You start here as the Miami Heat are again about to get started: How in the heck is this a Pat Riley roster?
It was one thing to go into last season without an All-Star on the roster, because that also was in the wake of spending $98 million on Hassan Whiteside and dramatically losing Dwyane Wade.
It was a transition year both out of design and necessity.
But this is different. This was the offseason when Chris Bosh's salary came off the books and the star search could be reset.
Instead an argument could be made that the best player on the Heat's current roster (debate that as you choose) would not even be the second best player on the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards or possibly even Milwaukee Bucks. And that's just in the Eastern Conference.
There have been several leaps of faith during Riley's 23-year stewardship of the Heat: that Tim Hardaway was salvageable, that Shaquille O'Neal was worth just about every available asset, that Antoine Walker and Jason Williams could be part of a champion formula, that LeBron James was attainable.
But this is different than any of that. This seemingly is blind faith, that what James Johnson, Dion Waiters, Goran Dragic and Whiteside could produce over 41 games could be extrapolated to an 82-game sample, could resume already in progress after a six-month break.
The constant from Riley, Erik Spoelstra, Micky Arison has been "championship culture." But hook any of those three to a lie detector and ask if this is a championship roster and their basketball acumen surely would have the needle pointing elsewhere.
And yet just as deeply ingrained as "championship culture" is "Heat Family," that if sacrifice is made for the team, reward will follow.
As they did this offseason, financially, for James Johnson, Waiters, Wayne Ellington, Josh Richardson. And they did this offseason, with loyalty (and retention), with Dragic, Tyler Johnson, Justise Winslow.
In the wake of the decisions to bring the band back, Tyler Johnson cited a midseason moment as 11-30 was turning to 41-41.
"I remember Riley telling us after the trade deadline he wanted to keep the team together just to give us a chance," Johnson recalled. "He wanted to give us the opportunity."
They're back, starting with Monday's media day at AmericanAirlines Arena, and then Tuesday's open of training camp at Florida Atlantic University.
To appreciate how rare this two-season run has been, consider that the previous time Riley did not have a player on his Heat rosters who had been an All-Star was ... . never.
From the get-go there were Alonzo Mourning and Hardaway. Then Eddie Jones to bridge the lean years. Then Shaq and Wade.
Even when there were 15-67 and 25-57 seasons.
And now? A different type of leap of faith, that there is star potential here, merely latent.
"We feel like we had players last year who had All-Star years; they just weren't selected," Riley said Friday. "We do have some stars on our team but they're not considered that.
"I like this team. I'm happy that James Johnson and Dion Waiters didn't sign somewhere else and they were still on the market."
In some blue-collar markets, catchphrases such as "Grit and Grind" can carry you through. But even when the Heat had "Good job; good effort," there also were James, Wade and Bosh on the roster.
Now there is a roster that takes the Heat back to roll-up-the-sleeves Riley, who for years has cast his team as, "hardest-working, best-conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, nastiest."
That T-shirt and locker-room mantra concludes with, "most disliked team in the NBA."
Now that attention largely is focused elsewhere, sexier names found in Cleveland, Golden State, Houston, Boston.
Instead, the entirely of what Riley paid to retain has no option than to be better than the sum of its parts.
An entire season rests on that premise.
