Imagine in this hypothetical that Lebron doesn’t exist and by 2014 KD is a young GOAT. In this scenario, Melo goes to Miami instead of Lebron, do you think they win any titles? I was talking to a friend about this and I think they would be lucky to get one in 2011 but it would be tough for them to even beat the bulls. After that I think they don’t get out of the East and even if they do, the Thunder and Spurs would beat them.
Do we assume Wade declines the same way and he and Bosh sustain the same kind of injuries? Cuz if so healthy or not, I don’t see them winning 2011 or 2014 which Heatles lost anyway.
2013 I think downgrading from Bron to Melo has them take the L there. Bron started the finals looking sus but went off in the second half. Not to mention I don’t think Melo is putting forth the defensive performance Bron had in that series. Even then, Spurs lost in 7 and nearly won in 6. Heat may not even make it out of the ECF given with Bron they went 7 with Indiana.
2012 is really the only question to me. Bosh was irrelevant for roughly half of that championship run due to injury, and Indy went 6 games with Miami, including going up 2-1. Bron put up like 30/10 for this series.
Boston won 3 straight games against them and Bron averaged something like 34/10/4 for the series and they went 7 with them. If they make it through the East this is perhaps their best bet for a ring of any year.
Thunder lost in 5 but games 2-4 were pretty competitive. Is Miami still able to successfully scheme against Harden in this scenario? Would the Thunder players besides KD and Russ play significantly worse against Miami still compared to how they performed VS SA? Either way, 2012 would be this team’s best shot