Before the trade deadline at the end of March, Pat Riley made two deals, trading Harkris and Chris Silva from the Kings for Bjlitsa, and then using Orenick, Avery Bradley and two draft picks to get Victor Oladipo from the Rockets.
Obviously, it wasn't a deal that fans and the media at the time were expecting to see on the Heat. The Heat were tied up with a lot of bigger names (Bill, Lowry), but riley turned down deals because they asked for Duncan Robinson or Tyler Hiro in the deal.
Although the Heat's winning percentage fell below 50 percent at one point, Riley didn't want to rush into a change: "I think we still have all the chips to win. We have good defenders, we have good shooters, we have good leaders, we have organizers who can run the team's attack during regular hours, and we have cold-blooded killers who can score key goals in the final moments. I'm willing to wait and see because I believe our young people are really going to be great. ”
At that time, Riley looked like a loving father who spoiled his children. Of course, this kind of pampering is not a source of water without roots, and the Heat's performance in last season's playoffs gave him confidence. Hiro, Dunn, Duncan Robinson and Adebayor played an impressive number of performances in last year's Orlando bubble. We remember Hiro's 37 points in a single game, and we remember Adebayor's one-on-one defense against Tatum. So after last year's finals, Riley said it was reasonable for him to be happy with his team: "We're not going to make big changes. We believe in our young players and I believe the choice we made was the right one. ”
Earlier this season, that absolute trust in the team's young players made him appear insincere in Harden's trade. When Harden's departure rumors were rife, his designated home actually contained the Heat. But Riley withdrew from the talks after hearing the Rockets' offers for "Hiro, Duncan Robinson, Achuva and Nunga two first-round picks."
Each general manager has his own valuation of each player in his heart, and it is clear that in Riley's valuation, the heat's young players are much more expensive than other managers, so the Rockets' asking price belongs to the "lion's big mouth".
There are also times when the "god operator" is not accurate. As the general manager who once liked to use young players to stud superstars, but now he misestimated the value of their trades because he trusted the young players in the team, it seems that this is a bit like a small joke that fate has made to the old man who has been in the limelight.
"I want to pay tribute to the Bucks' management for taking off their hats. Last year they had a great team and this year they have improved. In the regular season series, they took their level of play to new heights. ”
When Eric Spoelstra made a wrap-up statement after being swept by the Bucks, it's easy to see that while the Heat haven't gotten stronger, the Bucks, their old rival in last year's playoffs, aren't idle. And this year against the hardened Bucks, riley believes the youngsters aren't playing the kind of game he wants.
I believe many fans still remember the playoff opener between the Heat and bucks a week ago. In that game, the two sides had their teeth intertwined and played in the dark. In the fourth quarter and overtime, neither side could even take a three-point lead. In the end, the Heat only lost 2 points to the Bucks on 8-of-37 shooting, both of the core Butler and Adebayor, which at the time looked like it would be a fairly close playoff, so much so that when Barkley picked up a broom in the TNT studio, most fans didn't expect the series to end abruptly in such a way.
For the Heat, the course of the series was actually worse than the result. Among the young people who have high hopes for Riley, Adebayo has never been able to find the rhythm of the game, he was forced out of the box by the Bucks in this series, shooting only 13 of 31 from outside the box, and Hiro averaged 9.3 points per game and shot 31.6% undercover. As for Riley's reputation as a "good leader", Butler, who averaged 23.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists from 53.2 percent of the defensive line against Middleton and Matthews last year, is now shooting just 29.7 percent in the entire series against Alphabet Brother and P.J. Tucker.
Adebayor explained the team's attacking decline: "We've been trying to stay competitive, but it's not easy. Different teammates, different rotations, a lot of personnel trades and adaptation periods, coupled with injuries and covid-19 troubles, make it difficult for us to play the same smooth offense as last year. ”
The offense wasn't strong, and the heat on the defensive end didn't do well. If it's understandable that you can't lock an Antetokounmpo and Middleton in this series, it's a bit overwhelming to have Brooke Lopez punch in the box. Since coming to Milwaukee, Lopez has been improving his three-pointers every year, but in yesterday's game, he didn't make a single shot from outside the three-point line, but instead shot 9-of-9 from within 10 feet of the basket. In the Heat's small ball lineup, the 33-year-old Da Luo regained the feeling of being in the other side's interior line when he was still in New Jersey a decade ago.
We can understand The reason why Spall insisted on using a small ball, after all, in terms of height and size, there are few teams in the league that can play against the Bucks. That's how they beat the Bucks 4-1 last year. But a year later, their strengths suddenly became shortcomings this year. Last season, the Heat's three-point shooting percentage was no. 2 in the league, and this season it suddenly dropped to 19th in the league. In the playoffs, they only shot 33.6% of the three-point shooting rate. When Hiro, Dunn, Ariza and Butler all failed to score, the Heat's small ball formation seemed to be in vain. Despite all the ways Spoo has tried to solve the team's offensive problems, their offensive efficiency in the playoffs this year is only 95.4, the lowest of all playoff teams in the past 6 years.
