Pat Riley

Couper Moorhead

We have a good young core of guys that we didn’t have [in the past]. We had Bam and then we got Tyler. I give all the credit to Chet [Kammerer], Adam [Simon] and Eric Amsler. Picking 13 and 14. And they turned into stars. And they’re young. We have a great base with Bam and Tyler, and we have a great, great star, superstar in Jimmy Butler. He’s a whole different bag of tricks. And we have who I think is the best coach.

I’m feeling good today, as we work on our next iteration with this team. I don’t want to go through another pause. After our ride this year, it was just an incredible year, up and down.

We had a great year. I’m not going to go back on this season and say anything else but kudos to our players and coaching staff, to everybody that was able to put us through one of the most exhilaratingly, exhausting, stressed – I’m still sleep deprived – it was just a great year.

We’re working now on our fifth iteration of building another championship team. That’s my goal. I have no other plans other than to do that. We have to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

We’re not going to take a wrecking ball to this thing. Good times come, good times go. Hard times come, hard time go. We’re not going to take a wrecking ball to a good team that had some real adversity this year that I felt built some strength. We have a good team, probably a great team.

We wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have if we weren’t a great team. Running it back, yes. Doing something that could help you with that last step, yes, if it’s a possibility and there’s an opportunity without setting you back while you’re moving forward, it’s just onward with us. It’s onward. What’s next. We just finished and I’m diving deep into a draft that we have to get ready for Thursday night, then free agency next week.

Persistence and perseverance has been something that’s been a part of our life forever, and patience is the last thing that came with it. We’re going to show some patience here instead of reacting without knowing what the consequences would be if we did something. Right now, this is what we have.

Bam, I can talk until I’m blue in the face about his improvement.

Tyler is just an extraordinary scorer and fourth quarter player, big time shot maker. He’s 23 years old. You got to watch it with these guys. Last year he was out in the Eastern Conference Finals for almost four games with a groin, this year he broke his hand. I’m a loose ball guy, ball on the floor, first guy with the ball, but I’m going to caution him with his shooting hand.

We missed him. People don’t understand just how lethal he is in those moments. He gets better in the biggest of moments. He just does. You’ve seen it time and again from the bubble to here.

We’ve got two anchors in Bam and Tyler.

He’s a big boy. I’ve never been a pat on the back guy, going either way, and he’s the same way. He understands what he has to do, and he’s done it. He’s done everything that he could do within his power. In the bubble, last year, if he could take that three back he would have made it, and this year he was incredible in the beginning and then, welcome to big-time game planning. I don’t think anybody game planned Jimmy the way that Denver did.

But also over the course of nine weeks and 25 games as teams are scouting up for the next round, they see what you do. They know who to sell out on and who to really cover. Jimmy, they made it difficult for him and he kept playing the game the way he always says. When he sits up here in front of this microphone, he’s not BS’ing anybody. He plays the game the right way. He’s not going to change, he’s not going to force the issue. Sometimes he might have to, and he’s done that, he knows when he has to go to work.

I would like to try and get him more support. If that comes through the growth of our young players, especially Bam and Tyler, and if something happens with some of our other guys, but right now it’s on his shoulders. That happens with a lot of great players. I would love to be able to go out and pick who I want as a perfect complement to him, but it’s not that easy. But we will work towards that, and I will pat him on the back next time I see him.

On the quality of the team and the offense…

It’s the addition by subtraction. You could add something, but then you could subtract all of the things that hold up what you want to add. There’s a fine balance there, from that standpoint.

I think the league has changed in such a manner, the style, the rules, the young players coming into this league. This generation of players are more talented than they’ve ever been. The younger guys are coming in more finished, more polished. They may not be as mature, but that will come from that standpoint.

The league has maybe four teams at the top, five teams at the top, and five teams at the bottom. That leaves 20 teams in the middle. And anything can happen as we showed this year. Teams that are .500 teams can get it going.

We have to think about all of these things that go on in today’s game. The way the game is being played, the reliance on the three, it’s a fast-paced game, the rules, you can’t touch anybody on the perimeter, it’s more of an offensive game. If you go back and take a look at our season, we had a poor offensive season from the standpoint of shooting the ball consistently versus the year before. That trended up somewhat after the All-Star break, and then through the roof in the playoffs.

