Considering how many moments there have been without sports this year, one would think there would be plenty to be said about living in the moment, especially this Miami Heat moment, with a 3-0 series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Only that's not how it works anymore, with what's happening now often less intriguing than what could be next _ even in the midst of the playoffs.
So while the Heat continue to stress and show how they are happy together, there still is the consideration of better tomorrows.
Amid a playoff run that has the Heat one win from the team's first appearance in the Eastern Conference finals since 2014, there are times when the focus off the court seems to be as much on Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bradley Beal, Victor Oladipo, Jrue Holiday as the players who have made this past month so compelling.
It is a topic one does not dare broach with Erik Spoelstra, particularly considering his playoff tunnel vision.
And, yet, Spoelstra also knows who he works for.
During the NBA's four-month hiatus amid the new coronavirus pandemic, when asked by TNT's Ernie Johnson about the Heat's Big Three era, Spoelstra said it wasn't necessarily shocking that Pat Riley found a way to sign LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade during the 2010 offseason.
"I'd worked for Pat long enough, that I understood that his vision is always bigger," Spoelstra said. "And it's always going to be more uncomfortable than you would typically want it to be. He's always going to be pushing the bar higher, bigger, more, and you have to be willing to go there with him."
It is why it is not preposterous to consider that for as good as the going is at the moment, there could be some kicking of the tires with Antetokounmpo, Beal, Oladipo, Holiday and others either in trades or, eventually, free agency.
And it is why, when players are bounced from the playoffs, as Antetokounmpo soon could be, that the mind wanders, just as it did with Jimmy Butler after the Philadelphia 76ers were, quite literally, bounced out of the playoffs a year ago by the Toronto Raptors, or, for that matter, when Joel Embiid is sub-tweeting the 76ers while tweeting about Butler.
But that's also where Part B of the speculation has to be assessed and applied to Heat standards.
Before the Heat's final road game prior to the March shutdown, Spoelstra was asked a seemingly innocuous question about the process of a team successfully integrating a star into the mix.
As the Heat did with Shaquille O'Neal.
Then James and Bosh.
Most recently with Butler.
And that's when Spoelstra opened a window that all the current (and certainly future) speculation has to be weighed against. Because there has to be a fit.
"It's different," Spoelstra said. "And that's what I love about this game, is being able to coach different kinds of personalities and players. But it all starts with sharing similar values. So if you don't have players that share the values that you share and vice versa, then it's probably not an appropriate marriage.
"We've been very fortunate that we've had a lot of Hall of Fame marriages, really, and players that speak the same language and want the same things. It doesn't mean that there's not a little bit of friction along the way. That's to be expected. But you have to share similar viewpoints about competition. And we've been very fortunate to have that."
Even this season, the acquisitions of Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala have fit that template.
That, too, was not by coincidence, Iguodala said of the Pat Riley requirements.
"You saw it once he got to Miami," Iguodala said this past week on Bill Simmons' podcast. "He got Alonzo Mourning. You got some pretty tough lineups out there _ Dan Majerle, Tim Hardaway, P.J. Brown. You got some gritty guys. So it's always in that DNA. Udonis Haslem is the epitome of it, his career with the team that last 18 years.
"They kind of see that in guys. They call it, 'That's a Heat guy.' They identify those guys early on. Even if you're not on the team, they're identifying those guys on other teams they go up against, as potential acquisitions."
So the question is not whether Riley soon can land another star.
Of course he can. He's Pat Riley.
The question is whether Pat Riley can find the right fit.
And that comes down to more than speculation of who might want out elsewhere.
