The NBA Finals left us with a truth — the old-school way still works — and a question — is the Heat dynasty already over? And, yes, we chuckled when writing the word dynasty.
We’ll start with the question, and it’s a legitimate one. When the NBA returns next season, and a collective bargaining agreement has been reached, there is a good chance a hard salary cap will be in place. And that means Miami would be unlikely to afford its so-called Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
You see, for all the, um, sacrifices James and Bosh supposedly made, they really didn’t give up anything. They still signed deals that will pay each of them at least $15.5 million next season. Under a hard cap, the Heat could not afford them all. What happens if they must break up this group? Who do they trade and for what? And then how long would it take to return with another new group?
Even if all three return, how much can they really improve around them? The Heat will always be top heavy. You don’t need 10 good players to win, but apparently you’d better have more than three great players and a bunch of castoffs. Shocking, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, Dallas won the old-fashioned way. The Mavericks built around their star, filling its roster with excellent players — guys who knew and understood their roles. They have a coach, with a buzzcut no less, who didn’t look overmatched. Actually, it was quite different.
Miami played hard — well, except for the final few minutes Sunday night — and at times looked fantastic. But they weren’t always a team. They were stars and star-nots.
The Mavericks, though, passed and cut and kept getting open looks all series, against a good defense. They trusted one another, both on offense and defense. The reason James could not take over late is that the Mavericks kept him out of the lane with good help defense.
The NBA has to like that it has a villain team in Miami, one that drew many viewers to TV sets. But the rest of the country loves that the Mavericks did it quite differently — and upstaged them.
