Miami Heat president Pat Riley made it evident at Giannis Antetokounmpo’s introductory press conference that they weren’t done after completing one of the biggest trades in NBA History.
“I got a call about (the Antetokounmpo trade) after a month of discussion,” Riley said about a call with Heat general manager Andy Elisburg. “The call came late, and he said to me, ‘We have a deal.’ He closed the deal, and we both sort of screamed out loud. Yeah, we landed the plane.
“There’s another one we have to land,” he added, referring to LeBron James’ free agency.
Currently, the Heat — and the rest of the NBA — is on hold as James navigates perhaps the final “decision” of his career. Miami is presumably in the race with Cleveland and Philadelphia — with Golden State on the outside-looking-in — without a clear timeline for when it’ll be made.
Regardless if the plane is landed, the Heat still have three open spots — two of which have to be used. And they have plenty of needs to address. Earlier this week on The Dan Le Batard Show, Riley revealed what he believes their biggest need is.
“I don’t want the team to think that way. I want them to believe in the roster we had,” he said. “You don’t rush to it, you go out there and compete. We have the pieces, the main pieces — everybody talks about shooting, that’s not the main priority right now. It’s another playmaker.”
Heat need both shooting and playmaking:
Following the Antetokounmpo trade and Ryan Conwell addition, two of our biggest needs entering free agency were more volume 3-point shooting and reliable ballhandling/shot creation.
They re-signed Simone Fontecchio, who shot 37.5 percent from deep last year, and added Tim Hardaway Jr., who exceeded 40 percent from 3-point range for the first time in his 13-year career last year with Denver.
Hardaway, Bobby Portis and Andrew Wiggins are all coming off career seasons. And Miami lost 41 percent of its 3-point production from 2025-26, including two of its best volume shooters in Norman Powell and Tyler Herro.
There’s little doubt that Antetokounmpo will create easy open looks for his new teammates. But more volume shooting opens up the floor for him; it’s a two-way street.
Perhaps Nikola Jovic rises back to the ~38 percent 3-point shooter he was (on steady volume) from 2023-25; maybe Bam Adebayo continues to make strides as a volume shooter, as well as Pelle Larsson, whose indicators suggest his most efficient shooting years are ahead of him.
That doesn’t suppress the need for playmaking, either.
Obviously, James is the primary candidate. But behind Antetokounmpo, their best ballhandlers figure to be Davion Mitchell, Larsson and Adebayo. Sans Mitchell, the Heat are bereft of multi-level self-creation. And they don’t have another ballhandler capable of generating advantages on-ball without the use of a screen.
Antetokounmpo obviously eases that burden a lot. But the beauty of the Bucks’ teams that had the most success was that Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday were both very good shot creators with different, albeit complementary, skillsets.
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Last week, I suggested Miami consider signing one of two undrafted centers (Nate Bittle and Jamarian Sharp) who played for Toronto vs the Heat during the July 16, 2026 summer league game.
Two years ago, the Dallas Mavericks signed 7’5″ Sharp to an Exhibit 10 contract and developed him in the G League. He spent the last two seasons with the Texas Legends.
He was one of the most impactful defenders in the G League the past two years. Last season, he was named G League Defensive Player of the Year blocking 3.9 shots per game for the Legends.
The LA Clippers are now signing Sharp to a two-way contract. This is the first two-way contract the 24-year-old center has ever signed. He’ll have the chance to play his first real minutes as a member of the Clippers next season. It will be interesting to see how he pans out in LA.
If he falls flat during his first real NBA opportunity, the Mavericks will have made a smart decision by not signing him to their Summer League team and giving him a chance to fight for a roster spot. If he excels, the Clippers will benefit from the two years Dallas spent developing him.
One person suggests this might just be preparation ‘in case’ he signs here. That is certainly possible.
one moment
TRENDING: LeBron’s odds to land with the Heat have skyrocketed on Polymarket after a mysterious “Introductory Press Conference” video briefly appeared on Miami’s YouTube channel.
It was quickly taken down.
The internet exploded after the Heat’s YouTube channel accidentally leaked an introductory video, causing LeBron’s signing odds to skyrocket.
Some stuff hitting the airwaves..
The Miami Heat YouTube channel scheduled a video titled ‘LeBron James Introductory Press Conference | July 27, 2026’ – The video was then made private
Best & Final Offer:
I disagree with Don Pat Riley in two things.
I did not believe the team had enough to win last 2 season.. At the end of the 24/25 season when the team lost in the first round to Donovan Mitchell by the widest margin in Franchise history, I posted here both before and after that it was a game the team did not need to play, but Tyler Hero and others felt otherwise during their team meeting. I felt that the team needed to start thinking ahead of retooling for the next season. I did not believe the team had enough to win that season and the next. At the beginning of the 25/26 season, I saw that the Heat did not make any meaningful moves to improve the team. I concluded that the Heat was content with where they were. I disagreed and I knew the team was going no where, so I largely stayed off HHH from posting comments. I read articles from the contributors, I watched the games but refrained from making any comments. As I foresaw, it was no surprise that the Heat ended another season in the play in tournament. Perhaps, that jolted the front office to know that they have to do something this off season. I am happy they did and hence my return to posting comments again on HHH.I also disagree with the Don that as presently constituted that the team does not need shooters. This was why I disagreed with the signing of Terry Rozeir. I felt that his signing did not address Heat’s main issues of poor peripheral shooting and defense. The heat still played their stifling collapsing defense but teams made them pay by knocking down 3s. And when Terry Rozier was not making shots, no other person was because the Heat failed to address their poor wing play.. Fast forward today, we all know Giannis mojo and his style of play. The success of the Bucks with Giannis was because they had good peripheral shooting game. So they could beat most teams several ways. The Heat have to provide that support for Giannis, for the team to be competitive this season. Giannis is going to give you his 20-30 points a night. But his 20-30 points a night will not win games if he has no shooters who will provide the other 70-80 points to get the Heat to 100 points a game and give the Heat a chance at winning games. Hence, I disagree with the Don, if he goes into this coming season believing in his heart that the Heat does not need shooters, we are looking into another so so season even with Giannis on the team..
