MIAMI - Medical papers have been swapped. The long view is being stressed. And Pat Riley's fetish for height remains unsated.

After the Miami Heat president commented for the first time in months about his team's personnel situation, it is difficult to take any view other than that a trade is in the works.

Speaking moments after center Alonzo Mourning announced his retirement, Riley said Thursday while he appreciates his team's current spot in the playoff race, long-term championship aspirations supersede current considerations.

"The point is that the big picture always trumps the present moment," he said. "While the present moment is important, I am not going to do something to take away from what I think we can see down the road."

Riley stressed two goals: Maintaining his team's salary-cap flexibility for the 2010 offseason, when his own Dwyane Wade and others such as LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire could be free agents; and finding a post-up scoring presence to continue his team's lineage of Mourning and Shaquille O'Neal.

"There's a lot of good things and I don't want to mess with that," he said of his team's current state. "I will do something that would help the team win now and also help the team in the future."

It is a future, Riley said, that has to transcend small ball, the Heat's current approach.

"I don't believe in that game," he said. "In the long run, I don't think that game's going to win you a title."

A move that could satisfy both objectives could be a trade of forward Shawn Marion to the Toronto Raptors for center Jermaine O'Neal, whose contract expires at the end of 2009-10.

Asked about the Heat and Raptors having swapped medical information on Marion and O'Neal, Riley said, "It doesn't make any difference. I could have made the same request to five other teams, also. That's just the normal process."

Marion, who was forced to sit out the second half of Wednesday's loss to the Celtics with a troublesome left groin, was unable to practice Thursday and is questionable for Saturday's home game against the Magic.

"I've had long conversations with Shawn and with Dan," Riley said of agent Dan Fegan. "It's not a very comfortable time for anybody. I value Shawn Marion immensely. He is a tremendous player and I'm sorry that this is going on right now.

"Shawn Marion, right now, he's our second-best player on the team and I value him as that."

Others, however, value Marion for his $17.8 million expiring contract.

Riley said the glut of Marion, Udonis Haslem and first-round pick Michael Beasley at power forward is overstated.

"I think they've done very well," he said. "They're very versatile players."

The NBA trading deadline is Feb. 19. Riley declined to flatly rule out a move.

"If it happens, it happens," he said. "I'm just going to say that we're trying improve the team. There's a lot of players on our team that other teams have interest in."

With a roster spot still vacant and Mourning now in retirement, Riley said it is possible the team eventually invites back recently waived guard Shaun Livingston.

"We need to upgrade this team," Riley said, "but you're not going to do it overnight."