CHICAGO _ It is tough enough building a team in today's NBA. For the Miami Heat, the ante has been doubled.
As much as Pat Riley and his staff live in the moment, with the next playoff berth the laser focus, the Heat scouting staff worked the NBA combine with a dual focus: how to get back to the postseason and how to establish something sturdier and more reliable for the future.
Because of that, the draft deliberations will be conducted somewhat separately from the current roster board that Riley has in his bayside office at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Too many big men already in place?
No matter, there is legitimate intrigue in 7-foot-2 Bol Bol.
Too many 'tweener forwards?
It is not dampening the Heat's interest in the bulky goodness of 6-8 Rui Hachimura.
With the Heat operating under the assumption that both Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic will opt into the 2019-20 final season on their contracts, there already is a 10-deep (at least) rotation in place.
But the Heat also are operating under a ticking clock with Dion Waiters and James Johnson, who will be, at the least, expiring contracts after the coming season.
It is against that backdrop that Riley, Andy Elisburg, Erik Spoelstra and the rest of the scouting staff is working both the short game and the long game.
Make no mistake, patience, beyond the injury issues, was wearing thin with Waiters and Johnson last season. That doesn't mean that there isn't an avenue for redemption next season. But it also means that there is a focus on what could follow, as the team's 2016 and '17 contracts wind down.
That has the focus on players who could fit alongside Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Bam Adebayo and perhaps Derrick Jones Jr., without as much concern about potential overlap with the likes of Whiteside, Dragic, Waiters and Johnson _ four players who nonetheless stand as potential opening-night starters in October.
So if another 7-footer is deemed best available, with the biggest upside, it could mean bowling for Bol.
And if there is a captivating successor to Dragic or Waiters on the board at No. 13 at the June 20 draft at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, then short-term duplication it will be.
In some ways, the Heat at the moment stand where the Miami Dolphins stand, with older options (Dragic, Johnson) in somewhat of the Ryan Fitzpatrick mode, and intriguing options (Winslow, Richardson, Adebayo, Jones) to get a test drive to sink or swim in somewhat of the Josh Rosen mode.
The backstory of last season's Heat was of a culture gone sideways _ tardiness, sloth, lenience.
It is something that management has made clear would be addressed, would not be repeated.
It is why the current roster is somewhat on probation.
And why a portion of the current personnel effort is focused on what comes next.
Redemption for Riley would be the current mix coalescing in a way it has not since the end of 2016-17, when 30-11 teased of better days ahead.
But common sense dictates that the further the Heat get from those best of times, the more consideration has to be given to a different, new direction.
So when mapping out the draft and then free agency for the Heat (however limited that may be), do not overstate what currently is in place.
Not in what has become a probationary period, with Plan B already being formulated.