With regards to shooters, Riley is a salesman focused on the target. Land the second plane. Worry about the Uber ride later.
Yeah, I understand that but saying the Heat don’t need shooters is an understatement. The big 3 would not have won any ring without the support of the likes of Mike Miller, Shane Battier and Ray Allen. They all played very important roles without which there would have been no rings.
Good to have you back.
I also railed about not having enough for the last two seasons. We currently still don’t have enough. But, the huge gap between us and the contenders has closed significantly. To use your idea, but up it 5 points, we still need the 75 more points beyond Giannis to win a great deal of games (we will be more than solid defensively). We probably have about 60 of those points as we stand now. LeBron alone would probably get us there. Add DeRozan too and we have a realistic shot at the glory.
I agree. Thanks and nice to be back
More like 80-85 points. Nowadays a team needs to average 115-120+ ppg to be competitive. If the team has a stifling defense, probably 110+ ppg or so.
I was wondering where have you been.
There are good shooters in this team, another one at minimum contract wont make much difference. There is not enough playmaking, even with LBJ, so I would prefer to have another vet point guard instead of a scorer. Another big can be useful too. But you cant have anything.
The rooster as it is is flawed.
There is Bam and Giannis as the core of the team. For a champion level team, Mitchell is definitely good enough to be a backup point guard, and Pelle and Portis as the 7th and 8th man.
The rest of the team is questionable. Is Wigging good enough to be a 3th best player in champion level team? I don’t think so. Maybe 4th, but I m not convinced.
From the rest, (Gardner, Dru, THJ, Simone, Jovic , Conwell) we need two or three players to fill places from 9-10-11, which can be expected. But you cant expect a champion level team starter from this group.
This team still lack an elite starting backcourt, and maybe a better small forward, to win it all, therefore this team need another recalibration, which is impossible right now. In a year, maybe.
I’m waiting to see if LeBron signs with the Heat and what other players the team picks up before I start projecting win totals. That is very much up in the air right now.
The Heat lost 70+ppg when Herro, Powell, Ware, Jaquez and Jakucionis were traded. That does not include whatever scoring the #13 pick would have been able to contribute..
In the never ending LeBron saga, Cleveland has retaken the lead for betting degenerates.
Been kinda crazy with the swings of late. Clearly no one has a clue but LeBron, but it’s fun watching it play out.
This is more like a game of Russian Roullette than a horse race. The team without a bullet in the chamber wins. The rest, not so much.
If you haven’t heard the entire LeBatard interview with Riley, you should. It’s excellent. He talks about the 90’s teams with Zo and Timmy, and his plans to build around the Heatles, and also rambles about his middle-school basketball team and population growth since WWII. It’s classic Riley in the best way possible
I do agree that we need another playmaker over shooter. If thats not LBJ, then who? Gabe?
I’m gonna pass on Gabe. Rather just roll with Dru, or bring back Young.
Agree. I prefer not to reunite with Gabe
If not Lebron, my guess is they pivot to Demar, even though he’s not a playmaker for others, but can find his own shot. I think they should wait to see if Lavine gets bought out, but people won’t want to wait, or depend, on that happening.
DeRosan, LaVine and Beal are probably among 10 players I dislike the most. Nothing against them personally, just not my type of players.
I know what you mean, but a Lavine as like the 3rd/4th option is better for expectations than trying to have him as leading man. His assists would go back to high 4, possibly 5-6, plus his 3pt % has been pretty solid on high usage, so I think he is a player that fits better than DeRozan, not that the comparison is one you like. 🙂
marlins done? what a turnaround for the worse.
So sad. It’s hard to watch them sit on their hands so far when an addition or two would find us in the playoffs. The closer Fairbanks has been disappointing. They need a better one and one more bat and they’d be right there. They have done so much on a shoestring budget. It’s time to reward the teams efforts by giving them some support.
marsee in cf has sukd all season they throw him out just about everyday to go 0 for 4.the whole bp besides peterson suks.losing bender killed the bp..i dont see them finishing over 500 unless they change some players asap.
Maybe, but he is like Herro, just worse.
derosan lavine and beal why would u dislike them all accomplished nba players seem like ok guys
Yes, but the teams there were playing for lately or even the whole career, were bad. This is sometimes a better indication of their quality then their numbers.
All three were also widely overpaid, and all of them failed as leading man of their team.
Lavine and Beal got SS money. DeRozan not so much. Plus he has been far more available year in and year out and much better at crunch time/closing.
I feel you on that, but it’s a take it or leave it situation. We could use another shotmaker or playmaker, especially if we don’t get LBJ.
playmaker over shotmaker IMO.
Rumor on hoopshype is that the Heat are interested in Westbrook, but only if they don’t get LeBron
id take russ over dru any day.russ pelle thats close
That’s not shooting or playmaking
Definitely not shooting. But he is a playmaker
…and rebounder. Remember he is one the NBA’s best career triple double players.
If Heat needs a playmaker, rebounder defender, Ben Simmons is still available.
top 5 under achiever all time no thanks to that lazy bum
Ugh.. another one in that group.