Riley's "we have good defenders and good shooters" was still in his ears, and the Heat used a series to prove that they were not good enough to compete with the top teams in the East. When the Heat didn't fare well in the regular season this year, Riley preferred to attribute it to Butler's injury. When Butler is healthy, the Heat's record this season is 33 wins and 19 losses (63.4%), similar to the Heat's winning rate when Butler played last season (65.5%), and almost the same as the Nets and Bucks this season. But the playoffs and the regular season are very different games, and a healthy Butler may be the heat's record guarantee in the regular season, but in the playoffs, facing a higher-level opponent, is he the player the Heat can trust? If they continue to build teams around him, can the Heat break their wrists with teams like the 76ers, Nets, bucks in the coming years?
The answer is in everyone's heart.
After being swept by the Bucks in the first round, we can be sure that this summer, the Heat will have to find a way to make a change.
Which players will eventually stay on the team, which players will be used as trading chips, and where will the Heat go this summer? In the post-match press conference, one question after another was thrown out.
Asked what role he would play in the Heat's offseason decision, Butler was as frank as ever: "I don't know. Maybe I'll be involved in recruiting other players, maybe Bam (Adebayo), maybe Taylor (Hiro), but at the end of the day, that's not our job. No matter who we play with next season, we need to play competitively. ”
After the first game, Butler promised that "I need to do better in attacking the basket", after the second game was "the opponent squashed us, we will solve the problem", after the third game he said "we will hold our heads high and try to win the next game", and after the season, he concluded: "We can get better, and we will definitely get better." But it's like a "wolf coming" story, and when Butler repeatedly reneges on his word, few Heat fans will be optimistic enough to believe his words.
Maybe Riley can really find a way to make the team better, maybe he can't, it all depends on what Riley can do this summer.
Riley has been planning for this summer since trading Iguodala on the 2020 trade deadline, and every move the Heat has made over the past 18 months has pointed to the same goal: to keep the team's salary flexibility in the summer of 2021. With the exception of Butler, Adebayo, Hiero, Achuva and Okpala, all of the Heat's players either expire this summer or have team options in their contracts this summer. The team didn't renew his contract against the Bucks in the offseason last year, and it was precisely because he wanted a three-year, 30 million long contract. In the end, the Heat saved the money to sign Miles Leonard, which made it easier to match the salary at the time of the transaction, and Claude got the contract he wanted at the Suns.
After losing Claude and derrick Jones, the Heat failed to sign Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis, who they had previously fancied, but signed Mo Harkris and Avery Bradley for $9.6 million. Both signings quickly proved to be failures. Harkris scored a total of 15 points with the Heat, while Bradley played just 10 games for the team due to injury. They were all disposed of by Riley in the middle of the season, and the replacements of Oladipo and Bjelica, although it is difficult to contribute to the team, will expire their contracts this summer.
But at the time, we could also understand Riley's choices: Riley was more focused on the future than he is now. He also understands that the current team of players is not enough to storm the championship, but in his eyes, a team that has just reached the Finals, the core players are young, and the salary space is very likely to win a superstar in the summer of 2021 - at least Riley believes that Antetokounmpo, who has just been defeated by the Heat in the playoffs, will seriously consider his proposal.
But as the Bucks threw all the trade chips at Juju Holliday and Brother Alphabet also renewed his contract with the team, the "Divine Operator" plan deviated. After the alphabet brother, james, George and other big players also renewed their contracts with their parent team one after another in last offseason, and Riley did not seize the opportunity to trade players such as Harden or Bill to change the team level during the season.
In addition to the poor trade, another bad news for the Heat is that they are also difficult to complete the metamorphosis through the draft, and in the past few years of transactions, they have lost the first round of picks in 2021 and 2023, the first round of swaps in 2022, and only one second round before 2027.
Kavay Leonard was the last man to save the Heat. He has player options this summer to jump out of contract, and if the Clippers don't do well in the playoffs, the Heat will go all out to chase the star forward. The two-time Finals MVP winner, who is as good at attacking and defending as Butler but more capable, is the only one who can immediately change the team and make the Heat a top player in the East. The Heat also have enough quality role players, which has a lot of similarities with Leonard when he led the Raptors to a championship. But today's situation is clearly not what Riley wanted in the first place – when the team has fewer options, it often means that the team's initiative is gradually disappearing. After falling into such an unfavorable situation, lacking enough chips, can the "god operator" with a lot of salary space still turn over in a desperate situation?
We'll see.