Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Anyone could be traded for ‘right name’
MIAMI — Miami Heat President Pat Riley said Monday there are no untouchables on his team’s roster when it comes to this season’s 44-38 record and first-round playoff exit.
“Show me the right name,” he said during his postseason media session at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I could be all in on everything.”
Riley stressed that does not mean he is looking to blow up a roster that has remained largely stagnant the past two seasons.
“But it’s got to be the right name,” he said. “That doesn’t happen very often. Our core guys, we would like to keep together, there’s no doubt. We would like to keep them together and we’d like to add something to it.”
With the Heat lacking a pick in either round of the upcoming NBA draft, and with the team lacking cap space, the prevailing notion is that the trade market is the lone avenue to improvement.
“How we’re going to do it is irrelevant,” Riley said.
“Right now, we have a bunch of guys that can still get better. While internal improvement and development is a huge part of our organization, going outside and looking around — and now is the opportunity to have those conversations, trying to find a transformative player.”
Riley understands that more is expected.
“If we wanted to go home on vacation right now and take off five months, we’ve got 10, 11 players under contract,” he said. “It would be pretty easy to come back with the same team. Now, I don’t know if that would make you happy or our fan base happy because they’re all clamoring for more. We’ll try to give them more.
“I’m not happy. I’m not happy with the ending. I also wasn’t overwhelmed by our 30-11 finish last year. I wasn’t really overwhelmed by it.”
Riley said there is no second guessing about re-upping with James Johnson, Dion Waiters and others last summer after previous free-agent interactions left the team in an uncertain place.
“So, once we struck out on [Kevin] Durant, once Dwyane [Wade] left and once the [Gordon] Hayward thing went sideways,” Riley said. “I think it was very important to put together a mix of players that could compete, and are versatile.”