Welcome! Come one, come all, to the main event! It's season preview time, and Upside and Motor is ready to rock your world. The previews will be both concrete and lyrical in this magical world, both by numbers and by prose. To take a look at all the previews, click here.
Straight Up
Straight Up features all the stuff you actually want to see in your team previews: who are the new kids on the block, who skipped town, and where the team stands for the upcoming season. Along with my projection and standing for the upcoming season, it'll also feature three individual awards: Team MVP (let's not get into the debate over exactly what that means), the Most Important Reserve, and the Most Unheralded Asset.
Projected Record: 38-44 (T-3rd in the Southeast Division, T-9th in the Eastern Conference)
Off-season Acquisitions: B-Easy Mike Beasley, Superintendent Mario Chalmers, James Jones, Jamaal Magloire (sigh...), Yakhouba Diawara
Notable Losses: Ricky Davis, Jason Williams, Earl Barron, Stephane Lasme, Kasib Powell
2008-2009 Team MVP: Dwyane Wade - Respect.
Most Important Reserve: Michael Beasley/Udonis Haslem - Signs point to Beasley starting the season on the bench, but you have to think that he'll be starting by season's end. Be it Beasley or Haslem though, they'll have to provide an awful lot off the bench because frankly, there's not much there.
Most Unheralded Asset: James Jones - Well yeah, he's injured. Assuming he makes a full recovery, he can be a great asset for this team. A great shooter from the small forward position will do wonders to complement Wade, especially one who's game seems to fit the Miami gameplan for the position to a T.
Poetry in Motion
Photo from Reuters.
Poetry in Motion will feature my feeble attempts at mimicking the sonnets of one William Shakespeare, complete with a weak, liberal interpretation of iambic pentameter and an identical rhyme scheme. As they say, the NBA imitates art...I mean poetry...err, life imitates the NBA...or I imitate poetry while writing about the NBA. Something like that. Either way, each preview will contain two sonnets: one focusing on a wider, team outlook and another focusing on the roles and futures of individual players. Revel! Criticize! Enjoy!
The Miami Heat: renaissance by fire,
Last season's worst gains D-Wade and Beasley,
Davis deserted and J-Will retired,
The bench talent was left lacking; measly.
But it's good to know it can't get much worse,
Even if they're point-less and have no center,
With big additions, their fortunes reversed,
E'en if the current team isn't a winn'r.
Make no mistake: this squad is electric,
Even if they're not to be playoff bound,
Wade's a monster; Marion eclectic,
They're sure to amaze, amuse, and confound.
Not rebuilding, not contenders; between,
But anything is better than fifteen.
Wade is harder, better, faster, stronger,
To a degree that would make Daft Punk proud,
Sure, Beasley may be "the man" no longer,
But he'll succeed as much as he's allowed.
Marion's an asset: in game, in trade,
He'll help this team one way or the other,
They need young pieces to build around Wade,
And thus, their true potential discover.
For now, the supporting cast is quite thin,
In quality, though not in quantity,
Banks, Quinn, Chalmers, Blount, Anthony, Haslem,
Will play the 1 and 5 by committee.
An interesting roster, to be sure,
This Miami team will win as it matures.
Player Preview Spotlight: Michael Beasley
Photo from AP.The Player Spotlight feature highlights just one of the many cogs that make up the team. They may not be the best player on the team and they may not be the most recognizable (or who knows, they may be both), but I can guarantee that they're interesting. Their game, their on-court persona, their role within the greater scope of the team. Something about the player in the spotlight deserves your attention, and as usual, I'm more than willing to point it out to you.
My relationship with one Michael Beasley has been a complicated one. At K-State, it was hard to ignore the stats and the highlights. Beasley was an incredible scorer and an incredible rebounder, but I took both of those things with a grain of salt. The ways in which he scored screamed college ball: flat footed rebounds and putbacks, shooting over shorter defenders, generally being more athletic than whoever was guarding him. Plus, with the rebounding, Beasley happened to play in the Big 12, the conference where having a real center is for suckers. Most of the teams in the conference rely on the small forward or power forward to pick up the rebounding slack, and Beasley was no exception. In so many runs, Beasley was the biggest player on the floor for his team. So you take that rebounding by position garbage and you throw it out the window...at least in regard to his college stats. He'll still be a good positional rebounder in the NBA, he just happens to play power forward.
The big question is: if his game is so "college ball," how is it going to translate to the NBA style? How is this guy going to succeed on the pro level if he relied so much on his height and athleticism in the NCAA? It's easy, actually: Beasley has incredible basketball instincts. This guy is a machine who was put on this earth to play basketball. He knows where to be on offense to get the ball and he knows where to be to help facilitate the flow of the offense. He knows where to be on defense to deter his opponent, even if he has a reputation for not always giving maximum effort. He instinctively knows where to be when the shot goes up. Center or no center, his college rebounding numbers were phenomenal. Fluke or no fluke, you don't get those kinds of numbers without having a good knowledge of the game.
The scoring will come naturally for B-Easy. He's a dead-eye shooter from midrange, and hopefully he'll develop some consistency on that NBA three. He has nice skills inside, but he's not particularly savvy as a back to the basket player. The nice thing about this team is that it doesn't matter. Wade is dynamic as a slasher, but he's also money in the low block/baseline area. The stepback jumper and the turnaround bank shot that Wade has in his arsenal give the Heat a Jordan-esque (yeah, I said it) post-up guard. I think that was the mistake that a lot of people made coming out of the 2003 draft. LeBron was supposed to be the new Jordan, and in some ways he is. He is "the chosen one," he's ascended to the best in the game, and a larger than life player and personality. He's as much icon as he is superstar. But LeBron's game is much more Magic than it is Jordan. Only if Magic was a truly ongodly freak of an athlete and a ridiculous scorer. Wade's game screams Jordan to me: one part wreckless, two parts unstoppable. Early in his career he didn't have the range (some might argue that he didn't late in his career, either), but he was still unguardable. You knew he was going to take it hard to the rim or take that pull-up jumper, but there was just nothing you could do. Carmelo is probably Bird, only more athletic and with less fire. Anthony has plenty of pride but none of the raw desire that made Bird one of the feistiest to play the game and undoubtedly willed him to win after win. But purely in terms of how his game manifests itself on the court, Melo definitely resembles Larry Legend. He doesn't have as much skill around the basket in terms of variety, but he's quicker and relies just as much on his midrange game. What's ironic is that Melo is about as thug life as it gets, while Bird is the ideal rural white player. Both home-grown, but each in their own way. I have no idea where all this puts Chris Bosh.
But the point of all of this is that Beasley need not be a "traditional" pivot. In fact, he's set to be a more offensively focused Shawn Marion. I doubt he will ever be the tenacious defender that Marion has become, but likewise Marion won't ever be the offensive dynamo that Beasley can potentially be. The thought of a developed B-Easy and Wade in his prime should be terrifying, especially with a serviceable point (Chalmers?) and center on the roster. Right now, that's the dream. This team isn't ready, but unlike last season, they're not lost, either. Marion, Wade, and Beasley are all proud players, and they'll insure that though the Heat falter, they won't freefall. Then, once Marion departs for different pastures (not necessarily greener), the new era will truly be underway. Get your Tivos ready, NBAers.
Season Previews, F'real
For those poor, conservative souls trapped in normativity, I'll make sure to send you to a few places where you can read through more conventional, in-depth season previews. Most of these links will be from team bloggers whose trade is knowing what there is to know about their respective teams, so tell your ears to perk up; it's time to listen.
Hardwood Paroxysm
Deadspin/Basketbawful
Ball Don't Lie
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