherreport.com

Top PF going into 2012-2013, #6 Chris Bosh

We continue our countdown of the top power forwards heading into the 2012-2013 NBA season with Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat at number 6. Now, Chris Bosh is a very tough player to evaluate. Bosh is coming off a bitter sweet season, he was hurt for a crucial and key run of the Heat's playoff run, but managed to return in time and was definitely a factor in the conference finals game 7, and the NBA finals. Whether as much a factor as he would have liked? probably not, but it would be unfair to expect more coming off an injury and straight into the middle of conference finals against the Boston Celtics. Ultimately it culminated with a championship though.
Chris Bosh in our minds is one of the most underrated star players in the league. He sacrificed his numbers for a shot at winning and it has worked out well so far. Lets look at his numbers, for the 2011 2012 regular season:  18.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG, on 48% FG. Now, obviously Bosh does not get the touches he used to get back in toronto when you have to superstar players in James and Wade. But outside of about 5 to 6 players, could any BIG(not power forward, but big players in general) produce and complement these two players the way Bosh does?
Bosh provides a tough matchup for defenses for a variety of reasons, he's a true 6-11 long and more athletic than people think. Bosh has a great post up game, and can finish around the rim with both hands. He has range up to the three point line and a GREAT pump fake on the perimeter. This play is more than meets the eye for those who are more than the average fan. Bosh is a great pick and roll player, in that play bosh popped out instead of rolling to the rim, Diaw has to recover faster than what he's accustomed to because of bosh's feathery jumpshot. Then you see Bosh's underrated athletic ability as he finishes with force. His jumpshot makes him a threat from virtually anywhere on the floor, he gets it off quickly and has a high release. Take this play, Bosh essentially pulls a guard move with the jab step and jumpshot (notice the pump fake).
Against bigger stronger defenders bosh uses his speed and craftiness to go around them and against smaller defenders he simply uses his length and size to his advantage. Now, Bosh should be higher on this list, but his injury slowed him down, along with several other parts of his game. Bosh seemed to have left his rebounding back in toronto. This is unacceptable, The Heat since the formation of their big 3 have been known for their lack of interior size. They NEED bosh to rebound, 7.9 RPG is nowhere near what bosh should be rebounding. His last season in toronto he averaged 10.8 RPG, and thats what he should be doing for the Heat. He also needs to be more of a shot blocker, he's a career 1.1 BPG and last season average a insignificant 0.8 BPG (Ironically Dwyane Wade is the team's primary shot blocker at 6-4). If Bosh rebounds at the rate he's capable of rebounding and becomes a bigger force on the defensive end, then watch out. We expect him to be higher on this list next season (barring injury), but how high? thats up to him
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Now that the Linsanity Drama is over, how good can this Knicks team be?

Jeremy Lin is gone, whether fans like it or not he will not return and will be nothing more than gossip over the next months. Now its time to pose the question, how good will this New york Knicks team? They have resigned JR Smith and signed veteran PG Jason Kidd, Iman Shumpert continues to recover from a torn ACL and Raymond Felton was acquired from Portland. In addtion, they will of course have their monster frontcourt of Melo, Stoudemire, and Chandler back. Coach Mike Woodson will have an entire season and a full training camp with his team. So how good can this team realistically be?
First, everybody knows that the Miami Heat are the favorites to repeat as champions. In the minds of most it is a foregone conclusion that they will come out the Eastern Conference (barring Injury or a major change). After the Heat however, the Eastern Conference is wide open. There will be 3 other spots available with at least fhome court advantage in the first round. Indiana has resigned Roy Hibbert and George Hill and have their core in check. They will have home court advantage in the first round, whether the second third or fourth seed (we believe third or fourth). The Boston Celtics will also be back in the mix, Kevin Garnett may be old, but he was deadly in last year's playoffs. They have signed Jason Terry, and Brandon Bass will be back. Avery Bradley will be healthy to go along with Rondo in the backcourt so look for this Celtics team to make a run at the Eastern Conference again (once again barring injury).  The Brooklyn Nets have made a lot of moves and will definitely be in the playoffs. They have positioned themselves to acquire Howard after January because that is when Brook Lopez will be available for trade. If they get Howard, they will catapult themselves into championship contention, and if they dont they are still a very good team. Kris Humphries is a double double machine, and people forget how good Brook Lopez is. He is a career 17 PPG scorer, and has yet to have a full season playing with a true PG like Deron Williams, who was forced to be more of a scorer for the last year and a half because of the team's lack of scoring options. They will also challenge for home court in the first round and will definitely be no worse than 5th in the conference.
The Knicks have several issues, the most glaring one being the fact that Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire cannot play together because of Melo's dominance of the ball. When Melo touches the ball, the flow and movement of the basketball stops. Perhaps if the Knicks had acquired Steve Nash (who played with Stoudemire in the years that Phoenix was part of the elite of the Western Conference) things would have been different. They have Jason Kidd, but at this point in his career how much of a difference can he really make? Stoudemire is coming off one of the worse if not THE worse season of his career. Before Melo was traded to the Knicks Stoudemire was averaging over 25 points and was breaking Knick's scoring records. With the arrival of Melo? things have gone south. Stoudemire is the Knicks second best player. if Melo is 1A, then Stoudemire needs to be 1B for them to truly be successful.
Now, at this point Successful isnt making the playoffs. Successful for them is making a run at the championship. They need to be a better defensive team, Iman Shumpert was their best defender and he was a ROOKIE. He is coming off a torn ACL and will take some time for him to get back in his groove. The Knicks also struggled shooting the 3 last year, and they had the best 3 point shooter in the league in Steve Novak who shot a blistering 47%. After Novak though, it was abysmal, Jason Kidd should help in that category and Felton will look to help Stoudemire regain his dominance as he was with Amar'e before the Melo trade. Ultimately, it comes down to whether Melo and Stoudemire can make it work, they are their two best players and unfortunately neither plays defense. The Knicks will be no higher than third in the Eastern Conference and we see them as no more than the second round at best.
News around the league
-Kobe Bryant calls sterns age limit for olympics "stupid"
-The Clippers have signed Grant Hill to add to their mix
-Heat's Miller will not retire and will return to the Heat
-Miami Heat are interested in Greg Oden
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Eastern conference challenges for the defending champs next year?

