Yesterday the NBA released its schedule for the first week of the new season, beginning October 26, as well as a couple of other marquee dates like Christmas, New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day. But these aren’t the first murmurs that the new season is approaching; far from it. If you haven’t been paying attention because it’s summer and there are better things to be concerned with than the NBA off-season, there’s been a lot going on.

 

Since the season ticked over on July 6, the landscape of the NBA has been altered quite dramatically by the movement of several players. Two of those players in particular, Chris Bosh and LeBron James, joined the Miami Heat. Elsewhere a number of teams got stronger on paper – frequently paying well over the odds to get there – but the Heat went all-in on their superstar strategy and have compiled a team for the ages it would seem. Already blesses with Dwayne Wade (who led them to the title in 2006) who’s a Top 3 guy in the league, they now have another Top 3 guy in James and a Top 15 guy in Bosh. They’ve surrounded them with role players and veterans; a below average supporting cast, but if you have the two best players on the court every night and 3 of the best 4, the other guys probably won’t matter so much. This is the theory anyway.

It looks like the Heat will be playing an unconventional style of ball without a traditional point guard. LeBron James will likely share the playmaking duties with Dwayne Wade and they will probably play an up-tempo style focussing on their speed and skill advantages, rather than employing half-court sets where their lack of size (they have few quality bigs, if any) will be exposed. It’s a novel method that brings to mind the Chicago Bulls from 1996 to 1998. They had no true point guard and a centre who was there to fill space. But they go down as probably the best team over any 3 year stretch ever, because they had an all-time Big 3: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. The Heat will sell out stadiums all round the league, just like those Bulls. However they’re more likely to be reviled than revered; at least for now.

With this giant target on their back (which ironically takes the pressure off the LA Lakers who are gunning for a three-peat) fans everywhere want to make their home turf as hostile as possible for the visiting Heat. In retaliation to this, Miami is embracing the role of the Bad Guy. Take the example of Eddie House, who just signed for the Heat. LeBron James tweeted on his arrival “Welcome to team John Dillinger”, referencing the American outlaw of the 1930’s. The Heat are quite prepared for the vitriol they expect to face in opposing arenas and are meeting it with all the brash, third person-talking, ego-driven gusto of youth. Should make for a compelling season.

 

But when the league’s best players make such a big decision, issues arise. It’s widely believed that James in particular is taking the easy way out. The older generation of stars has weighed in already, with Jordan, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley all saying they would rather have beaten each other than joined one another. It’s a fair point that sticks with the fans as well, if you consider the analogy of a lunch time game of ball anywhere in the world. When picking teams, you separate the two best players and they each pick players one by one. That’s how basketball works; that’s how sports work. And in the case of LeBron James, whose ceiling as a player is almost non-existent, it seems a shame that we can’t see him fulfil his potential by himself; that he needs the help of other great players to win. It’s believed that this will taint his legacy when all’s said and done, but even though he would rather win, no matter what the handicap, than win the old fashioned way, these posturings should be made at the end of his career not the middle.

 

In the wider sphere of things, the SuperFriends as they have become known, may be the start of a league-wide trend whereby players have more command over their destinations, and more importantly the players they end up with. Already, Carmelo Anthony is reportedly ready to leave a three year, $60 million extension with Denver on the table in favour of joining Amare Stoudemire and co in New York – so the theory goes – so that he’s got his own Big 3 capable of taking on Miami. A risky move, only a year before the next Collective Bargaining Agreement is to be fleshed out between the Players Association and the NBA (and its team owners), and the very real threat of another lockout looming. But if everyone else is doing it, then it must be cool, right?

Does this guy need another $60 million?

Such a strategy may widen the chasm between the haves and have nots, yet one can’t help but notice that the Knicks are very much one of the have nots, and have been for the past 30 years. Perhaps then, the writing is on the wall for small market teams, whose hopes of retaining superstars long enough to make a concerted run to the championship slipped away, along with LeBron’s talents to quality franchises in warm climates like the one on South Beach.

 

An alternate theory – one that seems much more relevant to the have nots and small market franchises – is that the NBA could regress to a more defence-oriented style, in an attempt to shut down the high-geared offences gathering down the track. Incidentally the league entered a period of defence-dominated teams after the Lakers had completed their last 3-peat. LA stacked their squad with talent but came unstuck against the Detroit Pistons in the Finals, one of the great defensive teams. The last decade was dominated by defence with San Antonio, Boston and Detroit dominating the decade.

 

Will history repeat? In nearly 3 months we’ll begin to find out.