The Heat Got Beat

So, Miami couldn't handle the Celtics in their first game of the season. A lot of people were probably surprised about that, but as you have seen me write before, I didn't have my heart set on this team. I think that this kind of phenomenon has happened before. I know that there are teams that have several stars. If you remember back to the Bulls in the 90s, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman were all pretty heavy stars on those teams. However, there was a definite role for each of them to play. I believe that they all had talents complemented each other. I think that Lebron, Dwayne, and Chris will figure this out because they are great players with different abilities, but I think it will take time. For all three of them, they were the definite stars on their franchises last year so there will be a learning curve to learn how to use other stars as teammates. It probably will happen, and with all of the talent that they possess, they will eventually be very good or even great. But it won't be an instant takeover; I believe that they need time to bond before they will dominate.
Photo by RMTip21 on Flickr

Price Floor

You know, if all of the NBA owners got together to try to fix player salaries and determine who would play where next year, I bet that the union would be all over that case. However, when Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Joe Johnson want to meet to discuss plans for next year, nobody seems to have a problem with it. Maybe this is not their intent whatsoever, but they could totally play the owners by raising the price of each other. For example, say they all wanted $100,000,000. If they all agreed to remain at that price, they all would get it. Without this agreement in place, one of them could get a smaller contract and therefore eliminate the higher priced options from other teams. Again, maybe they are just meeting to talk, but it seems a bit unfair that these guys, even though they are some of the best players in the NBA, could get together and set a price floor. It may work out well for them financially, but as I learned in economics, whenever you fix the prices, you get inefficiency. In this case, this inefficiency is the added money that these guys could receive above what they are worth that could've been spent on bringing in other parts to build a championship team. Basketball is more than a one-man game.
Photo by AndyRob on Flickr