The signing of Ray Allen definitely points the Miami Heat towards "Winning" in the offseason.

When there isn’t any basketball to watch and analyze, journalists are forced to go to option B, covering the NBA offseason movement.

The last few summers haven’t disappointed at all. LeBron James made the “Decision”. Dwayne Wade stayed in the NBA city that he has developed into a household name. Kevin Durant made post-modern history by not making a skeptical out of his contract extension by simply mentioning it on Twitter.

The summer of 2012 wasn’t as predominantly awesome as 2012 with the resigning of Wade, James taking his talents to South Beach for the first time and Chris Bosh hoping in his carry-on bag, but adding Ray Allen — no matter how old the man is, he will always be able to shoot the rock — never hurt anyone.

If a general manager or franchise owner then throws in a Rashard Lewis to reunite Allen and Lewis from their days in Seattle like the Heat front brass did, I’d say there is no reason at all to say the Heat didn’t win this offseason.

Rashard Lewis leaves a bad situation with the Washington Wizards for a winning one with the Miami Heat.

Let’s face it James, Wade and Bosh are not making small change. With three players making as much money as they are ($52,114,000 of the team’s $82,629,170 payroll for the 2012-13 season), it is almost impossible to build a team around them.

We seen the problems or issues of this very situation last season. Bosh was uncertain with his role and the other two superstars couldn’t beat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals by themselves. They needed help.

This past season, they still needed offensive help — Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier and Mike Miller came up huge in the playoffs but struggled to stay consistent in the regular season — but Miami managed to add some defensive stoppers to the team. The aged knees of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Erick Dampier were replaced by a great interior defender in Joel Anthony; although, he was useless on the other side of the ball.

Battier improved defense on the wing and a healthy Udonis Haslem made for mass improvement for upfront depth and rebounding.

On the other hand, the Heat didn’t have much scoring at all.

Now Allen and Lewis add two lethal snipers from the perimeter, who will make any Miami ball carrier’s eyes light up when they see these two on the other end of their pass. Both of these guys can score 15-plus points on any given night. Besides James, Wade and Bosh, Miami hasn’t had anyone else who can fill up the net like these two can.

No one can deny the scoring ability of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James.

Lewis has dropped off from his three consecutive seasons of 20-plus points per game when he was with the Seattle Super Sonics, but his is still a legitimate threat. He isn’t going to be an All-Star on the Heat because that isn’t his role anymore. The Washington Wizards asked him to do too much with a squad with too little. The young players had talent, but no heart, no drive and no discipline what so ever.

There are only a few guys in the NBA I would expect to thrive in this situation — Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant and James. If you didn’t notice, these are three of the best players to ever play in the league; far advanced from Lewis’ level of a solid player.

If the Miami Heat won a ring without much offense coming from outside the three superstars, then I don’t see why they couldn’t or shouldn’t repeat with them.

Not only can these guys shoot, but Allen is a clutch shooter who looks a buzzer-beater in the face without blinking and Lewis is a lengthy defender who can handle the ball and grab five or six boards a game.

I have no problem saying the Heat are the biggest winners of the offseason. They got two prime time scores who will help in other areas and will still have one of the best defenses in the league.

Also, who do they have to contend with?

Old Man Winter better known as Steve Nash joined the already aged Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a fossil in Steve Nash for four draft picks, including two first round selections. Nash is great and Kobe Bryant is 1B behind Michael Jordan when it comes to the best guards of all-time, but the Lakers are old and are not going to maintain a high level of play if Pau Gasol loses his edge — like he does midway through every other season — or Bynum does something stupid.

Plus, LA’s bench is still awful.

The New York Knicks signed Jason Kidd, also super old, and Raymond Felton, who is over weight and doesn’t seem to want to be in the NBA at times.

Houston over spent on potential in Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik. If these two don’t pan out, neither do the Rockets.

The Nets made some key moves by resigning Deron Williams and Gerald Wallace while trading for Joe Johnson. I’m a fan of all three of these guys and think them plus Brook Lopez is a solid four. They will be in the playoffs and could even be a contender for a championship.

However, their bench is weak after MarShon Brooks and would get rolled in a seven-game series against the Heat or a Chicago Bulls team with a healthy Derrick Rose, even though they haven’t done anything other than let last years deep roster thin.

Miami has done a great job of not only enticing players to come to South Beach, but to sign on the dotted line as well. The Heat’s ability to get it done in the offseason will only transfer to impressive achievements such as a second consecutive NBA Championship.

How do the players on the 2012 US Olympic Team match up with the 1992 Dream Team?

When I’m bored at work I often turn to ESPN polls and Sports Nation Rank Em to see how in-tuned the rest of the world is with me when it comes to sports.

It’s not the other way around. One of my favorite personal tag lines is I’m not the man, but I’m definitely one of them.

The last few weeks every media outlet and barber shop in America has debated if the 2012 Olympic Team could beat the Dream Team after Kobe Bryant’s brash statement saying his team could. I think it’s safe to say the 1992 team has won hands down. I’ve only heard one man, my brother in-law, say LeBron James and company would beat Michael Jordan and company. Honestly, I think he is crazy and his lifetime stay in Milwaukee has ruined him as a sports fan.

