Miami-Chicago Game Six and Beyond

Thursday night the writers for Page4Hoop found themselves in the nosebleed seats at the United Center in Chicago to watch game six between the Heat and the Bulls. It was a must-win situation for the Bulls as they faced elimination, but they had the home court, and were the better defensive team. This game seemed like one that they could win, although the odds didn’t necessarily favor the youthful Bulls since the Heat were a proven veteran team with the best post presence in the game, in Shaquille O’Neal. That being said, the Bulls had managed to keep the series competitive up until the final quarter in game five, where the teams were tied and then the Heat went on to thorouly handle the Bulls. Game six looked a good deal like the final quarter in game five, with the veteran Heat team looking savvy rather than sad, and the Bulls looking inexperienced rather than tenacious. Ultimately the game turned in favor of the Heat, as they grabbed an early lead, and steadily stayed 13-15 points ahead of the Bulls for most of the game. Though it was a hard fought series, in the end it held no major surprises and proved to be a good barometer for the present and future for both these teams.

The Heat are a team built for right now, actually they may have been built for two years ago, a time before veterans like Gary Payton, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams lost some of their respective edge. Though any veteran team is built for the playoffs, and this Heat squad has found themselves right in the thick of playoff action, poised to succeed if their age doesn’t hold them back. With the exception of Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem and Wayne Simeon: James Posey is the ‘youth’ on the team, with some seven years of league experience. Since Simeon has played a total of 3 minutes, it is difficult to figure him too much into the equation. The point is, that the Heat are going to struggle at times against young teams like the Bulls, were this a best-of-five series, it would not be inconceivable that the Bulls would be able to steal it, but as a best-of-seven, the Heat have to be the clear favorites. This is the path the Heat will see throughout the playoffs, struggling at times in a gruelingly long series but ultimately, through veteran fortitude and resolve, achieving victory. Until they meet the Detroit Pistons, the lone team in the Eastern Conference that is actually capable of defeating the Heat. The Pistons possess the right mixture of youth and veterans, and are a much better defensive team. And as they say, “Defense wins championships.”

So the logical question one must ask is, “Where can the Heat go from here?” With a squad that is either too old to trade, or too well paid to trade, how can a team that in all likelihood is not good enough to win a championship, improve upon a fine but, at the end of the day, disappointing season. Some might say that a squad like this should be put out on the court until it becomes definitively clear that they are no longer capable of producing at a high level, though that might not be necessary. Dwyane Wade is one of the most exciting players in all of basketball and is, for the sake of bringing a championship to South Beach, just the kind of trade bait necessary to acquire a player like Kevin Garnett. If the Heat were to offer a package of Wade, Walker, Williams and Michael Doleac for Garnett and Rashad McCants, the Timberwolves would be hard pressed to turn the offer down. Pairing Garnett with O’Neal might be the step necessary to secure the franchise a championship, since Wade is really several years away from his prime (which is a scary thought) and Garnett is at full stride today. The Heat choose to mortgage their future by trading for the veteran help they did in the off-season, but that may not be enough for a championship. If that proves to be the case, the Heat should strongly consider dealing Wade for a player currently in his prime to pair with what will likely be Shaq’s final truly productive season.

As I watched the Bulls play last night I was reminded of the Phoenix Suns for several reasons. Aside from the Bulls ability to sometimes dictate a run-and-gun style offensive attack, they were, much like the Suns of 2003, in real competition with one of the best teams in the league. In 2003, a Suns squad led by Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway, but supported by Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion and Joe Johnson, the core of the team that won 62 games a year ago, took the Spurs to six games in one of the best series of that year’s playoffs. Anyone who watched the series couldn’t help being excited for the Suns; they clearly had some great talent and with the right moves would be able to turn themselves into a stellar team. As history proves, those who believed in the Suns were right because they made the right moves and a year after going to the conference semis, are on the brink of winning a series in which they have no traditional post presence, a feat nearly unheard of. The Bulls, like the Suns before them, are simply an incomplete team. They have great pieces, maybe even more so than that Suns team of 2003 had, but those pieces are really lacking a franchise type presence to take over in the hardest parts of games.

Though even that is a difficult assessment to make, as this playoff series was a veritable coming out party for three of the young Bulls. Andres Nocioni, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon all averaged over 20 points a game in the series, accounting for 64% of the teams scoring. This figure is a bit deceptive though. While Nocioni was amazing from the field, shooting 56% and shooting 47% from behind the arc, Hinrich and Gordon were not as effective shooting a right around 40.5% from the field and 35% from the arc. So as productive as their scoring output was, Gordon and Hinrich simply couldn’t shoot a high enough percentage to really be completely effective. Nocioni has emerged as the team’s most effective offensive option, but the two guards would be vastly more effective with a serious post presence, ala Eddy Curry. Since Curry isn’t headed back to Chicago anytime soon, except to visit his family or dressed in a Knicks uniform, it would behoove the Bulls to look elsewhere for a big.

Fortunately, Eddy Curry was such a prized commodity in New York that Isaiah Thomas traded away this years, and potentially next years draft pick for him. Also fortunate is the fact that this years draft, and next years, features several quality big men ready to come in and make an impact in the post immediately. Without getting into those available for in next year, the Bulls have the potential to grab a serious player in this years draft to bolster this already strong, albeit unbalanced roster. Lamarcus Aldridge would be the perfect fit in Chicago. He seems to be drawing a lot of comparisons to Channing Fry or Chris Bosh. Sufficed to say, he has a very complete offensive game. Aldridge is a monster in the post, though at Texas he seemed to drift more towards the perimeter at times, but that was mostly because his guards didn’t seem to want to feed him down low. Having an incredibly versatile offensive player like Aldridge would go a long way toward neutralizing Tyson Chandler’s inept offensive attack. It would also free things up in the lanes for Gordon and Hinrich to explore this slashing game they are just recently starting to realize they have at their disposals. By acquiring a youthful post presence, rather than a veteran one that is ready to come in and win immediately, the Bulls can allow this roster to grow organically and achieve success together, weeding out the parts that prove to be unnecessary for the long run. Championship teams are built over time and not overnight; its important for the fans in Chicago to remember that since this current roster could one day, in the not too distant future, be playing for one.

The fact that championship teams are not built overnight is also important for fans in Miami to remember. Of course their team was built overnight and may win a championship, if the right players step up and play like they were 5 years younger for a few weeks and the right players on the Pistons sprain or tweak something. These are two teams looking at the championship window from different angles. The Bulls are still trying to open it, learning how to open the lock and slide it up, while the Heat are using ever last ounce of veteran strength to keep the thing open for a few more weeks. If both teams are not careful, they may find themselves on the wrong side of the window in the future, or if they are, they might find themselves exactly where they want to be; standing on TV with every other team looking on through that window was they lift the Larry O’Brien trophy high in the air.