I'll blame the heat's terrible role players before I blame Lebron. How they can go 9-34 in game 2 for example when you have 2 guys who command so much attention who can set you up is beyond me. They are bringing nothing to the table. With bosh out, other than wade, lebron must feel like he's in cleveland again.

That's what they signed up for when they "big 3" agreed to play together. They were aware of the salary cap when they made their decision.

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Please wake me up when you have something intelligent to add to the conversation.

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I'll get back to you when I figure out how to dumb down my argument to a level where you'll actually understand it instead of arguing something completely different.

if each of them could take a 5MM paycut per season, that might help towards getting them some decent pieces...but they'd never do that

http://chasing23.com/kobe-bryant-vs-lebron-james-game-winning-shots/

Check out LeBron's stats here. You'll point to his 41.7% (5/12) shooting in the clutch vs. Kobe's 28% (7/25). I'll point out the fact that LeBron made 4 out of his first 6 clutch shots but has only made ONE out of the last 6 attempts. Furthermore, only one of those attempts (a miss) has been with the Heat. Do you really think that the Heat have only had one clutch attempt in the playoffs since Queen James took his talents to South Beach?

wait...is Junkhead formerly Muy?

So much makes sense now.

Yeah there's some truth to that. However, I actually think spoelstra holds them back, and that with a better coach like Rick Adelman or phil jackson they could win a title easy with their current cast. Their half-court sets are terrible for the most part and at times excruciating to watch and bogs down to your-turn, my-turn. Watching the game it's obvious that wade and lebron play the way they are accustomed (lots of expended energy, dribbling, isolation, relying on athleticism, etc.) and the other 3 guys on the court and spoelstra are kind of there along for the ride.

I think Riley miscalculated with keeping spoelstra. As constructed, what the Heat need is a coach with some skins on the wall who has the pedigree to push bosh, wade and lebron especially to do things that aren't natural to them, but they are things that would make the game easier and make things more fluid, particularly late in games in the playoffs. Someone who could get them to buy into the concept of late in games for example, running high screen-and-roll action with wade coming off a high lebron screen, with 1 strong-side and 2 weak-side shooters spaced out. That is a simple yet virtually unstoppable play, yet the heat hardly ever run that. My suspicion is that deep down spoelstra would like to and has ideas for the heat offense, but I think he lacks the "cache" to get lebron particularly to buy in on expanding his off-the-ball game. Because the core problem with the heat is that both lebron and wade are essentially the same player (ball-dominant initiators) but there's only 1 ball to share.

If I were Riley I never would have gotten the Big 3 together without getting a highly-credentialed coach. It's like putting crappy, cheap-ass tires on a ferrari, you're not going to maximize performance. A team with Lebron and Wade should never be held to 75 points, that is unacceptable. I would have canned spoelstra and offered Phil $20M/year or hired Adelman the day the Big 3 signed on the dotted line.

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wait...is Junkhead formerly Muy?

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Ahhh, now I understand where all the butthurt comes from.

Was Meltdown already taken as a screen name?

Not Muy.

You have us fooled.

Not Muy (he still posts under that name, but was gone fore a while because of a rather humiliating episode on rivalries), but I can't remember who Junkhead is. Definitely a long-time bball other poster though.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 5/16/2012 11:26a).]

OMG!!! STEVE BLAKE JUST TOOK THE FINAL SHOT FOR THE LAKERS NOT KOBE! CLEARLY, THIS ISN'T KOBE'S TEAM! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THEY TALK ABOUT THIS ON AROUND THE HORN TOMORROW!

In the last two minutes Kobe threw the ball to Durant, let a pass go through his hands out of bounds, shot an air ball, shot a brick off the back iron, and watched Blake take the last shot.

Didn't watch the game but I just saw the highlights. Inexcusable that Kobe didn't touch the ball on the last possession no matter how he'd been shooting.

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The Mavericks had been written off by all but the most rabid MFFL homers until Dirk had his amazing run last year. Ad LeBron is an all-around better player than Dirk with better players around him than Dirk had.

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This is a joke right? You really think the Mavs had less talent than LeBron's Cavs that went to the finals???

The Heat now has better players than the Mavs did.

Wade+Bosh+Battier+Chalmers > Chandler+Terry+Kidd+Marion+JJ

But the Mavs played better as a team. Same reason the Spurs are winning now - the Spurs are firing on all cylinders while the Heat just lost two to Indiana.

Mavs fans are amusing.

Year before, terry is best 6th man in the league, Kidd remains on of the best and you got the better end of Harris trade, chandler is dpoy, boubois is one of most skilled offensive players in the league.

Year later is was a bunch of scrubs and dirk. As if that says something good about your team, one of the worst to ever win the title. Congrats? No one had said Dirk isn't good, but he will not crack the top 10 and Lebron is a far superior player.

The spurs always down play the talent of their teams when they talk about pops legacy, but okay it up in arguments about individual players.