When I was on ESPN earlier this week, I noticed a ranking game which consisted of ranking 24 players from both this year’s Olympic team and the 1992 Dream Team. This sparked my interest and kept my attention for quite some time.

After I completed my rankings — about an hour after I started — I analyzed the averages of votes done by the rest of the country, or in this case Sports Nation. I’m not surprised to find out how crazy the basketball/sports world is.

Here are my findings:

These are the players ESPN offered to rank: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, David Robinson, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Tyson Chandler, Andre Iguodala, James Harden and Christian Laettner.

Michael Jordan doing what he did best, attack and score.

I was not surprised Jordan was voted as the No. 1 player out of this group because he is the greatest player of all-time, hands down. I was surprised on how many first place votes he received though, 55,365. LeBron, at No. 2 on the list and in first place votes, only had 3,320. This is quite the landslide.

James will probably be the second player on this list when his career is officially over and he is in the Hall of Fame; he will be. However, I had a rough time picking him over some of the game’s best players to ever play. With this said, James didn’t make my list until the five spot.

Yes, I realize this is a Heat blog and James is the man right now. This is one of the things I tried to stay away from, the “Now” factor. A lot of times we get stuck in what is happening now or what we saw last instead of what happened 20 years ago that we’ll never see again.

Magic cracked my list at two, Kobe at three and for everyone’s surprise Barkley at four.

Barkley was a beast in his prime during the 92 Olympics as he lead the team in scoring with 18 points per game. He was a great defensive low post player and one of the greatest rebounders the league had ever seen until Dennis Rodman began to put up legendary numbers. Also, he took a Phoenix Suns team with hardly any real players — excusing Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle — to the NBA Finals.

SN followed James with Kobe, Magic and Bird to round out the top five. I had Bird at seven underneath Malone, who was a mountain of a man and the second leading scorer of all-time in the NBA.

Here is where I got confused until I remembered the “Now” factor. SN put Durant at six, which have him above Barkley, Malone, Pippen, and Stockton. Again, he could very well crack the top five when it’s all said and done. But, he is only 23-years-old and hasn’t really done anything except score a lot of points. Each one of the four guys listed above him where three to five tool players, not just scorers.

Is Kevin Durant already better than Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen and John Stockton?

How do you put the man who is the all-time leader in steals and assists –Stockton — outside of the top 10. I had him at No. 9 behind Malone at six, Bird at seven and Pippen at eight.

The middle of the list is all up to the individual. I didn’t have a single player after Durant more than two spots different than the SN list. I put D-Will at 14, SN had him at 16. Any of the mid-level Olympians are interchanged.

The only issue I had at all was Melo receiving 213 first place votes. If he wasn’t a Knick, he wouldn’t have received one. Who in their right mind would take Anthony over anyone in the top 10, whether my list or the SN list.

The top 19 players of this list I mixed up from the real rankings to make you guess until you actually get that point of the post. On the other hand, I left the last five guys on the SN’s list the same. Let’s face it, Laettner will never rate above Westbrook, let alone one of his individually nominated Hall of Fame inducted Dream Team teammates.

I also had Griffin, Chandler, Iggy, Harden and Laettner in the bottom five, just not in the same order.

Andre Iguodala is a better player than Blake Griffin, but ESPN voters don't think so.

You Tube and highlight reels have confused the entire world of what makes a great basketball player. Griffin is a dunker; probably one of the best, besides Vince Carter. However, he is not a great basketball player. He does not have a jump shot, plays little defense and is not a good rebounder for his size. His pure athletic ability does have him above Laettner, Chandler and Harden but Iggy is by far a better player.

Iguodala can throw down a monster jam. He can hit a three-ball. The Philadelphia 76ers’ is an elite perimeter defender, who can take the ball coast to coast after a steal and can either create his own basket or make a pretty pass to an open shooter. Griffin can’t do all of that.

I’d take Chandler over the other four if I needed size or defense, but Laettner could score better than him, let alone the rest of this group.

Sports Nation                                                                                                     LaChance

1. Michael Jordan                                                                                        1. Jordan
2. LeBron James                                                                                          2. Magic
3. Kobe Bryant                                                                                             3. Kobe
4. Magic Johnson                                                                                        4. Barkley
5. Larry Bird                                                                                                 5. James
6. Kevin Durant                                                                                           6. Malone
7. Charles Barkley                                                                                       7. Bird
8. Karl Malone                                                                                             8. Pippen
9. Scottie Pippen                                                                                         9. Stockton
10. David Robinson                                                                                     10. Durant
11. Patrick Ewing                                                                                         11. Ewing
12. John Stockton                                                                                        12. Robinson
13. Chris Parul                                                                                              13. Paul
14. Clyde Drexler                                                                                         14. Williams
15. Carmelo Anthony                                                                                  15. Anthony
16. Deron Williams                                                                                     16. Drexler
17. Russell Westbrook                                                                                17. Westbrook
18. Chris Mullin                                                                                           18. Love
19. Kevin Love                                                                                              19. Mullin
20. Blake Griffin                                                                                           20. Iguodala
21. Tyson Chandler                                                                                     21. Griffin
22. Andre Iguodala                                                                                      22. Harden
23. James Harden                                                                                        23. Chandler
24. Christian Laettner                                                                                 24. Laettner