Pat Riley Plays to Form and Once Again Rescues a Disgruntled Player for Miami
MIAMI — To most South Florida sports fans, scarred by the incompetence of the other pro franchises over the past two decades, Pat Riley long ago achieved superhero status. His suits are now made of more than Teflon, but rather the strongest steel, rendering him resistant to any attack that a critic could offer. That was never more evident than this summer—when he was unable to retain the planet's premier player, and the local populace rallied even more rabidly behind him.
So, in a market where you can wear a T-shirt as a single layer year-round, and slogans such as #HeatLifer have gained some traction, it's a bit of a surprise that no one has stamped a black silhouette of Riley's head on a yellow background inside an oval. Surely, DC Comics wouldn't mind. And surely, the "Pat Signal" would capture the Riley era, now going into a third decade, as well as anything else could.
After all, that's what happened again this week, as we all should have known it would. This has marked Riley's tenure more than anything else, more so than his uninspiring direction of the team's collegiate drafts, on those rare occasions when he positions the Heat to actually partake in them. Instead, he has consistently scanned the skies to see if some distressed star is shining a light, seeking a rescue, and then he has swooped in to take that player back to Miami.
So now, former Suns guard and new Heat hope Goran Dragic, whom the Heat acquired Thursday, becomes just the latest if—for all of his extremely useful skills—hardly the greatest of that disgruntled line. He joins those who felt disrespected for some reason or another, demanded to get out of a current situation without delay and got the wish gladly granted by the opportunistic Heat president.
This all started the day prior to Riley's first game coaching the Heat in 1995. That's when he, doubling in his personnel role, significantly upgraded his inherited roster by swapping his leading scorer, Glen Rice, among others, for a franchise centerpiece in Alonzo Mourning, whom Charlotte made available after he rejected the team's extension offer.
Then, after assuring the media that he was done dealing for a while, he swapped out five so-so players for four others at the 1996 trading deadline, plus a three-time All-Star whose best days seemed behind, enough that Tim Hardaway, just 29, was somehow backing up B.J. Armstrong in Golden State.
Then, at the next trade deadline, Riley pounced on a 24-year-old forward named Jamal Mashburn, giving up one limited starter (Kurt Thomas) and two reserves for someone who had been drafted fourth overall but had fallen out of favor in Dallas following injuries.
"I said if there was an opportunity for a front-line player who was young and long-term I would consider a trade, and I did," Riley said at the time, per The Associated Press (via the Los Angeles Times).
Suddenly, in Mourning, Hardaway and Mashburn, the Heat had the core of a serious Eastern Conference competitor.
Unfortunately for Riley, he and that trio could neither solve the Knicks riddle nor kidnap and deport Michael Jordan, so the late 1990s Heat never won a championship together. But nearly a decade later, Riley outdid himself, when a center who called himself "Superman" sent up the "Pat Signal."
At the time, Shaquille O'Neal was feuding with Kobe Bryant and squabbling with Lakers management. Even so, the cost was relatively cheap, centering on two good, young players (Lamar Odom, Caron Butler) but not including the emerging superstar Dwyane Wade. That resulted in the Heat's first championship.
And so, here Riley was again, nearly another decade later, seemingly needing to do something dramatic to salvage his 20th Heat season.
After LeBron James left for Cleveland, Riley had charted two somewhat contradictory courses: do enough to stay competitive for the next two seasons, but do little to jeopardize the bonanza free-agent summer of 2016. He even did some out-of-character things, calling Luol Deng (James' less electric replacement) one of the most important signings in Heat history and touting the current roster on videos on the team's website.
But then the Heat were hit by the combination of anticipated reality (poor point guard play, lengthy absences for Wade, troubling rebounding) and some unanticipated misfortune (Josh McRoberts being sidelined for the season). Not even the lightning bolt of Hassan Whiteside was enough to get the Heat comfortably into playoff position, not with a 22-30 record at the break.
That, and the players association's initial rejection of the league's smoothing plan—which could mean even more cap space available for everyone in 2016 and beyond—made it more likely that Riley would break from his initial strategy. He even hinted as much when speaking with reporters back on Jan. 22, as he spoke of the Heat "underachieving" this season.
Riley claimed the Heat were "not active" and wouldn't just "move chairs," but he acknowledged that "if there is something that makes sense that can really help us, then we would consider it."
No lateral moves "out of desperation" just to make the playoffs, but "if it's a player to take us into the future, we’ll think about it. It’s fluid." And then? Well, Dragic turned that fluid into lighter fuel.
It may have seemed implausible to some that the Heat could snag a 28-year-old who is a season removed from being named one of the top six guards in the NBA—as a member of third-team All-NBA. But naturally, not to Riley, even though he didn't have a 2015 first-round pick at his disposal, couldn't trade a 2016 first-round pick by league rule and had more players on his roster than he'd want to be rid of, than another playoff-caliber team would want.
But Riley has always had two things in his favor, one for which he is largely responsible (the solid reputation of his organization) and one that is the work of higher powers (Florida's bountiful sunshine and favorable tax laws).
Yes, James went home. Even so, Miami will always be one of the more desired destinations for most NBA players, particularly those with an international background. That is why it's been so odd that Riley has gone to such lengths to ignore overseas players.
As soon as Dragic and his agents made it known not only that he was done in Phoenix, due to a disintegration of trust with its front office, but that Miami was on his short list, it was just a matter of time. And a matter of how much it would take.
As it turned out, it took very little, at least in terms of active players.
Norris Cole worked hard but bumped harder against his ceiling this season and was likely leaving after it. Shawne Williams was a nice story, but shooting remained his only serviceable skill. Justin Hamilton was never seen as more than an 11th man. Danny Granger was a reclamation project the Heat wanted to rewind, especially after giving him a player option for a second season. Addition by subtraction? Somewhat. Certainly nothing to sweat over.
And the draft picks, one in 2017, 2018 or 2019 and the other in 2021?
Even before Riley started getting close to septuagenarian status—70 in a month—he hardly had the patience for such projects. He knows what he is and what he's not. He's not great at the draft.
While with Miami, he's taken just two players who became All-Stars anywhere (Wade and Butler) and has bypassed plenty who could have helped in recent years (the 2012 miss on Draymond Green is especially egregious in light of how perfectly he would have fit the Big Three roster).
Sometimes, Riley will hit it big on a penny stock, with Whiteside the latest example after a very long drought. But he prefers to invest in a more mature company, with more proven products, one that has had time to find his way, one that knows what it is and what it isn't but still has some room to grow.
He wouldn't have wanted Starbucks as it was sprouting its first stores in Seattle, with its radical flavors and inflated prices, not knowing how the public might receive it.
But after the coffee chain has already occupied all of America's street corners and is about to expand into China?
Sure.
He'll take some shares of that.
Especially if he can get them at good value, down a bit from the high.
That's what he did with ZO, and TIM, and MASH, and SHAQ. That's what he appears to have done with Dragic, even if the Slovenian's nickname ("Dragon") is a bit long for a ticker symbol.
No, Dragic isn't at the O'Neal or Mourning level, able to alter a franchise's fortunes by himself. But he does fit perfectly into the Riley portfolio. He will fit comfortably enough into the team's ongoing salary structure, giving Riley enough room to spare, even if it requires a new contract this offseason of something like five years at close to $100 million.
Riley is prepared to offer, and Dragic is prepared to accept. That was understood when the latest "Pat Signal" went up and Riley brought another coveted but distressed talent down to South Florida.
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