With Chris Bosh’s career most likely coming to an abrupt end, the Miami Heat find themselves facing a lingering dilemma.
“Not five, not six, not seven…”
It seemed like it was just yesterday when three of the game’s biggest stars decided to come together in South Beach during the summer of 2010. At that time, it looked as if the Miami Heat had a stranglehold on the next 10 championships.
Dwyane Wade was just a season removed from his 2008-09 peak campaign — a season in which he led the league in scoring and enjoyed one of the most productive and dominant seasons of any shooting guard not named Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.
Likewise, Chris Bosh — for anyone who doubts his pre-Heatles credentials — was coming off a season where he averaged 29.2 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists for an entire month, before (literally) breaking his face and effectively ending the 2010 playoff hopes of the Toronto Raptors.
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As for that LeBron James guy, he had just won his second league MVP award while leading a cast of misfits and over-the-hill stars to a second consecutive 60-plus win season.
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Before the “superfriends” all took their talents to Miami, the concept of the superteam was righteous and moral.
Franchises like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics had built their dynasties organically; specifically, through the draft, and by asset collection and trades — not a preconceived plan to “cheat the system”, as some old school basketball enthusiasts would complain.
Like it or not, controversy creates cash, and the post-Heatles NBA produced some of the best ratings the league had ever experienced.
Since then, the value of NBA teams has sky-rocketed, as the interest (or hate) created by the big 3 was sustained due to their rollercoaster of a 4-year run, in which they went 2-2 in four consecutive Finals appearances.
While the Heatles era had prematurely ended just two summers ago when Bron Bron decided to go home and win one for the ‘Land, Friday most likely marked the closing of the last remaining remnant of the famed, paradigm-changing big 3.
Chris Bosh reportedly fails physical due to continued clotting, is not cleared for training camp https://t.co/Rz50UBHimD pic.twitter.com/49mNCGunK2
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 23, 2016
Without the aforementioned freed cap space, however, the Heat would be hard-pressed to build through free agency, as they lack the draft-pick collection that the Cs so famously boasts.
In such a case, it would be wise for the team to, ahem, tank next season in lieu of the stacked 2017 NBA draft.
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In many ways, with Bosh fighting to keep his career alive, Miami will be facing an ongoing dilemma: either compete for the playoffs in the wide-open East with the hope of retooling in free agency or tank the season and endure a full-on rebuild.