We know we have that in us. There will always be teams that will come out of the pack.

On if the team needs to make big moves…

Subtle moves will be enough, if they’re the right moves. Hitting the home run, as I said, is addition by subtraction. We’ve done this, we’ve played this game for 27 years. Some of them we hit on, we hit big. And I plan on hitting big again, but I’m not just swinging for the fences right now because it can be a little bit reckless.

I feel very good about where we are, but . . . we need to improve. You take a look at all the rosters in the league, and they have the same issues that everybody else has when it comes to all these draconian rules that are coming in financially. Players might be more readily available than they’ve ever been.

Right now I don’t think there’s anybody in the league, individually, who can play [him]. He’s an incredible force and he proved that, individually at the elbow or at the nail or at the low box. He’s really unstoppable basically, unless you double him, and then they have enough cutters and wherewithal with other players to be able to hurt you.

I’ve always been a talent first guy. So the draft will either be the best player available or positional need.

Probably I would say more overall wing size and length. That’s what everybody is looking for. Multiple position players, especially ballhandling players or two-way kinds of players. Back in the old days, you were a point guard, and off guard, small forward, power forward, center. Those players played their position defensively. We didn’t mix anybody. We never switched.

Now you need real versatility. And you’ve got to be able to shoot the ball. If you can’t shoot the ball then you’ve got to be really great at something else.

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The Best Quotes From Pat Riley's End Of Season Press Conference

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Spo and I just met with him for a half hour. I think one of the only things that he heard . . . was hard work. We started that whole process. He knows about it, obviously. All the young players know how hard you have to work and he was explaining to me some of the practices that he had gone through where his head coach was somewhat like me. That his practices were 3.5 to 4 hours. Great. Love that. I don’t know if you’re going to get that today, not in this league, but he understands what hard work is all about. Now it’s just about taking that hard work to conditioning and player development. It’s just a great process for him to start in the Summer League and let it fly because we’re not going to try and overcoach him in a week. He’ll start learning from that standpoint.

I think the overall skillset. When you talk about a player being a complete player, that’s what we’re talking about. How good is that completeness will come with development. What is a complete player, someone who can pass, who can dribble, someone who can run pick-and-rolls and shoot the ball. He’s a long-range shooter, a mid-range shooter. He scores well with the layup. He’ll take the ball and dunk it over somebody. He has those kinds of offensive skills that he can get better at. And then he’ll found out some new things that he’ll be taught where he’ll say, ‘Wow, I can do these things.’ That comes with development.

From a defensive standpoint we’ll start from Day 1, from a weight training standpoint and footwork drills and all those things. Stance. That’s more of a coaching, technique, how we play defense, how you should play defense one-on-one. How you play defense on the perimeter, how you play defense in the post. How do you guard pick-and-rolls. The whole thing. His overall game and package of skills shows versatility. We like that.

Now how far is it going to go is going to be dependent on Nik.

That is something that right now he should not worry about. We’re not going to worry about. The whole concept is he’s here and to get him ready for Summer League. Get himself mentally ready for it. Because it’s been a drain. This whole year. This whole draft process and working out and coming across and going back and forth. We’re trying to freshen him up this week so he can get ready to go out to San Francisco. Whatever happens from the standpoint of playing time, he’s got a training camp to go through. We’ll see what happens here. Those are won, you have to earn that and he knows that.

I mean we talked a little bit about everything. One thing I immediately learned is I’m going to need to work. That’s the first thing I’m going to do for sure. I’m going to try and do it the best that I can. I hope it’ll turn out good.

I enjoyed really everything about this process. It’s my first time doing something like this. It’s been hard for sure, but mentally I’m really good right now. I can’t wait to play. I love the game of basketball. Mentally it’s never been a problem for me, so I just can’t wait to play Summer League.

I think it helped me a lot. Playing pick-and-roll throughout the year, I played in a really tough league against some really rough guys. They’re really physical. From pick-and-roll I can do a lot of things and I showed I can do a lot of things. I’m not sure if out here I’m going to play that much of pick-and-roll but the pick-and-roll that I played helped me in everything for sure.

