Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

Aikens, James

- By Ira Winderman Staff writer

are last of 2014 draft class.

MIAMI — Miami Heat President Pat Riley apparently served as a consultant for the Golden State Warriors’ third championsh­ip in the past four seasons.

In a story chroniclin­g the Warriors’ run to the 2018 title, Sports Illustrate­d reported that Golden State General Manager Bob Myers sought counsel from Riley at the start of the postseason.

“Give me some advice,” Myers asked Riley, according to the piece posted Tuesday.

Myers had been expecting to hear reflection­s of the Heat’s run to two championsh­ip runs over a four-season span from 2010-11 to 2013-14 with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, or from Riley’s Showtime Los Angeles Lakers days with Magic Johnson.

Instead, Riley spoke of how such success has to be organic — or not at all.

“You cannot force people to do anything,” Myers said was Riley’s response. “You cannot move them in a direction. You have to let them be.”

Myers said it left him unsure of where that would put the Warriors in the just-completed postseason.

Sunday, Wade spoke of how the Warriors were able to avoid the pitfall that beset the Heat at the end of their Big Three run, which ended with James returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent in the 2014 offseason.

“I felt the last year, our fourth year going to the Finals was a terrible season for us,” Wade said during an appearance on Fox Sports Radio. “Obviously, all the stories don’t come out with a team. But we had a lot of issues. And some of it was trying to motivate guys. Some of it was trying to keep everyone understand­ing the reason we all got together. But guys start complainin­g a little bit. You know, your jokes aren’t as funny. You been around each other every day. The whole thing changes, and that last year, I wasn’t surprised that ’Bron went his separate way and we kind of split.

“And it wasn’t bad blood between us, it was just more so it wasn’t what it was any more, and it needed to change. And I think everybody’s kind of waiting for that to happen for [the Warriors] and it will get tougher. That’s why there haven’t been many three-peats in this game.”

Summer league

The Miami Heat now have the schedules for both their Sacramento and Las Vegas summer leagues. They also have their coach for those three weeks.

The NBA on Tuesday released the schedule for the NBA Summer League 2018 in Las Vegas, with all 30 teams to be represente­d in the 12-day, 82-game event.

The Las Vegas league opens with a three-game preliminar­y-round schedule, with teams then guaranteed a minimum of at least two additional games in the tournament bracket.

NBA summer leagues generally feature draft picks, undrafted free agents and young prospects, with teams often mixing in returning players with minimal NBA experience. Among possibilit­ies for the Heat's summer rosters could be 2017-18 twoway players Derrick Walton Jr. and Derrick Jones Jr., as well as possibly 2017 first-round pick Bam Adebayo. Among those who have participat­ed in summer-league play for the Heat in recent years have been Tyler Johnson, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Adebayo and Okaro White.

The Heat's summer program will be coached by video coordinato­r Eric Glass, the team recently confirmed. Assistant coach Chris Quinn guided the Heat's summer roster last year, when the Heat fielded teams in summer leagues in Orlando and Las Vegas.

The Heat are scheduled open play in the Las Vegas league July 8 against the New Orleans Pelicans at the smaller of the two utilized venues at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Cox Pavilion, with that game at 5 p.m. on NBA TV.

The playoff bracket then will be held from July 11 through the championsh­ip game on July 17.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States