This would be GREAT if it's true.
Riley Wants A "Major" Free Agent
By: Wendell Maxey Last Updated: 5/22/08 9:41 AM ET | 4092 times read
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Pat Riley is known to some as "Coach Slick" and others as Mr. "GQ." But come the NBA Draft on June 26th at Madison Square Garden, Riley may earn another moniker: Trader Pat.
Riley - team president for the Miami HEAT - let it be known Tuesday night after the HEAT secured the second overall pick he would explore trading it. For some, the declaration came as a shock. Even Michael Beasley probably felt a bit slighted, particularly with Derrick Rose likely to be selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls.
But you have to hand it to Riley. He's not making a pick or packaging the meal ticket for next season. Nope. Instead Riley and the HEAT have their gaze set on 2010.
That's when the gettin' is good.
"What I like about the opportunity now is, ever since we made the trade (Shaquille O'Neal for Shawn Marion) and went to the future, it gives us flexibility," Riley explained.
"We could be in the hunt next year for a major free agent, definitely without a doubt we are going to save the room in 2010."
The summer of 2010 is when Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh all can become unrestricted free agents, and apparently Riley is making his move now to affect his team then.
"We are going to add to the team and stay as disciplined as we can from a cap standpoint - to get our team healthy, add a young player, add a free agent, and a mid-level guy," Riley continued. "And then in 2010 hopefully take a shot at a major and maximum free agent."
Imagine the possibilities. Riley apparently already has.
While Riley has turned the team coaching duties over to rookie head coach Erik Spoelstra, there is still much concern about Wade, Udonis Haslem's health issues and if free-agent Shawn Marion (if elects to take his early termination option) will return to South Beach for next season. And perhaps that is the underlying question here.
If the HEAT hold on to the second pick in the draft - regardless if they take Beasley, Rose or fill-in-the-blank - can that rookie impact Miami's chances of winning now?
"They helped their teams - Memphis and Kansas State," Riley explained referring to Rose and Beasley's respective college programs. "But can they immediately help a team like ours, a team that won 15 games and change it? I don't think our team is a 15-win team, but that's how they are going to be measured.
"Can they step in like LeBron, Kevin Garnett? Can they step in like these kinds of players who were 19-years-old and help turn a franchise around?"
Being dubbed a "franchise savior" is one thing. Being a small piece to the bigger puzzle is a different story. But making the most of your pick, particularly through some wheeling and dealing could me more of a reality in Miami than anything else. Riley said he "absolutely" has no idea what he would have done had the HEAT won the lottery over the Bulls, but he did state clearly the second round pick is on the open market.
"The fact is the second pick in the draft is a pick you can leverage. If you don't like the player, if you want to go in a different direction, it's a position where you can do a lot of different things," Riley said.
"We will use the pick. It doesn't mean we will necessarily draft somebody, or we will use the pick to find as many good players as we can, or we'll take the player we really want to take."
So what does it all mean then?
It means you can call Pat Riley anything you want these days: "Coach Slick", Mr. "GQ", "Pat the Rat" (to his New York Knick contingent) or even "Trader Pat".
But if you are a GM in the NBA, just make sure and him call him before someone else does.
How so? I mean, im not going to attack your opinion and say what source, but from what the Raps organization, as well as the media understand, Andreaisnt going anywhere. The Raps will give him one more year to shine. If nothing happens after that, then I think he may be moved.
you gotta be kiddingOriginally Posted by jrp44
Come to NY Davis
