LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 25: LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat looks on during warm-up prior to the NBA game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on December 25, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The Heat defeated the Lakers 96-80. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)Now that the Los Angeles Lakers have officially poached Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic, the rest of the NBA should just give up, right?
Not so fast. The Miami Heat may have a qualm or two with such a hasty assumption.
You remember the Heat, don't you? That ol' superteam that hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy not two months ago. The one that still employs the best player on the planet (LeBron James), one of the top perimeter slashers in the game today (Dwyane Wade), and a skilled big man (Chris Bosh) who'd fit right in at Jurassic Park. The same one that lured Hall-of-Fame three-point specialist Ray Allen to South Beach to join its bench mob.
Yeah, the Heat are still pretty good and deserve to be the prohibitive favorites to defend their title until someone proves capable of knocking them off their perch.
To be sure, the Lakers could be the team to do it, what with the size and skill of Howard and Pau Gasol to punish Miami on the interior. At the very least, the Purple and Gold own a prominent seat at the table of contenders after swooping on Superman, and should leave most of the NBA trembling in fear as a result.
Just not the Miami Heat, and here's why.
Historically speaking, acquiring an elite big man one day doesn't necessarily guarantee ultimate success the next.
The Lakers know this as well as any franchise in the NBA. It took LA four full seasons to win a title with Wilt Chamberlain (in 1972), five for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to take the team to the top (in 1980) and four for Shaquille O'Neal to come away with some serious hardware with Kobe Bryant by his side (in 2000).
Admittedly, this won't likely be of much concern when it comes to putting up points. These two are both such smart and savvy students of the game that they should be able to co-exist just fine (if not beautifully) offensively. Ideally, the Black Mamba will realize that he doesn't have to (and shouldn't) do it all by himself on the perimeter anymore, and, subsequently, will let Nash handle the ball while he settles in as a lethal scorer and slasher.
The more troubling stakes here are on defense. Kobe (soon to be 34) and Nash (38) will constitute the oldest backcourt in the NBA and, likewise, one that is supremely susceptible to younger, quicker players. The Mamba still garners respect for his D and is anything but a lost cause on that end, though he's a far cry from the shutdown-type guy he once was. Asking him to mark Nash's man like Grant Hill did for several years in Phoenix may be too tall of an order for Bryant at this point in his career.
Who on the Lakers could even hope to keep that human freight train from bowling his way to the basket at will? Metta World Peace is certainly big enough and has quick enough hands to try, but, like the rest of his aging teammates, the 32-year-old isn't as fast on his feet as he used to be.
Much less fast enough to impede James.
Heck, it's a chore to find anyone on this Earth—much less someone who knows how to play basketball—with the combination of size, speed and athleticism to hang with LeBron on a regular basis.
Not that it can't be done, or that there aren't defenders out there with the chops to give King James trouble. Someone with the length, agility, young legs and lateral quickness of a player like, say, Kevin Durant would seem like a solid candidate to start.
If Dwight Howard were 100-percent healthy, these concerns about old dudes with slow feet on the perimeter wouldn't be so pressing. After all, if Wade were to get by Kobe, LeBron by Metta or even Chalmers by Nash, Superman would be there to save the day.
Problem is, he might not even be there when the season starts. He's still recovering from late-April back surgery, from which his doctor suggested he'd be fit to return to basketball-related activities in four months.
Well, it's nearly been four months since Dwight went under the knife, and the closest he's come to setting foot on the court was when he waltzed into the Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo for his Purple-and-Gold introduction this past weekend.
Forget about predicting how the Heat and the new-look Lakers match up on paper. Dwight Howard and his new buddies have plenty of work to do in the Western Conference before they can so much as kick dirt onto Miami's title turf.
They'll have to deal with the cross-hall Clippers, who still have Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and may (or may not) have improved with the additions of Lamar Odom, Jamal Crawford and Grant Hill.
They should be concerned about the Denver Nuggets, who added Andre Iguodala to a young, speedy, athletic group that nearly ran the Lake Show out of the playoffs last time around.
They certainly need be worried about the San Antonio Spurs, who return all of the principal players from a team that had the best regular-season record in the West and came within two wins of reaching the Finals.
And, of course, all roads to the Western Conference crown run through the Oklahoma City Thunder, who dispatched the Lakers in five games in the second round of the postseason and whose young core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka is still firmly on the upswing.
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