Riley is the most underrated GM in the NBA. You hear great things about Joe D, Brian Colangelo, Greg Popovic, etc, but look at what he's been able to turn our team into. Heat had: Lamar Odom Caron Butler Brian Grant (one of the worst contracts today but not bad when they were signed) Eddie Jones (one of the worst contracts today but not bad when they were signed) Rasual Butler Qyntel Woods They turn that into: Shaquille O'Neal Jason Williams James Posey Antoine Walker ^ These moves up here have put the Heat in title contention for the next 4 Years. J Will is getting surgery on his knee to remove the pain he was experiencing due to tendinitis (i.e., this should make him more consistant, we should see more of the 16/6 J Will than the 12/4). Antoine Walker is gonna have one year under his belt with the Heat and will have starter experience on this team. I really expect him to start being the Walker of old when he was getting 19/9/3 the season he signed with us, but probably 16/8/3 with this Heat team. Also, James Posey finally got his groove back in the playoffs and started playing like the guy we traded for. Like JWill and Walker, having one year of experience under his belt and he'll benefit from it. Back to Riley, look at his moves when he first came to the Heat: Heat had a)Glen Rice Matt Geiger Khalid Reeves 1996 first round draft pick b)Kevin Willis + Bimbo Coles c) PJ Brown + Jamaal Mashburn Turn that into: a)Alonzo Mourning (and Pete Myers, LeRon Ellis) b)Tim Hardaway (and Chris Gatling) c)Eddie Jones, Anthony Mason, Ricky Davis (note: this doesn't include the FA signings like Dan Marleje, Bruce Bowen, etc) Here's another interesting thing: Unlike coaches and player's, it can take years before a GM's vision is finally put together. In Riley's years with Miami, he's had 2 stages as GM and he's been as good as it gets in his time.
Nice writeup, i totally agree now, but those moves last year were extremely risky. It paid off, so Riley looks like a genius.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Heat4Life:</div><div class="quote_post">Riley is the most underrated GM in the NBA. You hear great things about Joe D, Brian Colangelo, Greg Popovic, etc, but look at what he's been able to turn our team into. Heat had: Lamar Odom Caron Butler Brian Grant (one of the worst contracts today but not bad when they were signed) Eddie Jones (one of the worst contracts today but not bad when they were signed) Rasual Butler Qyntel Woods They turn that into: Shaquille O'Neal Jason Williams James Posey Antoine Walker ^ These moves up here have put the Heat in title contention for the next 4 Years. J Will is getting surgery on his knee to remove the pain he was experiencing due to tendinitis (i.e., this should make him more consistant, we should see more of the 16/6 J Will than the 12/4). Antoine Walker is gonna have one year under his belt with the Heat and will have starter experience on this team. I really expect him to start being the Walker of old when he was getting 19/9/3 the season he signed with us, but probably 16/8/3 with this Heat team. Also, James Posey finally got his groove back in the playoffs and started playing like the guy we traded for. Like JWill and Walker, having one year of experience under his belt and he'll benefit from it. </div> They might be contenders for the next four years, although not lock as champs. Is it that hard to contend in the East nowadays? Whether or not Walker has another year under his belt, his PER will always be around 15, and the same goes for Jason. Relax with that stuff.
I personally think you may be overrating him right now. Sure, he made some good moves, but they were unnecessary. Two years ago, with just Shaq/Wade, they went 59-23 and were the best team in the East. They didn't need to do anything drastic like they did. All they had to do was keep them team they had together and they would have been good to go. However, he made some unnecessary and VERY risky moves and ended up coming out on top. If he wouldn't have won a title, this conversation wouldn't be taking place. And personally, I don't think it was what he did as a GM that won them the title, but his job as the coach. Sure, he's made some great moves (and some unnecessary ones as well), but his coaching won the title, not the GM work.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Moo2K4:</div><div class="quote_post">I personally think you may be overrating him right now. Sure, he made some good moves, but they were unnecessary. Two years ago, with just Shaq/Wade, they went 59-23 and were the best team in the East. They didn't need to do anything drastic like they did. All they had to do was keep them team they had together and they would have been good to go. However, he made some unnecessary and VERY risky moves and ended up coming out on top. If he wouldn't have won a title, this conversation wouldn't be taking place. And personally, I don't think it was what he did as a GM that won them the title, but his job as the coach. Sure, he's made some great moves (and some unnecessary ones as well), but his coaching won the title, not the GM work.</div> I think change was necessary when Riley realized that Wade and Shaq being banged up may become something frequent, which means we need to surround them with scorers and more offensive minded players. Walker was the X factor and he proved why he was an important acquisistion in the playoffs. Posey replaced E.J., Jason Williams was brought in to allow Wade handle the ball less (DJ was not the answer at PG). Payton turned out to be very valuable as J-Will was injured often and Wade missed a few games. We relied too much on Wade and Shaq in the previous year, and to improve our weak spots on our roster, it meant giving up some of our valuable players (Jones, Butler).
