The Heat have fallen quite a bit since their glory days as a championship team. Granted, there is still quite a bit of talent with Shawn Marion and a healed Dwayne Wade along with rookie Michael Beasley.
The problem is that Beasley will probably make an impact right away, but he won’t make enough of an impact for the Heat to dominate the Eastern Conference—and Marion is unhappy in Miami. The real question for the Heat will be how effective Wade can be without having Shaq around as the team leader.
Given his performance this summer at the Olympics, the answer should be very effective, but the Heat won only 15 games last year. If Wade can at least help Miami double that number, he should be considered for MVP—although it’s doubtful that anyone missing the playoffs could make a strong case for winning that award.
Orlando Magic
Projected Depth Chart:
PG Jameer Nelson/Anthony Johnson
SG Mickael Pietrus/J.J. Redick
SF Hedo Turkoglu/Keith Bogans
PF Rashard Lewis/Tony Battie/Brian Cook
C Dwight Howard/Adonal Foyle/Marcin Gortat
The way it works in the Southeast is that there is the Orlando Magic, and then there’s everyone else. What last year’s playoffs indicated was that this division really has no relevance to a relatively weak Eastern Conference.
The Magic rolled through the young and inexperienced Toronto Raptors, who were probably just happy to be there, before the more experienced Detroit Pistons bounced Orlando in the very next round.
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