Miami Heat Get Late Christmas Present With Goran Dragic

I’ll admit that I was skeptical. The likelihood that Goran Dragic was going to become a member of the Miami Heat was very low in my estimation. This is mainly because I didn’t know who they were going to get rid of, and I wasn’t sure how desperate the Phoenix Suns were to get rid of Dragic. It’s not as though I was alone in that. Most were unsure that Miami would be giving anything significant to Phoenix.

But I forgot the cardinal sin of living in Miami (where I am from): do not doubt the Don. The “Don” is Pat Riley, who has now assembled his third super team in the last decade. Take a journey with me on a short history of the Miami Heat.

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Do You Remember Flash?

Dwyane Wade was drafted fifth in the 2003 draft, a class that included LeBron James and Chris Bosh, two names that will figure to be prominent in Miami history. He had a simple team that merely went to the second round of the playoffs. The next year they acquired Shaquille O’Neal in a trade for Lamar Odom. What happened with this team? Well, they should have gone to more NBA Finals than they did. If you’ll remember, they went to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to the Detroit Pistons twice after injuries to O’Neal and Wade.

The next season, the Heat were able to get over the hump. They were able to get passed the Pistons, whom they had to face for the third consecutive year. This time, without any injuries to their core players, they beat that team 4-2. The rest of the story is history, and that team won the championship against the Dallas Mavericks.

The King Comes To Miami

In 2011, LeBron James and Chris Bosh came to the Heat in search of a championship. The whole experiment started out rocky, especially when the Heat ended up losing to the Dallas Mavericks in a bout of poetic justice. Unfortunately, that year didn’t work out quite like they would have hoped. But the next season, the Heat came back with a vengeance.

The Heat won the championship that year against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Then they won the next year against the San Antonio Spurs.

So why do I bring up this short history? The reason is that in the last decade, the Heat have gone to five NBA Finals appearances, and have won three of those championships. This will now be the third biggest free agent signing in the last decade, and looking back at history, the other two free agent signings result in championships.

I’m not saying that Miami is a sure thing, or that they will sweep the NBA by storm this season. What I am saying is that this move was incredible for them. The Heat will be able to put out Dragic, Wade, Luol Deng, Bosh and Hassan Whiteside in the same lineup. That lineup is as good as anybody’s team is in the East. It is a lineup that can beat the Atlanta Hawks, or the Cleveland Cavaliers, and as history has shown us, win a potential championship.

Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time

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