Forget South Beach: Executive of the Year Should Go to the Chicago Bulls' Forman

Last summer, the Miami Heat completed a coup the likes of which have never been seen in professional sports, signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh while resigning Dwyane Wade. After this move, you could argue that they had a top-three player at shooting guard, small forward and power forward. Not only that, but the Heat managed to get each of the players to take pay cuts so that Miami would have the added flexibility of signing role players. After this incredible turn of events, it became clear that Pat Riley would right away with Executive of the Year. Right?

Not so fast. 

Of course, anyone has to realize that signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh is a huge accomplishment. No one can deny that. But was this plan really brilliance? Or was it just good fortune? The Heat were not the only team that set themselves up to succeed.

The Bulls, Knicks, Nets, Clippers and Cavaliers all thought that they also had a chance to land LeBron. The Nets, Knicks and Bulls all had the cap room to sign a second superstar too. The Bulls even had a player with Dwyane-Wade potential on the team under a rookie contract in Derrick Rose. However, LeBron and Bosh decided to sign with Miami. How much credit can you really give Riley for that? I give him some, but let's not pretend it was Riley's brilliance that made Miami the most attractive destination.

So let's start with giving Riley some credit for signing the Heatles. What about the rest of his moves?

He signed Joel Anthony for five years and just over 18 million, signed Udonis Haslem for five years and over 20 million, signed Mike Miller for five years and 29 million, and then signed a bunch of veteran championship chasers for the league minimum.

The Haslem contract was a nice move, but he took a huge pay cut to stay in Miami. The Miller and Anthony contracts were utterly awful. I know Mike Miller has been injured this year, but he hasn't shot the ball as well as Miami hoped since 2008 in Memphis. The other two years since then were both awful, and I have no idea why you would expect him to suddenly improve. Joel Anthony has become one of the few players in NBA history to have a statline with 0 points, 0 rebounds and 0 assists despite playing twenty minutes or more. And he's one of the few players on the Heat with a significant contract. 

Basically, Riley signed LeBron and everyone else followed. What about the Bulls?

Chicago followed their failed quest for LeBron by signing forward Carlos Boozer—the low-post threat that Chicago has been missing since their trade of Eddy Curry.

Then Forman tried to sign JJ Redick, but was denied again by the Magic. Instead, Forman signed Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer while trading for C.J Watson. These were the only major salaries that the Bulls had to dole out for the best team in basketball. However, other veterans came and signed for no money. Oh, and they brought in the probably Coach of the Year by the way in Tom Thibodeau. 

Not only these great moves, but they left themselves with the flexibility to get even better. If it weren't for some scorn from the Memphis Grizzlies, the Bulls would have been able to get a true starting shooting guard with All-Star potential while only giving up a defensive specialist in Ronnie Brewer and late draft picks. They can still make a move to improve this summer as well before the draft.

Since Bulls' management had to figure out a backup plan and ended up making the smartest moves out of anyone, they deserve to be recognized with the Executive of the Year award.