The Miami Heat has started the first 10 games of the 2006-2007 season with a 4-6 record. The disappointing beginning has been punctuated with the loss of Shaquille O'Neal due to left knee surgery. Miami's deficiencies have been exploited by their opponents thus far and have resulted in them being last in the NBA in scoring (89.3 ppg) and scoring differential (a deficit of 9.2 ppg). They are also 29th in shooting (42.0 percent) percentage.

What are the Miami Heat's deficiencies?

Age: Shaquille O'Neal is now in his 14th season and looks to be a shell of his former self. He has come into this season out of shape once more and it may take longer than expected for him to fully recover from knee surgery. Gary Payton is in his 16th season and has been routinely abused by opposing guards. Alonzo Mourning is in his 13th season and is probably ill-equipped to shoulder the majority of minutes now that O'Neal will be out for an extended period of time.

Depth: The Heat chose to stand pat this off-season and failed to acquire anyone worth mentioning. Consequently, they are being stretched thin at many key positions. Jason Williams, when healthy, remains their starting PG but has been bothered by knee tendonitis the past couple seasons resulting in the off-season surgery he underwent. His backup is the aging Gary Payton who at 38 years of age is incapable of the quality production the Heat desperately need.

The Center position is also very questionable. Shaquille's body seems to be increasingly susceptible to injury and his skills are diminishing rapidly. Mourning will be asked to fill the void at the Center position while O'Neal is out but Zo lacks any offensive repertoire to speak of and his health will always be a concern.

Shooting guard and shooting forward are also stretched thin even though Pat Riley has shown sporadic confidence in Dorrell Wright. Wright is exactly the type of player that Miami should have looked to add in the off-season. He is an athletic wingman who has displayed credible defensive abilities. Wade has been asked to carry more of the load than ever before not only because of the absence of O'Neal but because he has no quality backup. He is registering a career high 40.2 minutes a game.

Wade's workload will not decrease even with the return of O'Neal. Dwyane showed the heart of champion in carrying Miami to the NBA championship in last year's playoffs but will it be physically possible for him to do the same for an entire 82 game regular season? I don't think so.

Miami is a questionably legitimate nine deep team. Three of those nine being veterans with 13 or more seasons under their belt.

Shooting: The Heat currently rank 25th in the NBA in three point shooting percentage and dead last (30th) in overall field goal percentage. Jason Williams and Antoine Walker remain streaky outside threats (though either one will fire away from three point line all day). Gary Payton is currently shooting 35% from the field. The absence and decline in skill of Shaquille O'Neal has allowed teams to double and triple team Dwyane Wade resulting in him shooting a career low 44.8% and turning the ball over 4.3 times a game.

The Los Angeles Lakers currently stand with a record of 7-3 and have gotten off to start that few predicted.

They have played inspired basketball with the emergence of Andrew Bynum and the continued improvement of Lamar Odom. Odom has been asked to carry more of the scoring load after being handed the role of trangle facilitator last season, a role in which he was uncomfortable in. The switch in responsiblities has allowed the immensely talented forward to flourish thus far. That role of facilitator has then gone back to Kobe Bryant. The same guy, if you remember, who facilitated the triangle to three straight NBA titles.

Now that Kobe's dictating tempo once more, while letting his fellow starters and the bench do damage as well the Lakers have more potential than at any point since the first of their 3 consecutive titles. The benefits of Kobe's ridiculous skills were sometimes offset by a tendency to keep his teammates at bay. Not the case right now. With a supporting cast that he finally seems to trust, he now has the opportunity to prove how truly lethal he is.

If the Lakers two stars Kobe and Lamar can stay on the same page and if Andrew Bynum continues to improve there's no limit to how far these Lakers can go.

"It's our third year together," Odom said, "and, of course, you'll see more of that. I kind of know what he wants, he knows what I want and I try to feed off him as much as possible. Kobe is able to find people. He doesn't get enough credit for his passing."

The Lakers have a bench as deep as any in the league.  Walton, Evans, Turiaf, and Farmar have all displayed an understanding of the triangle. Behind it all is Phil Jackson, the Zenmaster, who appears to have reached this group and brought an energy and excitement back to the Staples Center.

I realize that it's extremely early in the season and that the Lakers have a long way to go but their is a vibe when watching the Lakers that the best is yet to come.

