The Nba

So this is the new NBA paradigm? Put together a 7'1", 330-pound earthmover with comedic chops ( Shaquille O'Neal), an aw-shucks superstar who gets more calls than a Vegas escort service ( Dwyane Wade), a future Hall of Fame coach so desperate to win a seventh ring that he plays zone, a defense he hates ( Pat Riley), an undrafted power forward whose surname has become a verb that means "don't bother guarding him" ( Udonis Haslem) and two creaky former stars who went all Ponce de Le�n at key points during the Finals ( Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton). Simple, right?

The Heat, which dropped the first two games to the Mavericks only to run off four straight wins, the last a 95--92 victory in Dallas on June 20, is perhaps the most anomalous among the 60 champions in league history. Don't bother copying Miami--chances are, the Heat isn't sure how things worked out so well itself or, more to the point, whether they'll ever work out so well again. But Miami's comeback did prove two points: first, that champions don't have to develop over years and years, and second, that team chemistry isn't vital in November as long as it's there in May and June.

Much of this Heat team came out of a test tube in the laboratory of team president Riley last summer. Payton, sixth man James Posey (perhaps Riley's most canny pickup) and two starters, forward Antoine Walker and point guard Jason Williams, put on Miami uniforms for the first time this season. On Feb. 9 the Heat looked like the mess that many suspected the team would be all along, losing 112--76 at Dallas to fall to 30--20. But Miami came together, motivated by Riley's middle school motto--15 strong--and the big bowl he placed in the locker room into which players tossed mementos, family photos and thousands of playing cards bearing those two words.

The big question is whether Riley will return as coach, an issue he's refused to address. Others, however, have addressed it for him. "Earlier this season there's no way he would've come back," says one Miami insider. "But the playoffs and the championship run energized him." O'Neal is clear how he feels. "He knows we want him," says Shaq. "He knows we need him. Whenever you have [a title], you always should defend it, so I'm going to guarantee that he'll be back next year." Shaq gave another assurance too. "We're going to do it again next year. Yeah--I said it."

There are other unresolved issues. Will the 6'8" Posey, who was a key player in the Finals, sign a long-term deal to stay in Miami, his reported wish? Will Mourning and Payton take one-year contracts to stay in even more reduced roles than they had this season? Will the Heat unload Williams, talented but confoundingly inconsistent and the most tradable of the Heat's core players?

Whatever happens, at least this much is known: Wade, 24, O'Neal, 34, and Haslem, 26, will be back. Yes, while it may be a little jolting to see Haslem mentioned in the same sentence as Miami's two stars, his value should not be underestimated. This season the Suns' coaching staff coined the phrase to "Haslem off" a player--a strategy in which a Phoenix defender was expected to abandon a lesser threat to help out on a more dangerous one. During the Finals, however, Haslem made the Mavs pay when they backed off him, shooting 50% and hitting several key jumpers (10 of his 18 field goals were jump shots), in addition to his always fierce rebounding and in-your-face D.

Expect less Haslem-ing off Haslem next season. Although Dallas double-teamed O'Neal for much of the series, by Game 6 it was using a lot of single coverage on Shaq, whose slow (though entertaining) decline continues. O'Neal averaged only 9.3 shots in the Finals, compared with 23.2 by Wade, who also averaged 8.2 more trips to the line per game than Shaq.

That's yet another indication of the league's trend toward small ball. The Mavs got more than they expected out of Erick Dampier in the Finals, but in the end he was a limited center who fumbled a pick-and-roll pass from Dirk Nowitzki in the final seconds of Game 6. Even the Heat played stretches without O'Neal or Mourning to match up with Dallas's doughnut (no center) lineup. In the Western semis the Mavs coaxed the Spurs into using a pivot-free lineup too. "I don't necessarily like it," says San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, "but it's become the reality." The Spurs have already traded one center, Rasho Nesterovic (to the Raptors), and aren't expected to re-sign their other one, free agent Nazr Mohammed. San Antonio will probably add Lithuanian big man Robertas Javtokas, its second-round pick in '01, but look for Tim Duncan to man the middle often in '06--07, surrounded by Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley.

The Suns, another team expected to be in the title chase next season, are as responsible as anyone for the advent of small ball, and that's how they will continue to play, especially if 6'10" Amar� Stoudemire makes his expected return from knee surgery. "The league isn't really getting smaller per se," says Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni. "At 7 feet, [Dirk] Nowitzki's not exactly small. Small ball is a style, a way of playing that makes it hard for those dinosaurs--the classic big guys who don't come out from the basket--to make an impact."

And so it will be interesting to see if the Pistons re-sign center Ben Wallace, who is an active out-on-the-floor defender with a next-to-nil offensive game. Wallace will be seeking a max contract, money that might more wisely be used to add depth to a team that wants to cut back on its starters' minutes and play more up-tempo. The Bulls, who turned heads by pushing the Heat to six games in the opening round, are a guard-oriented team, and the Cavaliers will no doubt cede even more control to LeBron James, further phasing out center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.