I don’t have one guy that I watch. I watch a little bit of everyone. If it’s Luka [Doncic] pick-and-roll, if it’s [Nikola] Jokic low-post game, if it’s Jimmy [Butler] defense. Something from everyone.

I still don’t believe this is happening. Especially this franchise, they’re known for everything they did. Walking down these hallways and seeing all those symbols of championships, you just want to work. I still don’t believe what’s happening. Now it’s just a dream come true.

It’s a perfect fit for me, especially because they’re really competitive and I think I can learn a lot of things from them. Of course I’ll do anything I can to help them do better than they did this year.

I consider myself positionless. I think I can play multiple positions.

ON WHEN BEING A FIRST ROUNDER BECAME REALISTIC

I would say halfway through this season. There’s a lot of kids that from 13-14 years old, people are talking about them being Top 10, first-round picks. I kind of was a late bloomer. Probably two months before I came here, I was really thinking, ‘Wow, maybe this is going to turn really good.’ I would say halfway through the season I was really considering myself a first-round pick.

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The Best Quotes From Nikola Jović's Introductory Press Conference

Shuaihu Zhong

Miami HEAT President Pat Riley spoke to the assorted media a week after the team’s loss in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Here are some of the highlights from his 45-minute press conference.

I thought we had an absolutely great year. It was a tremendous story that was developing. In a lot of stories the endings aren’t very good. But I thought we had a year that we could really be proud of. Doing what we did throughout the course of the season, overcoming a lot of adversity, and getting to the last 16 seconds of the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals is quite a feat. I was proud of the team. Proud of the coaches. I thought they did an incredible job. And I was sorry that it ended the way that it did.

ON POTENTIALLY RUNNING THE ROSTER BACK FOR NEXT SEASON

Even if we ran it back, we would have a very good team. You have to be very proactive in looking at how you’re going to improve. This is a great story that started in 2019. In 27 years if we’ve had a start to a number of great stories, this is one of them when we signed Jimmy Butler and then started to build the team from there.

You’re caught in betwixt and in between right now with these young players that are rising. We think about [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, where they were three or four years ago in their playoff runs. Once your younger players can elevate to the point that you know you can win with them, along with Jimmy and the other veteran guys, you can always think about running it back and be successful. But is that going to be what’s going to lead to a championship? That’s all you think about.

ON THE IDEA OF ADDING A SECOND STAR SCORER

I think we all realize that you can always use more. Especially when you’ve gone through the season and then you’ve gotten the result. Then you really begin to analyze the result and why it wasn’t as good as maybe you thought it should be.

We’re always going to try and improve that team. I think that’s what it’s about. It’s about continually growing. It’s about taking your hits, dealing with them and going home. Taking your wins and going home. It’s 106 games that we played. And we did a lot of great things. I don’t want to take away from what this team has done and these individuals.

Do we need another? If there’s one out there, throw him to me. You can always use more, but it’s got to be a good fit. But not at the cost of doing something that could be prohibitive. We will look, we will explore. We always do this. It’s part of the business that we chose. Whatever the result brings after the season, you might say we might need another this or another that based on how the league is playing. That goes into the equation.

Whether it’s a hamstring or a groin or a calf, guys are sitting out, missing time. It was untimely for us to have some of those at a time when you wanted everybody healthy. As far as the age of the roster, I think our roster is almost perfect from a real veteran age standpoint where players can play and can contribute. You have the middle group of guys that are starting to rise up, and then we got some young guys.

You have to be a little bit concerned about the injuries. When you have injuries that derail your opportunity. We had that in the bubble. It was a direct hit to Bam. That wasn’t an injury of attrition, it was a direct hit to his arm and his shoulder. And then Goran got hurt. That hurt us. These soft tissue injuries hurt us, too. We still had a chance, you just sort of rise above it. That’s one of the great stories of this year. We did find out a lot of about other players, when they were put in position of having to play 25-35 minutes. It opens up your eyes to what the possibilities can be for them a year or two from there.

There’s this blend of when does it become perfect, and you never know when it’s going to become perfect until you win the championship and you say, that worked out at that time perfectly. I’ve been through this a number of times. I like the team that we have. I like the core. Let’s see where we can go internally, and let’s see where we can go if something presents itself if that’s a viable option.

