2007 NBA Season Preview - Miami Heat

A Look at the Upcoming 07-08 Season

Miami Heat
'06-'07 Record/Standing: 44-38 (.537); Southeast Division Champs
'06-'07 Postseason (if applicable): Lost in Eastern Conference Quarterfinals (4-0 to Chicago)
Coach (Record): Pat Riley, 3^rd season w/Miami (72-49); 24^th season overall
Key Additions: PG Smush Parker (FA; Los Angeles Lakers); G/F Anfernee Hardaway (FA: New York)
Key Losses: G Eddie Jones (FA: Dallas); G/F Jason Kapono (FA; Toronto); SF James Posey (FA; Boston)

People say that one of the hardest things to do in professional sports is to defend a championship. You go from the hunter to the hunted in the span of almost no time at all. From the time you loft the trophy, it's time to think about the other teams all placing a big bulls-eye on your back. For the Miami Heat, the combination of the bulls-eye and the injuries that they suffered last season, they slid into the playoffs as a division champion in a rather average Southeast Division only to get embarrassed in the quarterfinals by the Chicago Bulls. They return this season as a team ready to prove that the championship they won in 2006 was not a fluke and that they deserve to be considered in the conversation for the NBA championship. When you have Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, it can make that task a lot easier.

Have the Heat got what it takes to continue to compete in the Eastern Conference? Will they be able to stay healthy long enough to have an effect in the jumble atop the Conference? Part of winning in the postseason is having a team that is somewhat fresh heading into the playoffs. Will the Heat hang on too much to their veterans, like O'Neal, that they could be resting for the postseason? Where will the Heat stand when it's all said and done?

Projected Starting Lineup ('06-'07 Stats)
PG: Jason Williams (61 games, 10.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 5.3 apg)
SG: Dwyane Wade (51 games, 27.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 7.5 apg)
SF: Antoine Walker (78 games, 8.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.7 apg)
PF: Udonis Haslem (79 games, 10.7 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.2 apg)
C: Shaquille O'Neal (40 games, 17.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 2.0 apg)