Pleased with players
Heat’s Pat Riley likes team’s chances.
MIAMI — He checked off some essential boxes, was forced to leave one empty and still has a few left to address. But as he sat Monday afternoon in his office by Biscayne Bay, Miami Heat President Pat Riley found himself in a good place.
He had, at the least, fought to good fight with the free-agency pitch to Gordon Hayward, who instead opted to leave the Utah Jazz for the Boston Celtics.
“The pursuit of Gordon,” he said, “was a no-brainer. We felt the need to pursue that and we did.”
But also felt the need to pivot as fast as possible back to his own prime free agents, quickly reaching agreements with James Johnson and Dion Waiters.
“Everything,” Riley said, “came together very quickly after Gordon made his decision.”
Including courting Celtics free-agent forward Kelly Olynyk when it appeared he might be out of reach.
“On the plane back from the West Coast, we saw that Olynyk was waived and from 35,000 feet made contact with his agent and pursued him from up in the sky,” Riley said of pouncing as soon as Olynyk went from a restricted free agent to unrestricted, shortly after leaving a meeting in Los Angeles with Waiters.
Approximately $162 million later, Riley had his supporting cast to put alongside center Hassan Whiteside and point guard Goran Dragic, leaving Riley relaxed and at ease Monday as he sat beside a coffee table in his office, poised to head to his California home and decom-
press.
“I like this team,” he said. “I have a good feeling about it. I think the city does.”
Where others still see questions, Riley sees answers.
He said among the reasons the Heat reached out to Olynyk from altitude was confidence that the perimeter rotation already is covered, when counting the likes of Dragic, Waiters, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Wayne Ellington, Justise Winslow and Okaro White.
“We have eight perimeters right now and three or four of them are really good shooters,” he said, stressing that Olynyk was the greater need in support of Whiteside and firstround pick Bam Adebayo. “What we didn’t have and what we have been looking for -- I think a lot of teams in the league -- are stretch fours, fives that are highly skilled, and that’s where Olynyk came into the equation. He’s big. He sets probably the best screens in the NBA, or some of them. He gets players open.
“Needing a three or going after a shooter was a priority ifwe could have gotten somebody like Gordon. But we didn’t. So the next thing for us was to get some help for Hassan and also J.J.”
Riley said the goal is to soon sign power forward Udonis Haslem for a 15th Heat season, but that the other moves in the power rotation likely mean that Willie Reed, last season’s backup center, could be priced out of the Heat’s market.
“I hope,” Riley said, “he gets what he deserves.”
Riley, though, said there remains a possibility of power forward Luke Babbitt returning.
“We’ve made contact with Luke’s agent,” he said. “That’s a thought process we’re going to go through. We really like Luke and he can shoot the ball. Soit’s still open there.”
Riley also challenged the notion that the Heat lack a true ballhandler and playmaker behind Dragic.
“This is becoming combo-guard, a combination-league,” he said, comfortable with Richardson or Tyler Johnson in such a role, with James Johnson and Winslow also capable of playmaking. “We don’t need a prototype pure point guard. We have enough ballhandlers and I think the game is such today that’s the way it’s being played.”
Otherwise capped out, the Heat still have their $4.3 million mid-level exception, but Riley said he sees no need to put it into play at the moment.
“Once we come to terms with Udonis,” he said, “we’ll have14 players on the roster and then we’re just going to sit tight. We’ll probably hold on to the room mid-level. I think what you do is you throw everything out there and you try to get as much as you can get and before you know it you have 12 guys who need to play. We have 10 guys thatwe really like, 11 or 12 guys that we feel are going to be fighting for rotation minutes. So I’m going to add another room midlevel guy who’s going to be fighting for 10 minutes or eight minutes?
“But we have it in hand and I think that’s good. If something pops up that’s really good, then we’ll think about using it.”
Riley said what can’t follow is a team resting on the laurels of the 30-11 finish to last season.
“It’ll be very interesting this year when we go to training camp,” he said, “to see where their heads are, and I’m convinced they’ll come ready. They think they’re a good team and they’ll get it together. I’m excited about it.
“These guys believe in themselves. They believe in the 30-11 record in the second half of the season. We’ll see if that was smoke and mirrors or if it’s reality.”