National Basketball Association

Heat sign veteran swingman Stackhouse

Published Oct. 24, 2010 2:49 a.m. ET

foxsports

Heat guard Dwyane Wade returned to practice Saturday and pronounced his strained right hamstring fit for Tuesday’s opener at Boston. While that was going on Miami signed veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse to replace the injured Mike Miller, who will likely be out until January with a right thumb injury.

But Wade’s return is the big news. It means The Big Three of Wade and forwards LeBron James and Chris Bosh is whole again. Superstars win titles in the NBA, and the Heat has a healthy trio of superstars once again. Saturday’s practice was a new beginning.

“We were excited to have the band back together,” Wade said.

Wade’s return brings to mind a rare point Heat Lovers and Heat Haters can agree on - Miller’s injury is no excuse; Miami should still contend for the title this season.

“We still have enough,” forward Udonis Haslem said.

Miller sustained his freak injury last week when he got his thumb caught in a teammates’ jersey. He’d been counted on as a big piece of the Heat’s puzzle, possibly even as a starter, and certainly, on many nights, as a closer. It’s unclear whether the versatile Stackhouse, who was a key member of Milwaukee’s playoff team late last season, will fill that exact role but Stackhouse’s skills will be welcomed.

“He’s a proven guy in this league, has always been proven,” James said. “A guy that can score either if he’s in the starting lineup or if he’s coming off the bench.”

For title-contending purposes, however, forget about Stackhouse’s presence and Miller’s absence. They’re peripheral issues. The title run is about The Big Three.

And the Heat, now that The Big Three is intact, has no excuse if it doesn’t contend for the title.

Recent NBA history pretty much dismisses injuries as a reason top teams don’t contend for the title. Go back to the Heat’s 2006 championship team. That group was an absolute disaster injury-wise.

Center Shaquille O’Neal only played 59 games. Guard Jason Williams played 59. Center Alonzo Mourning played 65, missing the last 14 with a strained calf. Forward James Posey only played 67 games that season.

And get this: The group that would eventually become the title-winning eight-man rotation had a mere 27 regular-season games together with Pat Riley as head coach. That’s right, just 27 games. The title-winning eight-man rotation didn’t play its first game with Riley as head coach until Dec. 23; Riley took over for Stan Van Gundy on Dec. 12.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Wade recalled Saturday about that season, “but we had enough, and we were healthy at the right time to where the continuity worked and we were able to win the championship.”

The point is the regular season, while very important, isn’t all that important to the Heat’s goal of winning the title. Well, being intact for 82 games isn’t that important.

Go back to Boston last year. Largely because of injuries it limped home at a mediocre 16-14 in its last 30 games, and 5-8 in its last 13. Then it got healthy. You know the rest of the story. The veteran Celtics pushed the Los Angeles Lakers to seven games before losing in the NBA Finals.

Looking at it from another angle, go back to the Lakers in 2008. They got to the Finals without center Andrew Bynum.

The Heat can, and should, contend for the title with or without Miller. It has that much talent among its Big Three. At least that’s what James contends.

“I think it’s underrated how much we played together the last four or five summers,” he said of the international competition The Big Three have had as members of Team USA.

Miller’s absence is huge. You can’t belittle it. But if this team is truly championship timber, it should be able to contend with or without Miller, and with or without Stackhouse.

It’s a veteran group, same as the Heat’s title team, with one notable exception.

“This is a different type of veteran team,” Wade said. “We’ve got veteran guys that are young guys as well. That team was moreso veteran guys that were real veterans, that had been around a long time.

“It’s a different team. You can ask anybody around here. It’s a different bunch than we’ve seen here before, and that’s been a good thing.”