During his end-of-season press conference on Friday, Miami Heat president Pat Riley addressed the Jimmy Butler trade, a potential Tyler Herro contract extension and where the team that finished 10th in the East will go from here.
On that last point: The Butler era is over, but the Heat aren't in tank mode, according to Riley.
"I only tried to tank twice, and I was successful at it," Riley said. "Not really successful in the [Dwyane] Wade year, but I was successful in 2008. But I never told anybody I was going to try to tank. I always said we're going to win."
In 2002-03, the Heat finished 25-57, the league's fourth-worst record. They fell in the lottery, but they managed to draft a franchise player anyway, using the No. 5 pick to draft Wade. In 2007-08, Riley's last season as coach, they won only eight games in the season's first two months with Wade coming off of two offseason surgeries, then traded Shaquille O'Neal in February, shelved Wade in March and finished 15-67, the worst record in the league. They got the No. 2 pick in the draft and selected Michael Beasley with the No. 2 pick.
Riley said that trading Butler represented the franchise's 14th "retool" or "tweak" since he arrived in 1995.
"We took the deal that we felt was best for us now and also in the future," he said. "We have a lot of young players. we have some medium-aged players in their prime. Our draft picks are in better order than what they were. And so we have a lot of flexibility. And that's where the blueprint's gonna come from this summer."
'I'm not going to apologize for saying no'
This Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of Riley's 2024 State of the Heat address, in which he said Butler should have "kept his mouth shut" about their series against the Boston Celtics after his season-ending injury. At the same press conference, Riley also implied that the team would not sign Butler to a contract extension that offseason.
Butler's relationship with the franchise -- and Riley himself -- deteriorated after that, but, in late December, Riley issued a statement that the team would not trade Butler. Miami ended up suspending Butler three times before trading him in February.
"There's no doubt that what happened with Jimmy had a tremendous impact on our team," Riley said. "There's no doubt about it. So the buck stops with me. I'll take that hit if you want it."
This does not mean, however, that Riley regrets what he said 368 days ago or how he handled Butler's contractual situation.
"I don't think what I said last year really was relevant," Riley said. "I simply said softly no. and I'm a person that, all the teams that I did coach, when you lose, you take your loss and you go home and you're quiet. But there wasn't trolling back in that day."
He added: "I'm not going to apologize for saying no on the contract extension when we didn't have to, and I don't think I should. And I will always say that to the players, if I was coaching: Keep your mouth shut, I'll see you next training camp and you get it back on the court. But it's different today with players."
The end of Butler's tenure "wasn't fun," Riley said, but he didn't want to dwell on that.
"I don't want this to go out there that what happened with Jimmy, as ugly as it was, that I didn't appreciate him, that I didn't love this guy," Riley said. "Those things happen."
Riley brought up the image of Butler, exhausted and slumped over behind the baseline late in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, in which he recorded a 35-point triple-double with five steals in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. "I have that in my office, that picture," Riley said. He said he remembers an exit meeting with Butler that lasted "maybe a minute" after the Heat got swept by the Milwaukee Bucks the following year, and he remembers thinking that they were going back to the Finals when Butler pulled up for a 3 late in Game 7 against the Celtics the year after that.
He remembers the "great run we had to the Finals out of the play-in" in 2023, too.
"He played his ass off, his heart out for us," Riley said.
The last year and a half with Butler "wasn't the same," Riley said. He got hurt during the 2023-24 season and was unavailable in the playoffs, "and then there was this year." Now it is over, and Riley said he wishes Butler well.
"Good luck to him," Riley said. "And I hope deep down in his heart somewhere, he wishes us well, too."
'We do have to make changes'
When the Cleveland Cavaliers beat Miami 138-83 in Game 4 of their first-round series on April 28, it concluded the most lopsided series in NBA playoff history.
Games 3 and 4 "were humbling," Riley said. He does not think, though, that the way the Heat went out is a true representation of the quality of the team.
Riley said he saw a "very, very competitive team" that could build double-digit leads but had a habit of losing those leads in the fourth quarter. Going forward, he said, Miami needs to "play with an edge all the time" on defense and add to the roster.
"I do think we do have to make changes, Riley said. "There's no doubt. There has to be some change."
Riley said that the front office will have to "look at the board" and try to figure out how to improve the team. Unsurprisingly, he said the Heat would be open to trading for a "great, great player" if the opportunity presented itself. However, he also said that smaller moves can make a big difference, pointing to the acquisitions of Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill at the trade deadline that preceded their 2020 Finals run.
In another blast from the past, Riley referenced the construction of the team that won the 2006 title.
"It doesn't happen in one year," he said. "I mean when we drafted Caron [Butler] at No. 10 and then the next year we got Wade and then we got Udonis [Haslem] then we got Lamar Odom and we had Eddie Jones and we had Brian Grant, and Stan [Van Gundy] took that team to the second round and we saw in Dwyane Wade -- wow -- in two years. And we finally said, 'OK let's go after somebody else.' And I didn't go after Shaquille [O'Neal]. I mean, he just popped up."
His point was that contenders aren't built overnight. At the same time, though, he made it clear that the Heat are not planning a full teardown, followed by years of rebuilding.
"It's a process," Riley said, "but I'm not going to deal with a long process. And nor is ownership."
One concrete thing Riley said about the offseason: Miami does not plan to be a luxury-tax team next season. After the Butler trade, it should be relatively easy for the front office to stay under the luxury tax, but it has decisions to make regarding Duncan Robinson's guaranteed contract and Davion Mitchell's restricted free agency, in addition to whatever it might do to add talent.
'I hope he can stay here the rest of his career'
Herro, who made his first All-Star team this season, is "pivotal for us as an offensive player," Riley said. "We just need more around him that can do a little bit of what he does because now he's getting beat up, he's getting overly schemed."
The 25-year-old guard will be eligible for a three-year, $149.7 million contract extension on Oct. 1. If the two sides do not come to an agreement, Herro will be eligible for a four-year extension worth a projected $206.9 million in the 2026 offseason.
"I would love to be here, but we'll see what happens," Herro said at his end-of-season media availability. "If it doesn't get done in October, I think we can get it done next summer." He added, with a laugh: "It'll just be a little bit higher of a price."
Riley said that Herro "answered that question perfectly" and the two sides have already talked about it.
"I hope he can stay here the rest of his career," Riley said.
Riley described Herro as "ignitable," borrowing one of coach Erik Spoelstra's "Spoisms." He also said that the team has to figure out how to counter teams that try to wear him out and get the ball out of his hands, and that Herro himself "has to learn how to be a great player like Steph [Curry] is when he gets that treatment and to be able to still score."
Notably, Riley did not signal that Miami is willing to offer Herro the most that it is allowed to offer him.
"We'll see what happens as we plan," Riley said. "The numbers are getting pretty big for a lot of guys, and max salaries in this league, who do they go to? I mean, who do they go to? And who is really, if you're going to make $70 million a year, who are those five guys or 10 that deserve that?
"But definitely, Tyler is deserving of the thought of an extension. But are we going to do it? We haven't committed to it. But we're going to discuss it and I've already talked to him about it. He's cool."
Extension or no extension, the Heat are building around Herro and big man Bam Adebayo, at least for the time being.
"We got [Herro] and Bam at the right time, and we'll move forward with that," Riley said.
