Ya in their old man years. Don't forget, they took the Jazz to game 6 of the WCF in probably their last real year of being competitive.
I think a 2.5 formula works just fine - which considering Bosh's performance this season, is really what Miami had. And what the Spurs had. I would consider a Harden + Howard + Parsons crew to be a 2.5 mix. I do think that at a minimum you need 2 true stars to contend, which we don't have yet. I think the real question is what sort of supporting cast you can build around your stars. I like the idea of adding just Howard because it saves our flexibility and allows us to keep quality players like Lin, Asik, Beverly, etc. I will take 2 or 2.5 stars plus quality role players and backups over 3 stars and a bunch of scrubs any day. The Spurs have used this formula for awhile now and I think it's hard to argue that it hasn't been successful. The result of this year's playoffs was one crappy Manu game away from being different.
Well, this year LA had a big four with Kobe, Dwight, Pau, and Nash. As I recall, that team was supposed to be unbeatable. Chemistry matters. It's a team game. If you have the right components, you don't even need a big one (witness Detroit). Or you can do it with one guy playing out of his mind (Hakeem, Dirk). Bosh looks bad on the Heat because they've put him out of position, and turned him into a passive jump shooter. Neither LeBron nor Wade are particularly good at running the pick and roll, and LeBron doesn't function so well if there's a guy in the post clogging the middle. So Bosh is doing a pretty good job as a terrible fit in the Miami system. And I don't think it's fair to complain that Bosh couldn't handle Duncan one on one. Look at the Memphis series: Gasol is the defensive player of the year. He's younger, bigger and stronger than Duncan, and he couldn't handle Duncan either. I don't think there's anyone in the league who can deal with Duncan's post game one on one, even at 37.
We can form our own Big 3 with Harden, Parsons and Lin. Heck, we'll have an all-star starting 5 with Asik transforming into the league's top 5 centres and Jones fully developing his skill set.
