Of course this Heat nonsense is premature and annoying and we should just let it unfold--though maybe we just aren't patient enough?--instead of determining the value of undefined variables as of yet.
But on the other hand some people are too stuck in their nostalgia to understand that the Heat would probably fare pretty well in the 90's just as the Bulls would in today's league. The rule changes are important, but I don't think removing hand-checking made the game any easier, necessarily. One would wonder how those volume scorers from the 90's/early 2000's would do against the Thibodeau style of strong side flooding defenses... It certainly has proven to make iso scorers have much more difficulty scoring at a higher volume when you look at the drastic decline in PPG amongst the league's top gunners. I think it's at least somewhat as important as introducing hand-checking to today's top scorers in Lebron and Durant, certainly.