Miami Heat NBA News, Trade Latest: Heat Remain Strong Despite LeBron James Departure, Gaps Appearing Though

The Miami Heat was unable to keep the services of LeBron James this summer, with the superstar now having returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the upcoming new season. Losing a player of that caliber obviously sets off a few alarm bells, however, most pundits would agree that even with the loss of James, the Heat still look like one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Heats chances of landing in the conference finals now lie with Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and Luol Deng. They are clearly some of the most skilled players in the league, but the team will need to rally together and find their feet quick early in the season; the team does have a clear list of flaws that they will need to cover up if they are to go as far as they should this season.

The team will likely have trouble finding good spacing for opening up shots and keeping possession of the ball now that LeBron has left. The gap caused by the superstar's departure will be a difficult void to fill.

New transfer Deng, and long time Heat player Wade will be the core players looking to cover up the deficiency in that area but it will be a huge task.

Although Deng is a skilled player, he isn't the best in outside shooting with only a 30 percent scoring rate for three-point shots. Wade also has trouble in that area and this would mostly mean that the Heat won't be a huge threat with regards to three point shooting.

Rebounding isn't exactly the Heat's strongest suit but more often than not, it did not matter since they were better than most teams in every other aspect. However, with LeBron gone from the picture, they will seriously need to step up their rebounding plays.

Their low rebounding scores could be the difference in some 50:50 games, and that could end up making or breaking their season.