First off, I would like to remind everyone that the United States Olympic Committee has developed a THREE YEAR PLAN. Capturing the Gold Medal at the World Championship would have been a great accomplishment but it is not our primary objective, Gold at the 2008 Olympics is.

I stated this in an earlier post by the FlyingPig but the biggest lesson that the U.S. and the basketball world should take away from the World Championships is that basketball in its purest form is a TEAM GAME. Superstars do not win championships alone, teams do, and it takes time to build teams of that calibur. The United States came to this realization with the development of a permanent national program. The players chosen to be a part of this program will compete against and with one another for the next three years. Some players will be added and some will be dropped but chemistry will develop.

The NBA by nature is not a team oriented league. Herein lies one of our biggest problems. It has become an entertainment business and they know that promoting great players sells. Sadly, fundamentals and team play have been cast aside as a result. They encourage one on one play and isolations. They created the defensive three second call and illegal defense which prohibits teams from playing effective TEAM defense. They have banned all hand checking and contact with the offensive player which all but gives athletic players a red carpet to drive to the basket and get to the free throw line. This is not what basketball was meant to, and should be, and it is contributing to the decline of American players' skills.

NBA teams now search for specialized role players rather than well rounded basketball players. We place athleticism above pure shooting and why not? Unlike the international game where the lane is smaller and there is no defensive 3 second call in turn forcing players to develop an outside shot, our game prohibits defenders from "camping" in the paint for 3 seconds, encouraging the driving slam dunk highlights that sell. The game has become more marketable than ever but at what cost?

The cost is quality of play. Not to the casual fan but any serious hoops fanatic can see it. For all of the hype surrounding Dwyane Wade and LeBron James they are still very underdeveloped basketball players. Neither one is an outstanding defender nor can they shoot jumpers with great accuracy. I'm not talking about getting hot from time to time and being a streak shooter. I'm talking about shooting with the accuracy that comes from countless repetition. Want to know why Carmelo and not Wade or LeBron was the focal point of Team USA's offense? It's because he is one of the few NBA players that can consistently hit the mid range jumper which is equivalent to the three point line in international play. Unlike Wade or James, he possesses a well rounded offensive repertoire.

There's no magical formula for attaining the type of all around skill i'm talking about. Skill, unlike God given athletic ability, takes hard work and our players have not put in the time. They shouldn't be labeled "prima donnas" only interested in shoe deals either. The system is just as much or more to blame for their play. By system, I mean from grade school to the joke that has become AAU to the absolutely ridiculous rule changes now being enforced in the NBA.

Has the world caught up? Yes, to a certain extent. Most importantly for them, they are no longer intimidated. We taught them this great game and their players and coaches are very knowledgeable. They are also aware of the differences between their game and ours and they exploit the deficiencies in our skills. They practically dared Team USA to shoot from the outside the entire tournament and we very, very rarely made them pay the price. Do they have more well rounded basketball players? Yes. It's completely obvious that their players are more fundamentally sound. Could most of those players succeed in the NBA with the rules being what they are? No. It is just as apparent that we will have to make improvements in order to succed in their game.

Give credit to Greece, they are a very good team. However, they have had plenty of time to integrate their professionals onto that team. Recognize that national teams not only start playing together at a younger age but they play together every summer and their players go pro younger as well. These professional players (and they are professional players regardless if they play in the NBA) are playing together every summer, year after year. This type of system develops quality teams. We have just begun to institute our own form of that. It's going to take time to see the fruits of our labor.

We will never regain the dominance of the Dream Team. We will win Gold in 2008. Coach K did a fantastic job of instilling pride in our players and the new program. There was a common bond that was developed and the team was free from the infighting and uncertainty that plagued the US during the Larry Brown debauchery. Team USA played with passion and Coach K's system played to our teams strengths, however limited they may have been. We had no pure shooters so Coach K did what he could by instituting the gambling defense and fast break offensive schemes in order to get easy baskets. It was apparent against Greece that this gameplan will not work against quality teams and we have plenty of work ahead of us. Make no mistake though, the program, from the coaches down to the players are up to the challenge.

It will take time to develop the team chemistry required to compete with the top international teams and we will need every weapon at our disposal (Kobe, Redd, and we may need to duck tape Jason Kidd and throw him on the plane bound for China). I think that the proper chemistry will develop over the next three years and I can't wait to watch the finished product silence all of the doubters and critics throwing their hands in the air and having tantrums.