Pat Riley spoke recently in an interview with the Miami Herald. When speaking about the current Miami Heat roster and why the franchise elected not to blow it all up this offseason, Riley noted that he wasn’t comfortable starting afresh with the roster just because their ceiling is low, and would rather take the chance of them being a play-in team than enter a rebuild.
“I wasn’t comfortable in just saying, ‘OK, I’m going to give up on this team this year because we’re a play-in team,” Riley said. “If you get in, you get in and then you go from there. Two years ago was an anomaly and we ended up in the Finals. I’ll take the anomaly any day. But we do have a very good team.”
Riley has been the president of the Miami Heat since 1995 and is coming up on 30 years with the franchise. He has seen his fair share of rebuilds, and did a great job with them, as the Heat won all three of their NBA championships under his watchful eye, one as a coach, and the other two as just the president.
After the Dwyane Wade era, where the Heat won all three aforementioned NBA championships, Riley began building this team for the future.
It didn’t take him very long, as the Heat acquired Jimmy Butler to pair with emerging young center Bam Adebayo, and drafted Tyler Herro in the 2019 NBA Draft, along with signing undrafted rookie Duncan Robinson to reach the 2020 NBA Finals in the Orlando Bubble.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t overcome their former star LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, losing the series in six games. The 2020 NBA playoffs have always been a point of contention among NBA fans, which is why they were quick to write the Heat off the following year when they were knocked out in the first round.
But the Heat proved why that was a bad idea, as they followed that up with back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances in 2022 and 2023, and returned to the NBA Finals in 2023, where they lost to the Denver Nuggets.
No Impending Plans For Rebuild, Says Pat Riley
The Heat didn’t perform well last year, having to go through the play-in tournament once again, only to be vanquished by the Boston Celtics in the first round. Jimmy Butler was out injured during the series, and that played a big role in their loss.
During the same interview, Riley also spoke about why this upcoming season is a defining one for their current roster. He noted that this team has made it to the NBA Finals multiple times, and will want to do it again, while also adding that a failure on their part to do the same wouldn’t result in a rebuild next year.
“Six years, yeah, this is a telling year for the team. It should be. They’ve been together for six years. The core has been together for six years, they’ve all gotten better. Everything changes, I think, for the better with continuity and the fact that we believe in this roster.”
“Does it mean that if we don’t win this year or if we don’t go deep this year, there are going to be massive changes? No, it doesn’t mean that. But they should know that this should be a crucial year for them. They want to win. They’ve been [to the NBA Finals] twice, but they want to win.”
It appears that the franchise’s leadership is very happy with the roster they have, which could be one of the reasons why they haven’t made any big roster moves over the last few years. Last year, the Heat were considered the favorites to land Damian Lillard, after the star demanded a trade out of Portland and listed the Heat as his ideal destination.
However, the Heat couldn’t pull the trigger on a deal. Bill Simmons recently suggested that it was the Heat’s media manipulation and arrogance that led to the deal collapsing. Regardless, the Heat have stayed put on the roster, only adding inexpensive options here and there and hoping for the best.
The Heat are far from the strongest team in the Eastern Conference this season, but as they have shown in the past, they can never be ruled out of contention, as all their players take their performances to a new level in the playoffs.
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