Pat Riley's Throne: How the NBA's Godfather Keeps Winning with the Miami Heat
Pat Riley is not one for losing.
Some might even call him a sore winner. He is never complacent, never completely at ease. Satisfaction is a fleeting feeling. Success, it seems, is a fluid concept, something he indulges briefly before setting his sights on the next accolade.
No matter the situation, Riley carries himself in accordance with a frosty defiance, refusing to accept the status quo—however promising or dispiriting—as a conclusive harbinger of his power and potential.
For two decades, the Miami Heat have been a walking reflection of this imposing will. Riley has piloted them from the sidelines as their colorful head coach. He has steered them from up above, in the front office, as team president. He has done both simultaneously.
Since he joined the organization in 1995, the Heat have missed the playoffs just four times, won three championships, been to five NBA Finals and established themselves as one of the most aggressive free-agency players in recent memory.
Riley's imprint on the organization has been especially distinct over the last decade. He traded for Shaquille O'Neal before the 2004-05 season, staged one of the biggest free-agency coups ever in 2010 and orchestrated all three of Miami's championship runs.
Less recognized is the way he's rebounded from the Heat's Big Three running its course last summer.
LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh dominated the NBA between 2010 and 2014, making four successive trips to the Finals and winning two championships. But James jumped ship and returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers before they could become a dynasty.
Riley, now 70 years old, with retirement presumably in his near future, responded by retaining Bosh and Wade and offering a decided blueprint for Miami's expedited return to prominence.
"This process didn't take anything out of me," he told reporters last July, per ESPN.com's Michael Wallace. "That chain has been broken prematurely, but we're going to try to make it a generational [team] again. We were always looking at 2016 to be a [major] player [in free agency]."
Coming from most executives, these were sentiments that could be passed off as standard procedure. But Riley isn't a politician with a practiced handshake and obligatory smile.
His aplomb is genuine, not feigned or rehearsed. He radiates authority. The slicked-back hair, the stern expression he wears, the self-assured soliloquies he owns, the endless supply of pipe dreams he sells—the way he operates, right down to his appearance, is absolute, as if he is Pat "Don Corleone" Riley, Godfather of the NBA.
This is not an extravagantly exaggerated characterization of someone charged with the well-being of a basketball team. Riley's reputation, his legacy, is founded upon results. And even now, with the Heat working off their first lottery finish since 2008, he is not at a loss for results.
On paper, the Heat don't appear primed for a repeat of last season. Goran Dragic, Luol Deng and Wade are all coming back. Chris Bosh and Josh McRoberts will be healthy to start 2015-16.
Hassan Whiteside, shot-blocking cyborg, now has more than a half-season worth of experience to his name. The Heat snagged Duke's Justise Winslow with the 10th overall pick, and he's already viewed as the steal of his draft class.
Which isn't to say things are going perfectly.
Tensions apparently flared behind the scenes when Wade opted out of his contract and re-entered the free-agency pool. At the time, according to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst, he was looking for a long-term contract worth more than the Heat were willing to pay.
And yes, there's a certain level of luck involved.
Deng's decision to opt into the last year of his contract rather than scour the market for a more lucrative commitment was surprising. Winslow didn't slip to the Heat by design either.
There are luxury-tax implications to re-signing Dragic and Wade and keeping Deng as well. The Heat could have as much as $94.9 million committed to 15 players next season, putting them more than $13 million above the $81.6 million luxury-tax threshold.
That's quite the bill for a team that won just 37 games in 2014-15 and, admittedly, doesn't look much different now. And, as sources told Grantland's Zach Lowe, it has forced Miami to dangle the contracts of Chris Andersen and Mario Chalmers without seeking anything in return.
Still, it's difficult not to feel comfortable, if wholly confident, in the Heat's direction.
They are not the Los Angeles Lakers, fumbling to recoup squandered goodwill and clout. If only by perception, they are still a standing giant. That's why Riley can preach the importance of free agency over draft picks, much like the Lakers have done, and not be similarly killed for his action plan.
"For me, it's not through the draft, because lottery picks are living a life of misery," he told Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick in March. "That season is miserable. And if you do three or four years in a row to get lottery picks, then I'm in an insane asylum. And the fans will be, too. So who wants to do that?"
Cap space has been and—so long as Riley is in charge—always will be more paramount to the Heat's livelihood. It's this maneuverability that keeps the Heat in play for the biggest names and, by extension, the quickest turnarounds.
And it's Riley who makes something of the opportunity that rolling plasticity creates.
As Skolnick wrote:
"That recognition has largely come from winning, which he is itching to do again. He spends some time studying the depth charts and contract statuses that cover an entire wall in his office. He spends some time scouting. He spends much time cultivating relationships with player agents, communicating with other Heat officials, plotting, pondering. There was a strategy in place, and then, with James' return to Cleveland, there was a need to conceive new ones.
"
That fresh strategy, again, looks a lot like the old one—the same one that helped Miami forge its Big Three in 2010: remain flexible, acquire high-impact players, rinse, lather, repeat.
Without James, the Heat needed a proven playmaker to quarterback the offense. Riley went out, dangled two first-round picks and contractual fodder and capitalized on Dragic's desire to leave the Phoenix Suns. He then retained him in free agency, locking him up for the next five years for less than the max.
Wade was chasing a lucrative long-term contract and wound up agreeing to a one-year deal, helping the team maintain flexibility for next year's salary-cap boon.
True to his word, Riley has the Heat sitting pretty for the summer of 2016. They have only $48.9 million in guaranteed contracts on the books as of now and should be able to carve out at least one max-contract slot while factoring in the returns of Whiteside and Wade when the salary cap reaches $89 million.
In Los Angeles, New York and Boston, cap space is now met with acute skepticism. But not in Miami. There is more trust than that in Riley—not just from those inside the Heat organization, but outside it as well.
Unable to dole out a max contract this summer, Riley still earned face time with LaMarcus Aldridge just to sell him on the idea of playing in Miami later, per Windhorst:
Aldridge inevitably joined the San Antonio Spurs, but the point still stands: Riley's methods have juice.
The Knicks, a team with more than $25 million in cap space, couldn't even get a meeting with Aldridge, according to NBA.com's David Aldridge. Yet here Riley was, with no money to spend, pitching Aldridge on next year.
Already, before this present-day version of the Heat has flashed its worth, he's plotting. Planning.
Selling.
Executing.
Think the Heat won't be heavily linked to Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan and Al Horford, among other top free agents, in 2016? Or Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook in 2017?
Think again.
No, Riley's brazen charisma is not for everyone.
Few players would have reacted well to their president crying foul after they had just made a fourth straight NBA Finals bid. And yet, there Riley was last year, per USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt, telling then-free agents Bosh, James and Wade to "stay together, if you've got the guts."
There he was in April, at season's end, maybe-but-maybe-not-yet-most-definitely throwing shade at the departed James, per the Miami Herald's Joseph Goodman:
Arrogant though Riley can seem, there's no arguing the results he's generated with his puffed-up charm and salary-cap magic.
Only the Heat, only Riley, could have rebounded from James' departure this quickly, reaching a point where they're at least Eastern Conference playoff contenders. And the process by which they've gotten here isn't any less effective solely because they're slogging through a two-season transition that has already seen them flirt with a postseason appearance.
Financial flexibility is the Heat's prince for a reason.
Riley, their opportunistic king with the tried-and-true track record, knows how to take it and, with minimal waiting, turn it into a winner.
Salary information courtesy of Basketball Insiders.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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