NBA Betting – How Good Can Miami Really Be?

While those betting NFL online are trying to get ready for their season, they surely were paying attention when the NBA pulled out the story of the summer at the beginning of this month, when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined forces with Dwyane Wade in Miami. So, the question is, how good can the Miami Heat really be?

Most places where people are betting online are setting the over/under for Heat wins at 65, which is seven games behind the all-time record of 72, set by Michael Jordan’s Bulls from the 1995-96 season. That team had the likes of Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman leading the way, but you have to admit, a trio of James, Wade and Bosh is intriguing. First, we have James, a 25-year-old two-time NBA MVP. You have Wade, the MVP of the 2006 NBA Finals and champion in his own right. Then there’s Bosh, who…..um, he did manage to play very well in the USA gold-medal win at the 2008 Olympics. Now, it’s a matter of fleshing out the roster, and those who are betting on college football know that even though you have stars, you need role players to do the dirty work.

The Heat, so far, have signed Mike Miller to knock down the open threes that will be available by the penetration of James and Wade, while Mario Chalmers, who has been in Miami for three years now, adds defense. The Heat have plenty of size and experience with Jamaal Magloire, Juwan Howard, longtime Miami player Udonis Haslem and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who played with James his entire career in Cleveland. This takes some of the pressure off of Bosh to bang around in the interior, which really isn’t his strength. It’ll also take pressure off of James and Wade, who were pretty much being asked to do everything on their former teams.

The 65-win realm isn’t out of the question for the Heat. You saw the teams that James dragged to 60-plus wins in Cleveland. Now he has Wade, who isn’t far behind him in the “best player” running in the NBA, and a legitimate 20/10 guy in Bosh, although his numbers will probably fall with having to share the ball with Wade and James. The biggest question will be, at the end of those close games and the Heat are, heaven forbid, down by a point or two, who gets the ball? James and Wade looked a bit confused by that the Olympics, until Kobe Bryant overruled both of them and took over the gold-medal game against Spain. Still, we’d place a sports online bet on the Heat winning at least 60 games, easily.