Over the next two days, we will analyze who could challenge the Heat and Thunder for a trip to the NBA Finals. Today we will talk about the Eastern Conference. The Heat no doubt will be heavily favorite to repeat as champs and definitely to represent the eastern conference. Their main competition since the formation of the big 3 have been the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls and both have heavy question marks as the off season begins.

The Chicago Bulls spent all of the shortened season dealing with nagging injuries to their backcourt and particularly their superstar Derrick Rose. They still survived all the setbacks to finish with the best record in the eastern conference for the second year in a row. However,  Rose tore his ACL in that unfortunate first round series against the Philadelphia seventy Sixers and will likely be out until January. This obviously puts a very big question mark on the bulls chances to challenge the Heat without their Superstar guard. Even before rose went out with the injury, it didnt seem like the bulls had  played enough games together to challenge past the Boston Celtics. Their free agents for this summer are Omer Asik (restricted), Mike James, John Lucas and Scalabrine A.K.A the white Mamba (all unrestricted).

Obviously none of these players will be able to fill in the huge gap that Rose will leave and Cj Watson will be the starting PG once the season starts. By the time Rose gets back on the court, it may be too late to really make a run at the conference championship and challenge the Heat.

Then there's the crafty and aging Boston Celtics (although we seem to say this every year). The celtics gave the Heat everything they could handle this year in a tough 7 game series that saw Rondo score 44, and Lebron 45. The Celtics may have seen the last run for this group. They have 9 players who are unrestricted free agents, the two biggest free agents being Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Most certainly one of the two will not be back and it figures to be Allen who has ankle surgery to go through this summer.

Even with Garnett back, how much longer can he play at a high level with 17 years under his belt? in addition Brandon Bass will test the free agency waters and figures to get a lot of interest from other teams as will Pietrus and Jeff Green. At this point its safe to say that the celtics will not be a threat to the Heat. 

The Indiana Pacers on the other hand are the one team who seem to be back next year at full force with another year under their belt, they are young have depth and the Heat's most glaring hole, size. They have to lock up Roy Hibbert and George Hill who are restricted free agents but that wont seem to be a problem. Could they possibly beat the Defending champs in a 7 game series? Probably not specially when the top 2 players are on the Heat, but no doubt they will be the ones i believe who will make it to the Eastern Conference Finals with the Heat.

The Magic who will not have Stan Van Gundy anymore as coach, are looking at a long road to convincing Howard to sign back. And Atlanta will continue to be a 4 seed who will regret giving Joe Johnson a max contract for years to come. 

In the end, The Heat will be back in the NBA finals whether people like it or not, the Eastern conference does not have enough to challenge the defending champs. Barring injuries, they will cruise along the first three rounds of the 2013 playoffs.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the entry on the western Conference