Miami Heat: 3 reasons this NBA Finals run is Pat Riley’s finest work
By Duncan Smith
Pat Riley’s redemption as Miami Heat executive
There will come a time for all of us when as our chosen industry evolves, eventually we stop growing and get left behind. It seemed like that might be the case for Riley after big-money deals to players like Kelly Olynyk, James Johnson and Dion Waiters festered on the books.
You could be forgiven for thinking that indeed Pat Riley was the washed king of the NBA executive suite, a team president who was so invested in making good for the players he brought in and remaining competitive at the expense of future glory that he couldn’t see past what was in front of his eyes. At the age of 75, it’s not an outrageous perspective.
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As it happened, if you thought that’s what was happening, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Riley flipped Johnson and Waiters in a deal that somehow brought a Finals MVP and three-time NBA champion to town in Andre Iguodala, as well as playoff contributor Jae Crowder, and also cleared future cap space. The deal was nothing shy of a miracle, although a swindling might be a better description.
That’s to say nothing of the total justification his blockbuster trade for Jimmy Butler has wrought thanks to this run. Butler has been everything and more that the Miami Heat could have asked for, and not many saw the total picture of how he could fit on South Beach.
Pat Riley saw it, and he deserves every bit of the credit for building this team out of the rubble that it was before.