After the wake of LeBron Jame's departure, Miami Heat President Pat Riley did a pretty good job of assembling an interesting roster that could at least compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. He made sure that Chris Bosh wasn't going to the Houston Rockets with a promise of a new leadership role and a five-year $118 million max contract that was just simply too hard to ignore. And with key additions in Luol Deng, Josh McRoberts, and Danny Granger, the Heat managed to salvage an offseason that could have crippled them for many years if they lost both LeBron and Bosh.
But can the Heat still be considered as contenders entering the 2014-2015 season without LeBron James? Chris Bosh is very confident that the Heat can and will still be able to retain their status as title contenders. The Heat forward is pretty excited with his new leadership role and is ready to prove that he can carry this team to contention much like what his former teammate LeBron James and current teammate Dwyane Wade have done for many years.
Bosh has no doubts that the current Heat roster is capable of winning an NBA championship. He even compared the re-built team to the defending champions Spurs which dethroned them in the last playoffs.
Bosh said the following, per ESPN.com's Tom Haberstroh:
I think right now we have the correct infrastructure to compete for a championship. We have to get much better at certain positions, and there's a bunch of things that have to continue to happen. But you know a team like the Spurs, they had a lot of guys that people underestimate, but as a team, they were outstanding.
Chris Bosh has made it known that he holds no grudge towards LeBron James in his decision to leave the Heat and reunite with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is even probably thankful for James in a sense that his departure opened a great opportunity for him in the form of being 'the man' once again and of course for the $118 million extension.
But despite Bosh's confidence, he ought to know that the road to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight year without arguably the world's best basketball player will be an immense challenge.
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