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“I’m not going to retire. I’m not going to resign. I’m not going to step aside”… those were one of Pat Riley’s very first words at his 2025-26 end of season press conference.
Riley has been the face of the Miami Heat franchise for decades now, and at the age of 81, he is still as motivated as he ever has been— at least according to himself. Still, fans have been skeptical of this front office’s decision making in for a long time now. The “run it back” approach is still an online meme and slogan to the eyes of Heat Nation.
Amidst way too many swing and misses in the overdue search for the franchise’s next superstar, many have been looking for a new face. Real organizational change. Riley may not be on his way out right now, but when he does ultimately make that decision— there is one person who may reportedly be next in line in current head coach Erik Spoelstra.
According to Marc Stein, he reported that Spoelstra is seen as the “likely successor” to take over team president duties for Miami.
Spoelstra signed an eight-year $120M+ extension with the Heat in January of 2024, making him the highest paid head coach of all-time. That deal would keep him with the franchise through at least the 2031-32 season. Taking that next front office step for Spoelstra would be a similar route to what the Boston Celtics did with Brad Stevens.
However, an eventual Spoelstra promotion would leave a glaring hole on the sidelines to coach Miami. He has built a reputation of being arguably the greatest coach in the entire league, and just recently was announced that he will now be coaching Team USA— taking the torch from Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr. Despite being a two-time NBA champion and six-time Eastern Conference champion throughout his Hall of Fame career, Spoelstra has still never won a Coach of the Year award.
When the time comes, Miami could lean on more in-house leadership moves by promoting assistant coaches like Chris Quinn or Caron Butler to take over Spoelstra’s long tenured coaching position. Perhaps they give a shot to Sioux Falls Skyforce, the g-league affiliate for Miami coach in Dan Bisaccio.
Although not officially ever confirmed, some other outside names that have been rumored to eventually land high profile roles with the organization have been Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Goran Dragic and Shane Battier.
Who would you want the torch passed to after Riley hangs it up? Spo? Alonzo Mourning? Let us know in the comments!
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The sooner Spo moves up…the better.
Detroit on the brink. If they waste that first seed then they haven’t arrived yet as everyone thought they already did. We’ll see
I said mid season that I just didn’t believe in them. They fooled me by retaining the #1 seed. What I expected earlier seems to be happening now.
Ironically, if Miami had ended up with the 8th seed, Detroit is possibly the only team Miami would have had a chance competing against. If Orlando pulls it all together, they may very well end up in the Eastern Finals (ala Miami in 2023).
Pat maybe has a couple more years. We can’t do anything bout it even if we keep criticizing the old man and constantly calls for his retirement. You can move to another team to root for lol. What I’m trying to look at is coaching. I like Spo, not just coz he’s a kababayan but coz he’s a good coach imo. It’s just the way he handled a lot of games I think he botched in-game adjustments. Or the lack of it. That’s a bit vague obviously but my gut feel says Spo needs to take a vacation. I’m just gonna see this as an extended “adjustment” season post Jimmy.
That’s a nice take, and I always appreciate your positive attitude about things.
Thanks. My wife tells me to be more of an optimist to manage my disappointments 😆😂
You know, I agree with you. I also feel like Spo has been trying but something isn’t clicking for him for some reason. Granted, he wasn’t given the best tools to work with, but I always have this nagging suspicion that he doesn’t quite know what to do with 7-foot centers who can’t shoot 3s
a coach is as good as its players who the hell is coach of den spurs minn okc i cant name them doesnt matter when u got ss
I’m not going to criticize Spo for how he handled a flawed roster, especially when he had to juggle developing young players with trying to win (especially amongst all of the injuries). Spo has shown that he can coach with the best at the highest of levels and has MORE than proven himself when it comes to player development. You can’t ask for much more out of the coaching position.
We still got the old regime firmly entrenched. And I’m not sure that was what Heat Nation wanted to hear.
It isn’t. Frankly, I don’t think any of them really GAF! The money is rolling in and the fans are still buying tickets/supporting the team. There is no urgency to change, only to remain marginally competitive/mediocre. Riley said he would never tank and if he was forced to do it, he would resign. So much for innovation and improvement.