Until Tuesday, Miami Heat President Pat Riley had addressed the team’s offseason roster moves solely through a series of statements in press releases.
But with the Heat’s 2021-22 season opening Thursday against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks, Riley held court at FTX Arena on a variety of topics.
— Riley was asked about the Heat decision to stay under the luxury-tax threshold by starting the season with only 14 players under standard contract, one below the league maximum.
The Heat currently stand roughly $400,000 with their payroll below the punitive tax, without space to sign even an additional minimum-scale player. By avoiding the tax, the Heat would receive in excess of $10 million from the tax pool.
Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison have stressed over the years a willingness to pay into the tax when they believe the team is in championship contention. By avoiding the tax this season, however, it would ease the Heat’s position against the severe repeater tax in future seasons.
“I think you have to prove, first, that you’re the kind of team that can play at that level,” Riley said, “and then you can make that investment.
“Obviously we’re a team that has paid the tax. We’re a team that always believes we’re going to compete, we’re going to win. And the season isn’t over yet.
“We can jump in there is we have to.”
Riley said he first would like to get through the first 20 games before addressing the need for personnel moves.
— Of Victor Oladipo’s status potentially impacting tax spending, Riley said of the guard recovering from May arthroscopic surgery, “You really don’t know when that’s going to happen.”
— Of Bam Adebayo emerging more as an offensive threat this season, “I think you might see a flat-out scorer this year.” He said he believes Adebayo has gotten, “extraordinarily better.”
— On the Heat’s road-intensive early-season schedule, Riley said, “I think it’s going to be a challenging, challenging year, because of our schedule and how we start.”
— Of this season’s roster remix, Riley said, “I’m excited to see how it all works.”
— Of adding Kyle Lowry, Riley said, “Whatever Kyle does is going to be a plus.”
— On Tyler Herro’s offseason, Riley said, “There comes a time in a young players’ career when there’s enough talk.” He added, “He is a workaholic in trying to refine his game.”
— In reflecting on being swept out of last season’s first round by the Bucks, Riley said, “The series was awful. We got our heads handed to us.”
— Of if the Heat’s low-cost depth being enough to support Jimmy Butler and Adebayo, Riley said of Lowry, P.J. Tucker and Markieff Morris, “I think we did the right thing.” He spoke of the moves being similar to the upgrade of the roster with Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade ahead of the team’s 2006 championship.
— Of Tucker possibly filling the role Jae Crowder held during the Heat’s run within two victories of the 2020 title, Riley said, “He can play that role, I don’t think there’s any doubts.” He added, “He’s three time more than I thought he was. He just is.”
— Of Butler’s playoff struggles vs. the Bucks, Riley said, “He knew that he was not that good, that efficient. But they were too big.”
— Of possibly playing with multiple big men, Riley said of this season’s roster, “They have to play every way that they can to win games.” He added if position-less is not working, “We can play with a little bit more size.”
— Of Duncan Robinson playing up to his $90 million, five-year contract, Riley said the next step is showing game-ending defensive ability. He also noted how Robinson has been one of the players who has changed the game with his shooting.
— The Heat said in advance of the session that Riley would not be answering questions about the NBA’s ongoing investigation into the timing of the Heat’s signing of Lowry in an August free-agency sign-and-trade transaction with the Toronto Raptors.