His numbers speak for him and his game. Averaging 20 a game and really shooting the ball well. Developing a game that at times during the regular season was unstoppable. He can find and create his own shots in a lot of situations.

I don’t think he’s really here yet [reaches his hand above his head], as a full-time complete player. And I say that about a player who average 20 and shot 37-38 percent from three, can score in bunches, can score at the rim, can score on floaters, can score on pullups, can score on threes, gets out on the break. And he’s 22. The next step for him, and I think we’re seeing this in the league, if you want to win a championship, you want to be a starter, you really have to become a two-way player today. You have to improve in certain areas of your game. We all know that at one time or another, teams will always put a target on Tyler’s back, Duncan’s back, Max’s back or somebody else that they think they can beat one-on-one on a switch.  I saw improvement on defense this year. He’s got great feet, quick feet. He just needs to get stronger again. Another 10 pounds of muscle mass. He needs to get stronger rom a leverage standpoint.

As far as being a starter, come to training camp and win it. Sometimes it’s that easy.  If he wants to be a starter, we’ll see in October. That’s something that you earn. There’s no doubt he has the qualities to be that.

He’s a specialist. You can’t win in this league without having them. You have to have some specialists.

But I saw improvement in his game now where he’s going downhill. He’s got to turn the corner on handoffs and on pick-and-rolls and things of that nature because of being forced off the line.  The next part of his development is going to the basket and finishing and making plays and being very aggressive that way. And we saw that this year.

Again, defensively, as a young player, he’s got to get better. We hang our hat on that. I’m not going to say that we lost a game because we had some horrendous three-point shooting games, or someone missed a three or whatever it is. If you don’t guard all three areas of the court, if you don’t guard the three-point line, if you don’t guard two-point shots, if you don’t guard at the elbow, if you don’t guard at the rim, if you don’t guard in transition. If you don’t defend by rebounding, by taking charges and getting loose balls and winning that war every night, then you’re always going to blame it on shooting. To me, yes Duncan can improve. That message has been delivered to him. But that’s where we as a team have to win. We have to win defensively.

P.J. is like a cornerstone. He was like when [Udonis Haslem] was in his prime, even though UD wasn’t a primary scorner, he did things throughout the course of a game that were significant.

Tuck is the kind of player that doesn’t have to do a lot from a scoring standpoint, but he makes so many great plays for you. Toughness, rebounding, defense, no-nonsense guy. I’d love to have Tuck back next year, he’s part of our core. We’ll see what happens. There’s not enough like him in the league. Well there are, there’s a lot of guys like him in the league, but he’s special.

The bottom line with me, and for me, as far as hoping you can get the most out of a player, is that you have to be in world class shape. You just have to be. That is something, as you get older, there is a point of diminishing returns.

He definitely is going to have to address that. It will be addressed. To get to what the perfect overall conditioning is for him to be successful. He plays the game in a manner where he needs his strength and his size. He’s not Tyler Herro, he’s not that lean kind of guy. He can be in better shape. I do think the pain of losing . . . might change his mind a little bit.

He’s been asked to do a lot of things as a young player and he has grown into being very efficient at doing those things. It’s almost that learning curve of being a facilitating big, either at the elbow, on handoffs, on pick-and-rolls. He’s always getting somebody open. Duncan should pay him half his check, Tyler should pay him half his check, Max should pay him half his check. You don’t realize what he does to get people open. A lot of that has to do with how other teams are playing him, dropping way back, and we can get that shot. Maybe we look for that a little bit too much.

This could be a year, and Spo and I will sit down a talk about it, about how can Bam be developed in a way to improve his consistent shot ability every night. Getting 15 shots every night, quality shots that he can get, he can create, whether it’s in the post or at the elbow. He can be very prolific at times, but it can’t always be on effort, on running, on getting offensive rebounds, on lob dunks, on little floaters. I do think there’s a part of him that can grow. That depends on a bit on your overall offensive philosophy and how much you want to change that. I think there’s another level at his age now that we need more consistency in his ability to get good shots, create good shots, and scoring.

