Earlier this week, Miami Heat president Pat Riley conducted his annual end-of-season press conference. While many of Riley’s comments were similar to years past, from the team’s anti-tanking doctrine to the 81-year-old, once again, dismissing any rumors about him retiring, the longtime executive — still sharp as a whip — dropped a couple of interesting nuggets about the team’s potential offseason plan.
Coming off their fourth-straight play-in appearance, an ongoing theme that recurred throughout this season was availability. The Heat’s second-best player, Tyler Herro, missed a career-high 49 games; Norman Powell missed 24; Nikola Jovic, who signed a four-year extension last summer, missed 35.
Injuries have plagued stars around the NBA. But the Heat ranked inside the top-10 in injuries in relation to the players’ contracts. When asked about how much a player’s availability impacts decisions on taking a swing on a player, Riley was adamant that it does.
“The first thing I look at: Games played,” Riley said. “When you get anywhere between 75 and 82 games for frontline players, and that happens four or five years straight in a row or something like that — these guys want to play.”
Riley went on to specify two specific players: Andrew Wiggins, who’s played at least 70 games in eight of his 12 seasons, and Bam Adebayo.
“For [Andrew Wiggins] to be out anytime, he had to be hurt,” he said. “And that’s why I love [Bam Adebayo]. I mean you can count on him every night and, today, that’s not the case (with other players). So looking at games played and injury history — all that stuff comes into play.
‘I’m not against load management. I’m not really against it. We don’t do it here. … You find the players — maybe draft them — who play every night or play a lot of games and don’t have injury histories.”
Why these 2 commonly-linked players may not be atop their radar, if Pat Riley stays true to word:
In the end, the Heat will keep their cards close to their chest. But if Riley stays true to his word, how seriously will the Heat pursue Ja Morant and Kawhi Leonard?!
Miami was linked to the disgruntled Morant up until February’s trade deadline, while Leonard’s future in Los Angeles remains murky. Morant is entering the penultimate season of a five-year, $197 million extension ($42.2M cap hit), while Leonard is entering the final year of a three-year, $150 million extension ($50.3M cap hit).
Morant, who’s seemingly a distressed asset at this point, has appeared in just 32.1 percent of the Grizzlies’ games due to myriad injuries and suspensions over the last three seasons. His scoring has decreased each of the last five seasons, while he’s never sported a 3-point percentage above 34.4 percent.
Leonard, on the other hand, has played exceptionally well when he’s been on the court. But he has a lengthy history of knee injuries. Despite playing 65 games this year, he’s played in 67.7 percent of games since he missed the entirety of 2021-22 with a torn ACL.
All of it ultimately depends on the price. The Heat has three tradable first-round picks, including their 2026 draft choice (only on draft night), plus a decent crop of young players spearheaded by Kel’el Ware and Jaime Jaquez. Now that Terry Rozier and Norman Powell’s salaries are no longer on the books, the avenues of matchable salary heavily depend on whether Wiggins exercises his $30.1 million player option, a decision that likely won’t come until late June.
Riley’s white whale is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has injury concerns of his own. He’ll always chase stars, but at what cost, especially when there are concerns about said player’s availability.
We’ll inevitably find out as time ages.
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If Riley is really looking for players who are consistently available, he can’t possibly be considering Leonard or Morant.
I’ve got one sentence for Pat….Try to live up to your own standards.
I’ve got 2 words for him: “Please retire!”