{"id":1722,"date":"2007-10-28T14:44:59","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/miami-heat\/"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:44:59","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:44:59","slug":"miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/miami-heat","title":{"rendered":"Miami Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n40-42 (Tom), 43-39 (Gil)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n44-38<\/p>\n

Gil’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nNo other NBA event in recent years bothered me as much as Miami’s championship, mainly because it meant Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker were “vindicated” for being douchebags throughout their careers.<\/p>\n

So I laughed my bitch ass off when Miami got swept in the first round of the playoffs by Chicago. Sure, Dwyane Wade wasn’t at full strength, but Chicago’s speed and hustle made Miami look like the aging, brittle team that they are. Having made no significant changes going into this season, they’re deader than one of Khandi Alexander’s interlocutors on CSI: Miami. Baby.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>A few days before the season, Pat Riley finally got the idea that his team’s in serious trouble, so he traded Antoine Walker for Ricky Davis, with the idea of adding “some scoring punch.” Ricky is the most talented player Not To Get It since Vernon Maxwell; the Heat will handle him because the team has no young players for him to sour on the notion of playing a team game. Antoine, meanwhile, can eat himself into oblivion in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Darren Heitner’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nToo long to post, so check it out on his site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nWade’s numbers were pretty mind-blowing when he returned from injury late in the year to take on the league Bad Day at Black Rock style, but mostly because no team should have so little going on so as to defer to anyone at those levels right away.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nThe dean of Miami’s cartoonists is the Herald’s Jim Morin.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nIVAX, a major generic drug companies, was founded and based in Miami until it was bought out by Teva last year.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nThe only player on the roster Riley can claim any credit for developing is Udonis Haslem. They’re not exactly poised to build from within, is all I’m saying. –GR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 40-42 (Tom), 43-39 (Gil) Last Year’s Record 44-38 Gil’s Commentary No other NBA event in recent years bothered me as much as Miami’s championship, mainly because it meant Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker were “vindicated” for being douchebags throughout their careers. So I laughed my bitch ass off when Miami got … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Miami Heat”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1722","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-rM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1726,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/minnesota-timberwolves","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":0},"title":"Minnesota Timberwolves","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 18-64 (Tom), 20-62 (Gil) Last Year's Record 32-50 Tom's Commentary Sebastian Telfair's odyssey as kind of a strange mini-me to Stephon Marbury takes him to the land of Garrison Keillor, Marbury's first pro stomping grounds. The Timberwolves are actually Al Jefferson's team, which is interesting in that Jefferson\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1743,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/indiana-pacers","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":1},"title":"Indiana Pacers","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 40-42 (Tom), 38-44 (Gil) Last Year's Record 35-47 Gil's Commentary Holy crap, is this team in trouble. Any squad that bases its chances for success in Mike Dunleavy, Jr., is doomed. Ask Golden State. The Pacers have deep, deep problems, and I used to chalk it up to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1723,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/orlando-magic","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":2},"title":"Orlando Magic","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 44-38 (Tom), 50-32 (Gil) Last Year's Record 40-42 Gil's Commentary Orlando made the biggest free-agent splash in the off-season, if you consider wildly overpaying for a limited player to be a big splash. The Magic brought in Rashard Lewis, who will -- like Jason Richardson in Charlotte --\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1745,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/season-honors","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":3},"title":"Season Honors","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"TEAM HONORS NBA Championship Tom: Phoenix Over Miami Craig: Spurs over Dallas and then some eastern conference team, say the Pistons Gil: Spurs beat Phoenix, wallop the Bulls. Surprise Playoff Teams Tom: Charlotte, Portland Craig: NJ and Lakers Gil: Milwaukee, Lakers (post-Kobe trade) Surprise Non-Playoff Teams Tom: Golden State, Washington\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":4},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1722,"position":5},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1722\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}