It seems Pat Riley has pulled his lure out of free agency and will instead look toward his own roster to re-build the Miami Heat into a contender.
About a year ago, Pat Riley made his plan clear. “You know we’re always looking for a whale,” Riley said after the Miami Heat were eliminated from last season’s Eastern Conference semi-finals.
“I regret ever making that statement,” Riley said Wednesday in his annual end-of-season press conference.
Free agency isn’t the tool it once was for Riley. A lot has changed since 2010, when Riley signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to add to Dwyane Wade. Even from last season, when players like Kevin Durant — who Riley was referencing when he said “whale” — weren’t leaving quite as much money on the table by leaving their team as they would now.
The new collective bargaining agreement rewards players for staying. “Any great player will have to give great pause to walk away from $65 million to $70 million to walk away,” Riley admitted.
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It doesn’t sound like Riley thinks Gordon Hayward or Blake Griffin will be leaving their teams for South Beach. It’ll be easier and more realistic to re-sign players who played a key role in the Heat going 30-11 during the second half of the season.
“I love this group of guys. I love this group of guys to build this team from. I hope Dion and James and the rest of our free agents to like it here enough. We’re going to be fair with them and they will be fair with us.”
“We are going to focus on our guys, really focus on this group of guys.”
Johnson and Waiters have already made it clear they want to stay in Miami, and may be willing to take lesser contracts than what they will be offered as free agents this summer to do so.
But is that good enough to compete with the best teams in the league?
“Even if you brought all of these guys back with the 14th pick and some kind of room exception, can you beat those teams?” Riley asked rhetorically, speaking of the Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets and Spurs. “You will never know until you get there.”
I’d venture to guess the answer is no. This team, plus a late lottery pick and a room exception that will range anywhere between $3 and $8 million won’t be enough to compete with Curry, Durant, LeBron, Kawhi or Harden. But that’s not really the point. The point is having the chance to play them, in a playoff series. For the Heat to test their mettle against the best in the league.
“I don’t know how many more non-playoff years I can take,” Riley said.
So the short-term plan is exactly what he laid out. Remove Chris Bosh’s salary from the cap. Re-sign Johnson, Waiters, and maybe Willie Reed. Select the best player available with the 14th pick, and hope that someone on this roster emerges as a super star. Maybe it will be Waiters, or Justise Winslow, or Hassan Whiteside (Riley, by the sounds of it, thinks it could be Whiteside). If no one emerges, the Heat will have a bunch of solid role players they could package in a trade.
“You can acquire key players via trade, instead of laying out $38 million for a guy. Some of these max numbers are ridiculous. That’s the nature of the collective bargaining agreement.”
Before the Big Three, trading was often Riley’s preferred way of landing super stars. In 2004, he traded Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first round pick to the Lakers for Shaquille O’Neal. Odom spent one season on the Heat after signing with the team this previous offseason. Butler was wrapping up his second year in the league after being selected with the 10th pick in the 2002 draft. Grant had been on the Heat for four seasons after signing with the team at 28 years old, after spending the first part of his career in Sacramento and Portland.
Three seasons ago, The Heat traded the last of their non-essential assets when they sent two first round picks and a box of spare parts to Phoenix for Goran Dragic. Finding value in free agency was Miami’s only other option to add to the roster. That’s why you match Brooklyn’s offer to Tyler Johnson. You don’t let players with value get away for nothing when you don’t have anything else in the treasure chest.
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So that’s what Riley plans to do this summer, too. James Johnson and Waiters resurrected their careers in Miami, and their value has never been higher. By re-signing them, the Heat will get to learn more about a team that everyone wants to see more of. And if a star player becomes available in a trade, Riley could have the fire power to pull something off.