Miami Heat - Lebron James Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Perfect role players? - Part 1/2

While it’s obvious that Lebron, Wade, and Bosh will carry the load for this team, they won’t be the one’s in the end really deciding how good their team is.  You can’t just isolate Lebron and Wade all day, it’s not healthy and will get the other players out of it and lazy on defense.

This team’s success is gonna come down to the role players in my opinion…..

• -Mike Miller (career 41% 3pt SF/SG)
• -Mario Chalmers (defensive young guard; lack of improvement)
• -Joel Anthony (the garbage man from Canada; rebounds and defends well; Starting Center)
• -Udonis Haslem (entire career with the Heat; savvy veteran PF/C w/range to 18 feet; backup PF/C)
• -Zydrunas Ilgauskas (7’4” beast with range to 18′/corner three; offensive backup center)
• -Eddie House
• -Carlos Arroyo
• -James Jones
• -Juwan Howard
• -Dexter Pittman
• -etc

Notice that there are some really solid role player’s in the mix; Pat Riley deserves all the praise in the world for accomplishing his task.  Not only did he free up basically his entire team’s cap-space to sign Lebron, Bosh, and Wade (all premiere Max UFA’s), bringing “the big 3″ to Miami it seems.  But then you look at how amazing Riley was with Wade and getting them all to take a slight paycut (slight), but it allowed them to sign ($5.0 million a year) Mike Miller (SG/SF deadly 3pt shooter that is also a great all-around player; passing, rebounding, etc), a huge pickup and career 41% 3pt shooter, something Wade and Lebron desperately needed along side them.  They were also able to re-sign Udonis Haslem ($3.5 million a year) as well, a career Heat player, double/double pF/C that is a savvy veteran and quality backup PF/C for Bosh and Joel Anthony who re-signed making $3.3 million this season. Also include Mario Chalmers, still on his tiny rookie contract ($855,000) in the cap as well.

So after Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Miller, Haslem, Chalmers and J.Anthony, the Heat and Pat Riley were over the cap and it appeared impossible that they could end up having a legit 12 man roster.  Little did we know how much some great role players decided that Miami was now the team to go to (as Miami overtook all the headlines during the summer).  I remember when they only had those 7 players and all I could think was “how in the hell is he going to add some more legit pieces to this team?”, I mean when 7 players put you over the cap you have no trade exceptions now, so you have to have respect from players to get them attracted.  And attracted they were.

Miami Heat’s “key veteran minimum free agents” analysis:

-Zydrunas Ilguaskas: To get this 7’4” beast of a Center for the veterans minimum ($1.35 mil).  What a steal.  While he has aged and is sometimes a liability defensively, he’s still that 7’4” beast that can shoot from 18 feet (even corner threes) as well as post up and pass well.  Simply put, the Heat have him on their roster because of Lebron.  Big-Z will prove to be a great backup Center for them that can help open up and spread the floor.

Eddie House: After the Celtics dealt him to the Knicks for Nate Robinson, Eddie probably figured it was time to move on to a contender again.  Seeing how Eddie plays the PG position, but is more like a SG and amazingly clutch 3pt shooter, one can only imagine how well he would fit at PG with Wade at SG and Lebron at SF.  Eddie House will have tons of open catch and shoot 3′s created by one of the big-3 this season, and I expect him to be a surprise main backup PG/SG.

Then you have the PG situation:  Mario Chalmers, Carlos Arroyo, Eddie House, and rookie Kenny Hasbrouck.  Sure, Wade and Lebron can player PG, but I don’t think the team is headed in that direction, as there is no need to (Lebron and Wade already play part PG anyway at their respective positions, as the offense will revolve around them bringing it up as SG and SF likely).  Sure, they might get some PG minutes here and there against certain teams, but overall from what I’ve seen they are trying out the PG spot right now.

Now in all honesty I see this as the "best chemistry" lineup offensively:

1. PG: Eddie House
2. SG: Dwayne Wade
3. SF: Mike Miller
4. PF: Lebron James
5. C: Chris Bosh

Defensively they are still solid too. We all know “Bosh wants to play PF”.  But unless the Heat are matched up with Dwight Howard or Shaq… I think Bosh will end up seeing quite a few more Center minutes. Take a look at the last 2 years for Bosh playing next to Bargnani.  While Barg’s was labeled the “center” and Bosh labeled “power-forward”, they seemed to be a bit interchangeable. It seemed like Barg’s was playing PF in vain of Dirk Nowitzki (but at a Barg’s level). Bosh was even a Center when he made the All-Star team 2 years ago. Bosh is decent defensively at center, and also causes offensive matchup issues allowing him to use his quickness and speed.

Now Lebron at Power-Forward is something I’ve always loved (he can play PG, SG, SF, PF in the NBA), and I would imagine he would play like Lamar Odom a bit (but obviously more skilled) and play the Point-PF at times to initiate their offense.  With the players surrounding him, all he has to do is drive and dish to any great shooter.  I also think Lebron will maybe add some post-game and mid-post moves as well, as they are really the only key elements missing from his game.  With his 6’8”/6’9” frame and 260+pound body he is still strong as a bull against many PF’s in this league.  If he can learn to take his time on the low-block and apply an up-an-under or step-through or drop-step…. or just a nice, quick baby hook.  He could draw doubles all day, leaving Bosh at the FT line (his hot spot shooting), Mike Miller and Eddie House at the 3pt line (40%+ 3pt shooters), or pass to a Dwayne Wade cutting to the basket.

Sure it’s posible Lebron only play’s SF and some PG, but I really think Cleveland really hurt themselves at times by not playing Lebron at PF… let alone at SG or PG.  This is just my favorite lineup because:

• -Wade would bring the ball down the court about 40% of the time
• -Lebron would bring it up about 40% of the time
• -House would bring it up 10% of the time
• -Miller would bring it up 10% of the time

-Mike Miller is a vastly underrated player because of his drop in scoring the past 2-3 years.  I guess people don’t actually watch the games and realize he was starting for a hurt Wizards team, and he was supposed to play point-forward at times, and just be a smart decision maker and leader.

-2009-2010 averages:  10.9 Ppg, 6.2 Rpg, 3.9 Apg, 0.7 Spg, 48%3ptFG, and 50%FG

-So starting and playing SF and SG for the Wizards he played 33 minutes a game, but he only took 8.0 Field-Goal Attempts per game.  That’s because teams had to guard him, as the Wizards do not have anyone like Bosh or Wade or Bron.  If Miller can shoot 48% from 3pt land playing with Foye and Arenas and Blatche and McGee I think he will be a perfect fit next to the Miami Big-3.  And let’s not forget that he is 6’8″ with the skillset of a guard; as a result he actually does make players around him better.  While everyone labels Mikey a “3pt specialist” I happen to think he’s a bit more.  Take a look at his 2008-09 campaign with the Timberwolves.  They asked him to become the 6th man and play SF (and a lot of point-forward to allow Foye to play off-ball) and be a leader and key decision maker.

To be continued in Part 2.................