The six most important players on the Miami HEAT’s roster (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, and Joel Anthony) have something in common: All six have signed long-term, guaranteed contracts that ensure they will stay in Miami through at least 2014 (each also has a player option for the 2014-2015 season).
 
This is disconcerting news for the rest of the NBA, especially when you consider the fact Miami has already enjoyed such incredible success in their first season together. Here we are on the eve of the 2011 NBA Finals and Miami is just four wins away from a championship. And logic dictates this likely won’t be the last time this HEAT team competes deep into the postseason.  That is not only because Miami is seemingly set up beautifully going forward, it is also because other teams/players that are inspired to follow Miami’s blueprint will likely find it very difficult to do so. 
 
Coming in the 2010-2011 season, there was some skepticism the triumvirate of LBJ, Wade, and Bosh could lead a team all the way to the Finals.  Some argued Miami didn’t have enough depth to get it done.  Well, after winning three straight playoff series with relative ease, there aren’t quite as many naysayers, and they aren’t nearly as vocal.
 
So, with the rest of the league witnesses Miami’s march to the Finals, it will be interesting to see how this impacts future decisions.  Watching the playoffs at home on his couch, is Chris Paul getting texts/tweets from his buddies Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, suggesting that only way to knock off the powerhouse HEAT is to form a super-group of their own?  Does Dwight Howard, who’s Magic were embarrassed in the first round by the Hawks, fear having to deal with this instate rival with a limited supporting cast?  What about Deron Williams – is he content to patiently build a contender in New Jersey, while his All-Star contemporaries bundle up in a few select cities?

{AUTHOR_BOX}Seeing the success LBJ and D-Wade have enjoyed in South Beach, does that force the hand of CP3 or D-Will?  

However, even if these superstars decided they wanted to join forces and take on the big bad Miami HEAT, will they even be able to? The question may become: "Will superstars be able to team up?"
    
As we inch closer to the end of the 2010-2011 season, we also approach the NBA’s Armageddon – the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires June 30th, 2011.  Last summer when Pat Riley, the architect of Miami’s grand plan, was putting these puzzle pieces together he was playing under a set of rules that will no longer be applicable the next time an organization masterminds a similar scheme.  Thus, even if a collection of talented players wanted to join forces AND take a pay cut to play for the same team, AND even if that team has the requisite cap room, the rules of the next CBA may prohibit it. 
 
One of the purported topics on the table during negotiations between the owners and the players union has been implementing a "franchise tag."  This is a system (used by the NFL for over 15 years) by which each team can ‘tag’ one pending free agent on their roster and said player is then bound to his current team.  In the NFL, there are two distinct types of tags – exclusive and non-exclusive.  Per Wiki, an "exclusive" franchise player must be offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position as of a date in April of the current year in which the tag will apply, or 120 percent of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. Exclusive franchise players cannot negotiate with other teams.
 
Obviously, this would be tremendously appealing to the NBA’s smaller-market owners.  Not only did the Cleveland Cavaliers lose 63 games last season (more defeats than they suffered in the previous two years combined), they also lost an estimated $200 million when LeBron bounced out of Cleveland.  The Toronto Raptors also saw Chris Bosh leave Canada, leaving the Raps with nothing but memories.  
 
It’s likely safe to assume teams such as the New Orleans Hornets and Orlando Magic have a vested interest in pushing for the implementation of the aforementioned franchise tag.  Clearly this is something the players and their representative would fight, so it will be interesting to see how hard the owners push back.
 
Another road block to concentration of talent in just a few big-market cities would be a "hard cap."  The NBA currently has a salary cap, but it is classified as a "soft cap" because it allows franchises to exceed the cap threshold via various exceptions (mid-level, Bird Rights, etc.).  A ‘hard cap’ strictly enforces a set number and no team is allowed to exceed that amount by even $1. 
 
All of this makes what Pat Riley did last summer that much more impressive (as an aside, the fact he had to share the Executive of the Year award with Bulls’ GM Gar Forman was a joke).  Not only did Riley get LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh to sign for far less money then they could have made elsewhere, he also locked in three productive role players to form a solid supporting cast.
In the post-lockout NBA, putting all these pieces together on one roster may simply not be feasible…

In the fourth quarters of both Games 4 and 5 versus Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals, Coach Erik Spoelstra trotted out a lineup featuring the Big 2.5 flanked by Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem.  With Haslem and Miller batting injuries for the majority of the regular season, this lineup rarely saw the floor at the same time.  However, with Udonis and Miller both finally (relatively) healthy, that is an awfully intimidating five-man unit to match up against.  And don’t forget about Joel Anthony. In a league where even semi-talented centers are worth their weight in gold, Anthony has stepped up in a big way for the HEAT.  Joel leads the team in blocks this postseason (31) and averaged 3 swats per game versus Chicago. 

Again, all six have committed to Miami for the foreseeable future.  In this age of free agency, locking up the key core that long is a major accomplishment.

In addition, Riley completed this coup before the current CBA expired, which means duplicating his success in future offseasons will likely be exceedingly more difficult, if not impossible.

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