Just a disclaimer, Heat fans: This is a post from my blog. I write a little about the Heat, the 'Canes, the Hawks, soccer... just different sport commentary. I thought this might interest people who visit Peninsula, though, which I find is a home for well-informed and passionate fans. Without further ado:

There are so many on-court options for the 2010-2011 Miami Heat given the size and the talent they’ve signed in the offseason. Yours truly will delve into some potential looks for next season utilizing an outline from a chapter in The Sports Guy’s book.

Although occasionally it’s tough to cope with the man’s ubiquitous Boston bias, Bill Simmons is one of the preeminent commentators writing on the NBA. The Book of Basketball tells you everything you’d ever want to know about the history of the league and more, and it’s written in Simmons’ pop culture-nodding, wisecracking, smart-aleck voice, which makes the 700+ pages fly by much faster than one would assume.

In this article, I borrowed a concept from Simmons’ final chapter, “The Wine Cellar.” In the thirteenth chapter, Simmons assembles his All-Time-All-Star Team. The premise is this: you have to pick a twelve-man roster with players to defend the planet from annihilation at the hands of roundball-jamming Martians á la Space Jam. One of the especially interesting pieces of this premise is that Simmons chooses specific “vintages” of the greatest players, usually during the peak years of production, like fine wines in a Parisian restaurant’s basement cellar. This is such an interesting concept that it’s worth reading every previous chapter just to squirm when he gets to write about the team of greats he assembles. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil it. Just go buy Simmons’ book.

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