MIAMI \u2014 Pat Riley is not retiring, resigning or \u2014 here\u2019s the relevant point \u2014 retreating.<\/p>\n
Did anyone expect that from him?<\/p>\n
Nor is he tanking, backtracking or \u2014 again, the timely point \u2014 changing.<\/p>\n
For some reason, there was some question entering Monday\u2019s annual State of Riley address whether the Miami Heat president, at 81, had lost some of his bite. This lion of winter answered in a roaring, 10-minute monologue to open his news conference.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s staying. He\u2019s plotting. And \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really pissed; I\u2019m disappointed, disgruntled,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cJust like everyone else in the organization is that understands what we\u2019re about. We\u2019re about winning and about disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
A younger Riley famously phrased it as \u201cwinning and misery.\u201d But he\u2019s older now, if you haven\u2019t heard. He\u2019s so much a classic, in fact, the other, odd question becomes if his way still works in a league where the two best teams, Oklahoma City and San Antonio, tanked their way to top and another quarter of the league copied them in throwing away this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to tank,\u2019\u2019 Riley said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to lose. We\u2019re not going to go into the lottery and do that insanity, because I will quit if I ever get ordered to go down that road.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the noble and righteous and the principled path sports should walk. Are you kidding? The mere mention of tanking should make Heat fans break out in hives. This franchise could disappear from South Florida for years and still not be assured of winning anything.<\/p>\n
But the issue isn\u2019t if tanking is an anathema to any moral sports fan. It\u2019s if Riley can make the old way work in the new world. Can he assemble a contending team without having a top-10 draft pick on the roster \u2014 or tanking his way to get one?<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about age or ego. This is about a legendary outlier in today\u2019s NBA, the front-office head betting he doesn\u2019t have to lose big to win big. NBA commissioner Adam Silver should get on his knees each night and pray Riley succeeds. It would show an alternative route than all this losing.<\/p>\n
Go ahead. Name another team that succeeded over the past decade like the Heat is attempting. All the contenders have lost enough to get a top-10 pick or three. The only team you can sort-of name is Denver, which lucked into center Nikola Jokic in the second round. Is luck a blueprint?<\/p>\n
Markets like San Antonio and Oklahoma City aren\u2019t South Florida. That means they can tank for seven years, as San Antonio did in the standings, and one-team-town fans will show up. It also means that\u2019s their only way to do it compared to Miami<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of players want to play here,\u201d Riley said<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one obvious way for the Heat to succeed this offseason. It\u2019s a well-trodden path they\u2019ve been down for a while: Trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
Kawhi Leonard is a backup idea; Ja Morant is a desperate dart at the board. Giannis was the first option this past season and remains the only option who checks all the necessary boxes this season: A marquee name, an MVP game, a player who can lift a team to a championship.<\/p>\n
Plus, there\u2019s a fit into this franchise\u2019s mindset. Take his games played.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the first thing I look at,\u2019\u2019 Riley said.<\/p>\n
Load management, like tanking, isn\u2019t the Heat Way. Giannis has suffered a couple of untimely injuries in the playoffs, including one against the Heat in 2023 that opened their avenue to the NBA Finals. He played just 36 games this year, in part because the Bucks held him out the final weeks to, yep, finish their tank.<\/p>\n
But here are Giannis\u2019s game totals the other years: 77, 81, 80, 80, 75, 72, 63, 61, 67, 63, 73, 67. That\u2019s a golden stat sheet in today\u2019s era. It reflects the kind of standards that Riley loves and the Heat espouse.<\/p>\n
Would a Heat package of Tyler Herro, Kel\u2019el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and three first-round picks get Giannis from Milwaukee? It wasn\u2019t enough at the trade deadline. We\u2019ll see if some version of it is enough this summer.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t doubt Riley and the Heat\u2019s ability to swing for the fences. They were in similar, dead-end position in 2019 and traded for Jimmy Butler. He led them to two NBA Finals. There\u2019s no need to repeat the big moves for LeBron James and Chris Bosh, Shaquille O\u2019Neal or Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway.<\/p>\n
The only question is if Riley can do it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want another parade down Biscayne Boulevard,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cIt may come. It may not. Whatever, but it\u2019s always been my desire to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not retreating \u2014 nor should he.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not tanking \u2014 bless him.<\/p>\n
But he is the outlier trying to build a champion the old-fashioned way with smarts and constructed deals rather than flat-out losing. It\u2019s noble. Silver should be his biggest fan. But can Riley and the Heat get it done in today\u2019s NBA?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Pat Riley is not retiring, resigning or \u2014 here\u2019s the relevant point \u2014 retreating. Did anyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-249006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}