I definitely feel an obligation to finish this build. If we’re three years into this build, then I don’t want to do another three years of just building this team. I think we’re in that window of internal improvement, we have a great, great player in Jimmy Butler. We know that. We have a lot of experienced veterans. We put together a team that got to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It was a bitter loss. The dragon hasn’t left my body yet from that loss. I was stunned, I was frustrated, I was angry, I was all of those things over the last week and I’m beginning to move on past all of that. I haven’t given [retirement] any thought at all. I’m 77 years old and right now I can do more push-ups than you can do right now.

It changes with young players who all of a sudden, they think they hit it. The work ethic, from Gabe, Caleb, Max, all of our young guys that basically have played and helped us. They still have to come to training camp. His time on the court, whether it’s a rotational player, a spot player or a starter, it has to equate to winning. It’s always about winning. You can play young players until you’re blue in the face, but do you want to play them in the medieval late quarters of a playoff game. And they haven’t been there before.

I think Gabe is one of those guys. I think he has that in him. He has something about him as a competitor, as does Max, that I think eventually they can get there. Max found out that he’s not a 40 percent shooter against the Celtics or Philadelphia, because they’re not going to give you that look. But he has a very unique game and a very unique shot.

Spo and I talk a lot about the stress now that defenses are putting on three-point shooters and how they’re running you down and staying with you on the line, making you go backdoor and making you work harder. You have to develop yourself as a complete player. You have to be able to go downhill. Max has to be able to go downhill and finish now. You have to be able to go downhill and make a pull-up jumper and make layups. His game has to change a little bit, and he knows this. I think they have the ability to do this. You have to create more offensive opportunities than be a sticker.

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Pat Riley: "We Had An Absolutely Great Year"

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Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra Through The Years

Irene Herrera

-No. 5 on the all-time wins list, regular season, with 1,210 victories
-No. 2 on the all-time wins list, postseason, with 171 victories
-Eleven-time Coach of the Month
-Three-time Coach of the Year
-Nine-time All-Star Game Coach
-Started with the Los Angeles Lakers as an assistant coach from 1979-1982
-Promoted to head coach before the 1981 season at 36-years old, winning 50 games – his lowest win total in nine seasons with L.A. – and going 12-2 in the playoffs en route to an NBA Championship
-Won four titles with the Lakers, including back-to-back in the 86-86 and 87-88 seasons
-Became head coach of the New York Knicks in 1991, improving the team 12 wins over the previous year as the Knicks ran off 223 wins in four seasons, including an appearance in the NBA Finals in 1993-94
-Joined the Miami HEAT as head coach and team president in 1995, trading for Alonzo Mourning before his first season began and winning 61 games in his second year after acquiring Tim Hardaway at the previous trade deadline.
-Stepped back from head coaching for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons, returned in 2005-06 and won the NBA Championship
-Final season as head coach was 2007-08, finishing his coaching career with five championships, nine trips to the NBA Finals, a .636 winning percentage in the regular season, averaging 50.4 wins and .606 win rate in the playoffs
-In Riley’s nine seasons with Los Angeles, the Lakers had an average Offensive Rank of 1.7 and Defensive Rank of 8.5
-In four seasons with New York, the Knicks had an average Offensive Rank of 16.2 and Defensive Rank of 1.25
-In 11 seasons with Miami, the HEAT had an average Offensive Rank of 18.5 and Defensive Rank of 8.2.
-All put together, Riley’s teams had an average Offensive Rank of 11.8 and Defensive Rank of 7.2 across 24 seasons

While Spoelstra's still-in-progress resume reads as such:

-No. 24 on the all-time wins list, regular season, with 642 victories and counting.
-No. 8 on the all-time wins list, postseason, with 85 victories and counting.
-Nine-time Coach of the Month
-Two-time All-Star Game Coach
-Started with the Miami HEAT as a Video Coordinator in 1995
-Promoted to Head Coach in 2008
-Won 90 games in his first two seasons, making the playoffs in each of them
-From 2010-2014, made four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and winning championships in 2012 and 2013
-In 2016-17, took a HEAT team that started 11-30 to a 30-11 finish.
-In 2019-20, a season that was paused due to global pandemic and resumed in the Orlando bubble, made his fifth trip to the NBA Finals
-Made the playoffs in 10 of his first 13 seasons, winning 59.1 percent of his game in the regular season and 59.4 percent of his postseason matches to date
-Finished Top 10 in Defensive Rating eight times, while finishing Top 10 in Offensive Rating five times
-Spoelstra's teams have had an average Offensive Rank of 13.2 and an average Defensive Rank of 9.4

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Pat Riley And Erik Spoelstra Named To Top 15 Coaches In NBA History

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Pat Riley Sitdown with Jason Jackson

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With Miami’s 2020-21 season in the books, HEAT President Pat Riley spoke to the media on Thursday afternoon via Zoom about the team’s outlook moving forward, some impending free agents and much more.

