Miami Heat: 3 reasons this NBA Finals run is Pat Riley’s finest work
By Duncan Smith
At the end of last season, the Miami Heat seemed like yet another hopeless, expensive franchise. Fast forward to Sunday night, and they’re in the NBA Finals.
There’s a tier in the NBA reserved for teams that top out in the high 30s in wins, sometimes squeezing out a low-40s win total. Teams like the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets have spent time there, and last season the Miami Heat seemed as fully entrenched in that tier as any of them.
With big money tied up in negative value players and not much in the way of draft capital, it didn’t seem like there was any way out other than to sit on their hands like the other teams were forced to and wait out the consequences of their previous financial errors.
We’ve since learned that’s simply not how Miami Heat team president Pat Riley does things.
Fast forward from the dismal end of the 2018-19 season, and the Heat are Eastern Conference champions, readying to do battle against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. It has been anything but a linear ride for the Heat, but this NBA Finals run has been the best of Pat Riley’s career.
That’s saying something because Riley has been to the Finals more than almost anybody in NBA history in his tenures as player, coach and executive and has nine championships to show for it. With all this said, let’s take a look at the three reasons this has been the most impressive run Pat Riley has had yet.