(Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
For much of this summer, the Miami Heat, coming off their second trip to the NBA Finals in four seasons, thought they were going to end up landing Damian Lillard via trade.
But in the end, the Portland Trail Blazers sent him to the Milwaukee Bucks, one of the Heat’s biggest competitors in the Eastern Conference.
To add insult to injury, veteran guard Jrue Holiday, whom the Bucks traded to Portland to get Lillard, was then traded to the Boston Celtics, a big rival of the Heat.
Thus, Miami heads into the 2023-24 season somewhat crestfallen, as they don’t appear to have a path to get back to the championship series.
But Howard Beck, via Dru on Twitter, writes that they and their team president Pat Riley remain a threat to poach another superstar should one become available.
“The Heat under Riley are forever plotting their next blockbuster, their next coup. Will it be Giannis? That seems unlikely, w/ Dame now in Milwaukee. Embiid? Luka? Zion? Mitchell? Miami has the track record the nightlife & the weather to attract the best of the best” @HowardBeck https://t.co/48JsUdMn8Z pic.twitter.com/yZGYIRw8np
— Dru (@dru_star) October 13, 2023
Riley, 78, is one of the game’s biggest legends, and he has as much experience working with superstars as anyone in any sport.
He played with Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain on that 1972 Los Angeles Lakers team that won 33 games in a row and captured the NBA title, and he later coached them to five world championships, four as their head coach, during the 1980s when he had Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at his side.
Since taking over the Heat in the mid-1990s, Riley has had big names such as Alonzo Mourning, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, and now Jimmy Butler.
They do need a big infusion of offense, however, as they were last in the NBA in scoring last season, and they will need to greatly boost their offense in order to compete with the Milwaukees and Bostons of the East.
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