On The Team’s Outlook Moving Forward & Having Financial Flexibility

“It doesn’t really make any difference what happens to you. It’s really how you deal with it. And for the last 25 years, that’s been the case regardless of what has happened during the regular season or during the playoffs. It doesn’t really make any difference how or what went down. It’s how you deal with it, it’s how you come back from it and how you adapt…despite the result of the Milwaukee series… we’re ready to move forward. We know what we have to do. We know the position that we’re in. We know that we have the flexibility that we need to go in a lot of different directions and either stay the same, either add to the mix. We know what we have to do, and we’ll do it. The market will probably determine a lot of that as we move forward, but I like the nucleus of our team. We have a great core with Jimmy [Butler] and Bam [Adebayo].”

“Flexibility is a good way to go…we made a decision last year that what we would do is that we were going to try to preserve [salary cap] room. That’s what our plan was, and we worked that, I think, as best as we could to preserve room for this year. We’re going to have it. We’re not going to have a max slot, but we’re going to have a lot of room if we want to use that. But there’s so many other ways…that you improve your team. Obviously, we like our core. There are trades that you can make, there’s sign-and-trades, there’s free agency, we have room, exceptions.”

On Impending Free Agents, Kendrick Nunn & Duncan Robinson

“Both of those players have performed at a very high level, and they’ve really helped us...[Nunn]…can probe the defense, he can get to the basket, he can raise on threes, he can raise on floaters, on runners. He’s a hell of an offensive player…Duncan could be considered the top shooter in the NBA, so I applaud both of these guys for coming in with just very little reputation, no guarantees and winning their jobs, winning their spots and winning their time. They’ve had their ups and downs, but young players will. But we like both of them, and we’ll see what happens with them when it comes to the market.”

“He’s a core player. That’s all there is to it…he’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out with him, but what happened to him going down the stretch, I actually thought he got better as a player. If you think about his first year or his first 35 or 40 games, he really was strictly a catch-and-shoot type of player coming off screens and catching and shooting. And the only way that he was ever going to become more of a complete offensive player is he had to improve his ball handling with both his right hand and his left hand, and he did. He’s an exceptional ball handler, and now he can create space and get into gaps and raise on jumpers from almost anywhere.”

“If he improves this year as much as he has over the last four years, then you’re going to get a better player next year…I think [Erik Spoelstra] has to evaluate a little bit how he uses Bam. Bam is one of our primary ball handlers and gets us into offense, and sometimes there is a disconnect between running offense and really being effective as an offensive player, so I think all of these things will be worked out. But I do know that we have one of the highest character, toughest guys in the league that really has a lot of talent. He still has a lot of upside. And I wouldn’t let what happened against Milwaukee deter him in any way, shape or form as far as what I think Bam can bring.”

On His Desire To Continue His Current Role With The Team

“I’m getting ready for the combine, and then we’re getting ready for the Summer League…I’m ready to roll forward and try to make this team better. I think we made some great strides, and for all of our fans out there, it was so great to be able to see the place packed, and I’m really disappointed that our fans didn’t really get to see what the HEAT really are like and what they’re about…just hang in there. Keep the faith. We’ll be back. We’re going to be back as we are every year.”

On Assistant Coaches, Malik Allen & Caron Butler

“I think both of them are great basketball people. Malik is an experienced coach now. Caron is somebody who I think has got greatness in him from a DNA standpoint, basketball standpoint, a life spent in adversity and in greatness standpoint. [He] has a lot to offer…so both of those guys, I think, did a great job.”

