NBA Early-Season Review: Heat Struggles, Lakers and LeBron

Let's talk a little NBA. NBA? What's going on with the NBA? The NBA has great games this weekend, starting today. Well, I'm so sad because, you know, my predictions on, you know, who is going to be good, who is going to be bad, and I'm a homer, I'm a Miami Heat fan, I'm from Miami, it's the one professional team from Miami that I really cheer for. And I don't understand why they're doing so bad. They lost their last game by four points. Yep. They're not. So Bam Adebayo, who was our previous. Yeah, but he's only averaging 11 points. I don't think he knows how to play with Giannis. The thing is, what Miami is going through is something that big teams go when they bring these stars that have been. Over a decade with a different team. It takes a long time for them to gel with the new players. When you have so many alpha personalities in the locker room, it takes a little bit of time for everybody to find their new place, their new boundaries, who's going to get the ball, who's going to manage the ball. So I feel like that is growing pains. The potential that Miami has when Giannis starts really playing and dealing with the rest of the team. Right, because he's doing amazing on his own. He's averaging 28 points a game. So Giannis is scoring. Now, the problem was identified by Dwayne Wade, the Miami Heat all-time great. He pointed out that when LeBron James joined the Miami Heat, Dwayne Wade had to have a conversation with LeBron James saying, Hey, I will defer to you at certain points. Because what happened is LeBron James didn't want to step on Dwayne Wade's toes, And it created a weird chemistry on court. A shyness that shouldn't exist. Yeah, at some point, somebody has to go ahead and defer to the other and say, Look, you go ahead and take it, and I'll find my spots. Giannis and Bam have to have that conversation going the way it's said. Without a doubt. Yeah, so we'll see how it goes. And then the Lakers, I'm surprised, man. Like, no defense Lakers are doing well. And their stars are not even playing at their best. Luka with a so-so game in the last two. Reeves, you will say that he's still not hitting his prime, and the new additions are still finding, but they are figuring out a way to win. The coach is proving naysayers wrong, that they will say that the Lakers will collapse, and I see them playing really, really well. I'm one of those naysayers. Now, I still think it's a long season. I would love to see Miami rebound, and now it's hard to rebound if they dig themselves too much of a hole, but I don't know if the Lakers can maintain. This kind of rhythm because defense is what's going to come into play later on in the season and they're not the big defensive team. But maybe I'm going to be proven wrong again. I keep on being proven wrong when it comes to basketball. I will say this. You were pointing out about when a star joins a team. That's not happening in Philadelphia. Oh, you read my mind. I was going to talk about one big game tomorrow. Okay, what's the big game tomorrow? New York Knicks, the defending champions against the 76ers of Philadelphia. a classico of the East Coast Right this is The fancy Nancys of the city versus the blue-collar workers of Philadelphia. Two of the three most, I'm going to say two of the four roughest cities, because I would say Philadelphia, New York, I'm going to throw in Boston, and I'm going to throw in my hometown, Miami. Miami's a rude city. When I have friends from L.A. go to Miami, they're like, man, everyone is shady in Miami. I go, I know, I know. Look at the last matchups. Let's go to the screen, my friends. 76-6. Defeat the Knicks. The Knicks, they got them back in May. The Knicks beat them again in the series. Knicks have been having the winning record lately against the 76ers, but LeBron makes this a whole different, a whole different thing. Funny caveat, too. LeBron, because he's living in New York City, we know the whole, you know, there's an investigation happening as to whether, you know, they're circumventing salary cap rules by having that helicopter. He's living in New York. So why didn't he go to the New York Knicks? He said, now he didn't say this, sources say. That LeBron James didn't want to go to the Knicks because they won the championship. He wants to go to a team where he can contribute to them winning a championship, not a team that's already a champion already. So the Knicks could have had LeBron James, but he went to Philadelphia. I don't think he's ever going to go to Boston. He has bad experiences the way Boston treated him.