Nah nobody is claiming that Miami was a lottery team - but they were bottom of the food chain among Eastern Conference playoff teams. You keep bringing up Bosh but he likely would've never made the move to Miami had Bron not been involved - so we don't know how good that team would've been sans Bron.

Although we do have a small sample size: the year Bron left and Bosh/Wade were together with a team that just appeared in the Finals. That team struggled all year long (even before Bosh had to sit out). They weren't very good. In fact, they got better after Bosh sat. Scraped their way through the 1st round, and got bounced in the 2nd round. So sure - they were an average playoff team.

But Bron turned them into a dynasty.



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