On People Discrediting The Bubble Last Year

“We were the best team, other than the Lakers, last year. We ended up in the Finals, whether it was the bubble or any place else. And so, I take pride in the fact that people will say that the HEAT and its culture were best suited for the disciplines needed in the bubble. And if that’s the case, then fine, then we had a little bit of an edge. I don’t think that’s solely the reason…it wasn’t easy…I do recall the competitiveness in those games…so what happened to us last year in the bubble was last year, and what happened to us this year is what happened this year, and we’ll have to deal with those circumstances…when people want to jump on [discrediting the bubble run] and say something negative about it, then that’s their problem, that’s their issue.”

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Pat Riley: “I’m Ready To Roll Forward And Try To Make This Team Better”

Pat Riley is known as “The Godfather” for a reason.

Thanks to the HEAT President working the phones leading up to the trade deadline, the team acquired Nemanja Bjelica from the Kings for Moe Harkless and Chris Silva and also added Victor Oladipo from the Rockets for Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and a 2022 draft pick swap.

After it all became official late Thursday night, Riley spoke to the media via Zoom about Miami’s new additions, his thought process behind the moves and more.

“We’ve been continuing to work, obviously, on trying to improve the team and to try to get better as a team organically from inside. And at the same time, realizing that even though we went to the Finals last year, and we love our base of young players, that if there was any way that we could sort of fill a couple of spots to help us this year but also to preserve what we have going on in the future, which is to have good, young, solid players and something to build around. And the other thing that you always think about when you’re in our position…is that how do we build our asset base? So, I do think we have a very good team. We added to the team…with Victor and Belly. I do want to thank KO and Chris, Avery, Moe. Those guys served us well. And if you can add to your asset base and keep your future somewhat intact, which I really didn’t want to mess with too much, and add to that, then I think we’d be ahead of the game.”

On How He Thinks The Team Looks Now With The New Additions

“The most important thing is to incorporate both of these players into the present moment right now and to see how [Erik Spoelstra]’s going to sort of deal with this whole mix of players. We have a lot of depth. We have a lot of shooting…we have a lot of versatility. I think Spo will have a lot of options to be able to go [to] and be able to not experiment but use, so I think we kept everything that we needed in the cupboard to cover our defense and our offense and special situations. We got defenders, we got shooters, we got slashers, we got leaders that can make plays, and so he’s got to put all of that together now while we make this mad rush to the finish.”

On How He Thinks The Team Stacks Up Against Squads At The Top Of The Standings

“Because of how crazy this year has been, it’s been two seasons in one year to me…you can’t make excuses…it’s harder to be able to just go about and do what it is you do without thinking about being tested or getting a positive test or a negative test or all these things. And so, as much as those teams at the top can be there…there are teams that are bunched up in the middle like us. I’d watch out for us. I’d watch out for anybody in the West that’s bunched up in the middle. So, there’s no real clear cut because of all the conditions, I think, that are out there that could change the equation, especially in the playoffs, if something happened from a health and a protocol standpoint as far as COVID goes. I like our chances.”

“I think he’s a flat-out scorer…Victor brings you the whole package. If you go back and look at his stats and all the things that he did prior to his injury, the guy can be a catch-and-shoot 38, 39 percent three-point shooter as well as being a slasher and a driver and a cutter and a defender. I just think he can add a tremendous amount to our team as a different kind of player…we’re very, very happy to have him. And I think over the next two or three months, we’ll just see what happens, but I think we add a slashing scorer to our team, so we don’t have to just always depend on making threes to win games. If Jimmy and Bam maybe are not doing it, you might have another player that can create on his own in a number of facets to help you win.”

“Belly is a facsimile somewhat of what Kelly can do, so we protected ourselves there a little bit.”

“This goes back to 2004, and I was in Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles…I worked Trevor Ariza out when he was 19-years-old, and I remember talking about him at that time about his height and his length and the defensive ability that he had when he was at UCLA. So, we have always…had our eye on this player. And Trevor needs another week or two weeks of games and getting his legs underneath of him and getting the rhythm, but I think he’ll bring, with Andre [Iguodala] and with KZ [Okpala], in particular those three guys, that he will bring this 3-and-D mentality of real length and defensive ability…he’s very smart. I think he’ll make his number of shots that he’ll have to make, and he’ll give us the defensive presence that will help our team and how we like to play defense.”