Philc1 wrote:Nalod wrote:Philc1 wrote:Clean wrote:Philc1 wrote:Clean wrote:smackeddog wrote:Making mistakes is part of being a GM- everything is a calculated risk. Cleaning up mistakes is an important part of the job- better than doubling down so you don't have to admit something didn't work out!Last summers moves were okay (there weren't many options), but we got unlucky with all of them- Noel and Rose got injured, Randle had an absolute meltdown. If Noel had performed like the previous season (not a huge ask), his contract would have been fine, could have got a second rounder at the least back. Likewise with Rose. I'm not a fan of extending players a season in advance because you never know what might happen, but at the time Randle's contract was decent even if he had a slight regression.
Worst mistake was $8mil for 2 seasons for Kemba- 1 season would have been fine, or a minimum contract would have been fine, but that second year blew up in our face. Though likely OKC only agreed to the buyout because we were saving them $16mil.
This but to add to it the assets they used to get out of their mistakes were assets they collected themselves. So in my mind they cancel each other out. Now they will be judged on how the team actually does this season.
Every team that isn’t managed by Pat Riley makes mistakes.
He also makes mistakes. Exhibit 1 is that terrible Duncan Robinson contract.
And I’d say exhibit 1a would be Riley’s history of success as an executive since leaving the Knicks versus our history
Unless you want to get all Nalod and cite a Juwan Howard deal from 25 years ago
And nobody is saying our success has been good since then. The point was his longevity running the Heat gave him many opportunities. In your pea brain you often superimpose on players and execs as if they could have had the same success here as elsewhere.
Bottom line Nalod does quote his sources. I recently was brave enough to read “Blood in the Garden” by Chris Herring.
He revisits the era and has quite a lot of source material on Riley. Of course I regret he left but if you understand the moment, the corp structure at the time, Dolan, Checketts, and how Aronson worked him it had to happen as it did.
The issue was not so much Riles leaving, it was Dolan exercising his authority over Checketts and all that followed.
I implore the fans to read this book. I came away with a lot of back ground info I had no idea about and an even greater respect for many of the players and coaches. A little less about Riley and his head.
Riley is by far the best executive in the nba. He rebuilt the heat into title contenders only 4-5 times in the past 27 years including most recently from scratch after Lebron left and Bosh and Wade both retired. But please keep up the childish vendetta against me while you hyperventilate about a Juwan Howard contract offer from over 25 years ago
The relevance to Howard is the fable that Riles never screws up. He does. If you had any decorum that you care about your posts you’d notice there was one reference. You have repeated it out of context.
I might say that the Spurs might be a better run organization as they have won more games and chips.
And you might notice that in a detailed post that likely is beyond your attention span I compliment Riley were it is due. RC Buford has done a great job in SAS.
Lebron left the Heat 8 years ago. Won in cleveland and again in LA vs ironically a surprising Heat team! Lebron is a rare one having one three chips with three teams. None super before he got there.
When you own a part of the team you don’t get fired. You don’t have to take short cuts or try to save your job. Few coach/GM/presidents succeeded. He did as did Pop. Bud, Rivers, Thibs, SVG, and others got paid but limited success ending the that era of duel roles.
Riles succeeded in part by having that ownership stake but more important succeeding. I admire his tenacity of sticking to his guns when the first Heatle team caved Dallas and he laid down the law that “we did it your way and now you do it ours, defense and Spo stays in the seat”. Heat made 4 straight finals winning two. The era saw Wade lose a step, father time crept on Ray, and eventually Bosh got lung clots and had to retire. Heat did tank to expire contracts and reboot. Owner Aronson was able to absorb gate loss and Riles got to retool.
Post Lebron the Heat were ok. not great, not all winning seasons, and perhaps underperformed if you look at the rosters. The trip to finals was a suprise out of the bubble and perhaps its why Lakers chip is seen a bit tainted by some. You need not argue the point, look at the ensuing seasons and determine yourself. Maybe a lessor exec moves his coach to save his ass. But Riles need not do that and thats a good thing.
Heat should be the envy of knick fans given the Riles divorce. He went to a prettier wife and build something special while we stayed in our parents basement and got fat! (Except for the Van Gundy years!)
