Miami Heat: Pat Riley needs to keep winning the off-season

The Miami Heat have turned things around a bit this offseason. While Team President Pat Riley is due some credit, he has to keep winning.

The Miami Heat were seemingly the last team on a lot of people’s minds. Commentators and analysts dismissed the thought of including them in playoff contender conversations, fans of other teams balked at the roster, and Miami Heat faithful even began to doubt the great Pat Riley.

He tried to reassure them, by saying things like he wanted to win championships again before he ever thought about leaving the job, that the Heat would make changes fast, and even that the Heat were going to land a big fish. Nobody believed him it seemed.

While many assumed some time ago that All-Star guard/forward Jimmy Butler would think about joining the Heat, there were two issues. The Miami Heat were up against the salary cap without much to spare, especially considering Butler being due the max whenever he signed a deal, while the Heat were said to be loaded with a roster full of middling players that no one would be interested in.

Pat Riley took the brunt of the blame for this unfortunate scenario. You even saw things like “that’s what he get’s” or “what was Riley thinking” when he signed some of the players on the roster to the deals they were on, namely Kelly Olynyk, Dion Waiters, and James Johnson. Even among the slew of available details that were against Riley and the Heat, it was eventually upgraded to a Miami Heat rumor instead of mere speculation that Jimmy Butler was indeed interested in a meeting with the club from South Beach.

Then it happened. The moratorium period began that faithful Sunday, and apparently, so did the beginning of the Miami Heat turnaround.