NBA Champs of the Past Broken Down: How Do LeBron James and the Heat Stack Up?

The Miami Heat are playing great basketball right now. They've probably even been the best team in the league to this point in the season and that includes the Spurs, who have a better record than Miami. People knew that Miami would be good, but I'm not sure they thought they'd be this good, this fast. 

The Heat are 30-9 and would be the first seed in the Eastern Conference if the season were to end today. They have a point differential of +9.5 and two players on their team that have legitimate cases for MVP in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Now that the team has shown they have figured out regular season basketball, they are ready for the big question. Can this team win the NBA championship? 

When you look at the blueprints of the championship teams of the past decade, they don't match up. Here are a few things that should have the Heat worried when looking at these champions: 

Coaching

Erik Spoelstra is a leading candidate for Coach of the Year this year? Are these people insane...I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS! How can a coach who has done nothing his whole entire career suddenly be the mid-season Coach of the Year front-runner when he has LeBron James on his team. Oh yeah, I forgot Dwyane Wade too. Oh wow, how did I let Chris Bosh slip my mind too? 

That's right, Spo has LeBron, Wade and Bosh. I'm sorry if I'm going to have to point it out, but this guy isn't that good of a coach. He definitely isn't a better coach than even half of the ones in the league right now. This is a problem for the Heat because over the last decade the champions of the NBA have all had either great coaches or great coaching staffs.

The Lakers have had Phil Jackson running the show for all of their championships. Phil Jackson is a mastermind of the game who knows how to get in the heads of opponents and his triangle offense has been mimicked by many other teams in hopes that they can have the success that he has.

Larry Brown and Greg Popovich who coached the Pistons and Spurs to their championships respectively, are both hard nosed coaches who discipline their players into playing smart, slow basketball that wear teams down for 48 minutes a game. Pat Riley is another coach, like Phil Jackson, who is widely respected as one of the best coaches to ever play. He took a Miami team who many didn't think would win with an old Shaquille O'Neal and old supporting cast and upset the best team in the league in the finals.

As for the Celtics, Doc Rivers may not be considered one of the best coaches ever, but his coaching staff that consisted of new Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau taught a team full of superstars to play team basketball that started on the defensive end. 

I don't like picking on Erik Spoelstra for no reason, but he isn't the coach that any of these guys were and the Heat will see that when the pressure is on in the playoffs. 

Support Cast and Bench

The big three have been great this season. In fact, they have had games where they have scored more than 80% of their teams points. This may be "cool", but it is not something the Heat management and coaching staff should be proud of. 

The Lakers, Spurs, Pistons, Celtics and Heat all had something in common when they won their championships. They all had guys who could play their roles to perfection and players who could come off the bench and give their starters some rest without risk of cardiac arrest. 

The Lakers have had guys like Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic, Trevor Ariza and Ron Artest as their supporting cast to their big name players like Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. These guys can defend, stretch the floor and create match up nightmares for other teams. And going back to their earlier championships players like Rick Fox, Devean George and Robert Horry seemed to always come in and knock down big, big shots.

The Pistons had guys like Mehmet Okur and Corliss Williamson, who the common NBA fans wouldn't even know at the time, come in and change games in the playoffs. This to go along with a starting five who from top to bottom contributed. The Spurs championship teams had, in my opinion, the best role player of all time in Bruce Bowen. The guy was potentially the best one on one defender in the league and seemed to knock down the corner three every time he took it. They also had Robert Horry and Brent Barry come off the bench for some much needed offensive spark.

The Celtics team that won the championship had unsung heroes like Kendrick Perkins in their starting lineup and guys like James Posey and Leon Powe who came off the bench to provide either scoring, defense or rebounding to an older starting unit that needed rest. The Heat shared having Posey with that Celtics team, as well as guys like Gary Payton, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams, who later in their careers became great role players that championship teams must have. 

The Heat have undeniable talent and star power in their starting lineup, but they might not have what it takes around them to win a championship. They just have players missing, especially at the point guard position. They also lack that tough, dominant big man that all these other teams had. 

Winners

Being a winner is something you have deep down inside of you. These players have a knack for making the right plays late in games and have the innate knowledge to not let games slip away early on. Dwyane Wade may have won a championship, but he had a lot of help that season. The Heat lack the guys that these other championship teams had.

Tony Parker and Tim Duncan were both players with great basketball knowledge who don't let games get away easily. Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant are two of the most clutch players to ever play basketball and they played for the same team. Shaquille O'Neal had this quality to him for both the Lakers and Heat. The Pistons had Chauncey Billups, who is a tempo-setter that can keep a team in the game no matter who is around him. Lastly, the Celtics who had guys like Garnett and Posey who seemed to always make plays when they needed to and not to mention Paul Pierce who seemed like a man possessed to win a championship. 

LeBron James may be the best player in the league, but he does not have this quality. He gave up on his teammates in Cleveland and at times seemed uninterested in the ending moments of games. Chris Bosh has never done anything significant in the playoffs in his career and lately has seemed like he is more of a second option than a franchise player. 

The Heat are a very talented team and they may win a championship soon, but I doubt it will be this year. They have good players, but seem to lack the right ones. Look at the championship teams of the last decade and you will see that there are places that the Heat really need to look to improve if they want to finally crown the King.