Roundtable Sports Miami Heat writer Anthony Aguirre breaks down the Pat Riley post-season press conference
Miami Heat team president Pat Riley raised a lot of eyebrows after his post-season press conference.
He discussed a variety of topics, including Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, the state of the team and his future with the organization. Another topic covered during the one-hour media session was the trade deadline.
Riley was asked if he felt the Heat were a championship contender after the deadline. In so many words, Riley said no.
On a recent episode of the Heat Wave podcast, Roundtable Sports writer Anthony Aguirre said those weren't comments Heat fans wanted to hear.
"That kind of bothers me," Aguirre said. "Because this organization was built around competing for championship. Championship or bust, every single year. That might sound crazy to other NBA fans and other NBA franchises. Every franchise across all of sports goes through a reset, a period where the team isn't doing so good, like a gap year. The Heat don't look for gap years. The Heat look to compete every single year."
While many teams made moves to get better, the Heat once again stood pat. Although they added Norman Powell Jr., last offseason, a lack of continuity didn't lead to more wins. It resulted in the Heat having another mediocre season.
"At one point, they Heat were top three in the East and then they fall all the way to 10th to finish the regular season," Aguirre said. "And then,of course, you miss the playoffs for the first time since 2019 ... To say that you are not a championship contender but the reason you were the only team in the Eastern Conference to not make a move because you were competitive as hell, I think that's straight up ridiculous. If you know that this team is not capable of reaching the standards that you set, that Pat Riley set since arriving to Miami way back into he 90s, what are we doing?
The good news is the Heat are expected to be super active during free agency this offseason. That could mean landing a player such as Giannis Antetokounmpo or even Kawhi Leonard. The Heat are probably going to have to give up at least one of their key players (maybe Tyler Herro?) but many fans and media feel it's time to make some sort of change.
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