Someone was going to have to get this started. These guys have to be our #1 competition (maybe Indiana too but the Pistons know they can keep beating them ). Let's not forget that they sent the Pistons to an insane series that went to Game 7!

But once again, history repeats itself as Shaq loses AGAIN to the Pistons and cries and cries about it. Now he's all worked up and ready to huff and puff and blow down the Pistons next season. Everyone's talking about his great choice of taking a paycut of a whole whooping 4 million to get more high caliber players like Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and James Posey; so instead of making millions beyond what anyone could possibly spend, he's...still making millions that no one could possibly spend in a lifetime.

Now their talking about adding Gary Payton: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2157959

What does this add to? What do you guys think? Gary Payton AGAIN? (Didn't they learn the last time? Chauncey & Hunter DESTROYED him.)

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The Heat has made fantastic moves that look both good and awful. Shaq has officially lost his mind, it seems. It is a good thing to be confident, but he has put himself as a Basketball God. It is an automatic feeling for a Piston fan to be skeptic of the oves made. We are hopefully that they will fall flat on their faces. I saw How that Lakers were stacked in 2003 and I thought they swould be impossible to beat. Everyone thinks that they can ride Shaq to a championship. But, it seems very destructive to ride on one man's ego. We will be the ones to witness this chemistry experiment if things go awry. At the same time, it look like Riley is putting a lot on Stan's shoulders. It's one thing to achieve when you are the under dog. It's clearly another to be in over your head.

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Damn, Damn, Damn!!!- Florida Evans

I think Miami's moves in the offseason should be applauded. Fortunately, you cannot buy chemistry. Until we see how well they play as a unit, one can speculate that last years team could be more cohesive/competitive. Wade is one of my favorites. Too bad he is on the enemy's team. ON PAPER, we have our hands full. Yeah, I know....not enough balls out there. No outside shooter. But this is definitely not just a two man show anymore We could see alot of different looks on offense...and defense to match. James Posey is an awesome defender. ..and I was left very impressed with Stan Van Gundy's ability to make adjustments in the playoffs. We are definitely going to earn our right to represent the East this year fellas.

The Miami moves were great and they have a lot of fire power. The problem is that they will be a totally different team from last year. What Miami has done is build a WEST COAST team to play in the Eastern Conference. Scoring will not be a problem with Miami it was not in the past. The problem was there inexperience and defense. They have not upgraded to improve these weaknesses. You can argue that the team is actually less of a threat to a defensive team now that the sharp shooters the Joneses are gone.

The Heat just inked Jason Kapono of 40+% 3 point shooting fame to an offer sheet yesterday.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Lucky for us they can't use everyone they have during the playoffs. I didn't know they'd be able to get this many players with Shaq's paycut though.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinal has a pretty long article today answering 15 questions about the Heat.

Sorry, but for whatever reason, I can never copy & paste links to post them on this site.

/added by roscoe36/ Dunno why you can't post links DT. Here is the link you wanted to post.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/b...la-sports-heat

The more I think about it, the more I have to shake my head at the way the rest of the world brushes off the Piston's accomplishments and talent.

And what was that stupid writer talking about when they said "Depth should not be overstated because the Pistons and San Antonio tightened their rotations on the way to last years finals"??? Helloooooooo? Anybody home? Isn't that exactly why the Pistons lost...because Miami had exhausted them prior to playing San Antonio and the bench was not utilized properly when there was foul trouble in the last game? If Miami had a bench last year maybe they could have overcome Wades injury for just part of one game.

The writer just assumes all of the Miami new player "ifs" will work out fine but the Pistons have a new coach "if" and that prevents them from seriously challenging Miami...Indiana on the other hand is going to be a bigger problem.

If the Pistons are not an excellent team to be reckoned with, what exactly does that say about their own teams that were knocked out by that very same Pistons bunch.

Funny, I like Wade and even Shaq is a likeable clown who makes irksome comments sometimes. It's the coach and the Miami media I cannot stand. It seems like the Miami trolls were the worst ones on the message boards last year too (not that we don't have our own or that the Indiana ones weren't bad).

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"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

I suppose its the local writers job to spin whatever moves the team makes into a positive. However, the article focuses a little to much on the individual parts (x-factor Posey? I think the biggest x-factory are the attitudes of Williams and Walker). If everything works out, you have added some dangerous offensive weapons to your team; any one capable of sticking a dagger in your playoff hopes. But instead of 15 questions, there should be only one question: can they play together. Too bad that one was never answered. Then again, if he could, he'd be a bookie and not a sports writer.

They can't defend us, and we can defend them. Thats all I care about. It's the playoffs that matter.