At 48 hours from the Draft, Pat Riley held his usual press conference end of season. A week after his Heat’s loss in the NBA Finals against the Nuggets, the Miami franchise president admitted that it was a “great season”. But a “weird season”. For the oldest, he compared it to what he had experienced, as a player, with the Suns in… 1975. That year, Phoenix had reached the Finals after finishing 8th in its conference.
Then, he mentioned his workforce, and he wanted to deny the rumors about possible transfers of Bam Adebayo or Tyler Herro.
“We have a good core of young players, which we didn’t have before” he specifies. “There’s Bam and Tyler who are young and have become stars. We have a very good base with Bam and Tyler, and we have a great superstar with Jimmy Butler”.
No other project than to aim for the title
Even better, Riley believes the Heat “have the best coach” today. “I feel good today. I don’t want to know another break” he warns. “This year we have had some incredible ups and downs. This is largely due to missed matches. I had never experienced a year like this during a series of playoffs. [Après avoir gagné le deuxième match], I really thought that against Denver, a great team, I said to myself that this dream was going to come true. This will be our last victory. We’ve had a great year. We are building the fifth team to aim for the title. I have no other project than this. »
After praising Herro who “is even stronger in the big moments”Riley admitted that he would have to better support Jimmy Butler.
“I would like to give him more support. I would like to be able to choose this player who will be his perfect complement, but it is not easy. I am working on it ” assures Pat Riley. “Jimmy did his best. Last year, if he could have taken that 3-point shot again (in Game 7 against the Celtics), he would have done it… He was incredible from the start, and he became more and more important in the defensive plans of opponents. I had never seen a “gameplan” like that of the Nuggets against Jimmy. »
Finally, he had a word for Kevin Love: “He changed the dynamic of the team, and it proves that sometimes you don’t have to make huge trades. »
