Before NBA franchises jump headfirst into copycat mode trying to assemble their own star-studded triumvirate to match Miami's, the wiser teams will recognize the market opportunity that lies ahead.

There's growing concern that a lockout awaits on the horizon, and in that event, there's a chance that spending power will be curbed significantly for 2011. Those expected new guidelines mean there's a better chance Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn actually says no to signing a backup point guard from the Bucks than another team manages to replicate the Miami Heat's model.

Instead, look for at least one team to go in the other direction. With a tighter budget, a more effective strategy may be to build an unselfish, deep group that will fully dedicate itself to establishing an impenetrable defense.

In other words, the new model will not be the 2010-11 Miami Heat, but rather the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Pistons trumped the Hall of Fame-conglomerate Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 Finals simply because they didn't have a future Hall of Famer to fight over the spotlight. In reality, the Pistons won the title because they possessed a historically stingy defense, orchestrated by coach Larry Brown, and the right personnel to buy into his world-class system.

Detroit's D allowed only 95.4 points per 100 possessions that season, which is the third-best defensive rating of the 3-point era and a whopping 6.8 points better than this past season's best defensive squad, the Bobcats. As the coaching mantra goes: Defense wins championships -- even if Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and (an injured) Karl Malone all play for the other team.

So which teams would have the best chance to follow the all-business template provided by the Pistons?

1. Portland Trail Blazers
The Blazers find themselves in a precarious position this offseason. Without a general manager running the show and coming off injuries to franchise cornerstones Greg Oden and Brandon Roy, the organization's direction is unknown at this point.

But Portland does feature a former Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Camby. Similar to Ben Wallace's role with the championship Pistons squad, Camby could function as this team's super role player in charge of clogging the paint and grabbing boards. Even at 36, he's still one of the league's best in that regard. In fact, Camby had the highest rebounding percentage in the NBA last season, collecting 22.2 percent of all available rebounds while on the floor.

In addition to Camby, the Blazers will have two lockdown defenders on the perimeter, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews (in the likely event that Utah doesn't match Portland's offer sheet), and either one could fit the mold of Tayshaun Prince in their starting lineup. A healthy Roy will provide the scoring punch along with LaMarcus Aldridge at the power forward position. While it's unclear how coach Nate McMillan and the Blazers staff plan to ease Oden back into action, they'll be wise to exhibit some patience with Camby around. Jerryd Bayless has the quickness, size and agility to become a plus defender, but Andre Miller will run the show for now.

Don't look now but the Blazers have the 4th best ROAD record in the west, and 7th in the league! Remember how last year when we thought of ourselves as a team that fed off the home crowd but couldn't pull out wins against any decent team in the league on the road? Looks like things are definitely starting to turn around; just wanted to point this out, as the subject seems to have been forgotten amid this season of (overly hyped) expectations

Sits down with Baron Davis as the trade deadline approaches

Sure it's the clips but this still takes a little sting out of our blowout