- 1 day ago
Recapping the Pat Riley end of season press conference with Solana who was there. Main takeaways including Bam's future and why nothing is more important to Riley than players who are available to play in games.
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00:00solana's back in studio he asked i don't know if you heard us talking about it
00:04he asked maybe top three question of pat riley today what a difference it makes i don't know
00:12if it was uh it was a dummy mistake but solana you you had one at the end brother do
00:17you remember
00:18what happened at last year's pat riley season ending press conference i don't but we didn't
00:25praise him i'm sure we were at whiskey stars and cigars and i almost got into a fist fight with
00:32solana because i was so hard on him for preparing one question remember he didn't ask a question and
00:38then i said and he's like someone asked my question and i did that whole routine about
00:42what you prepare you know and i just went overboard and i ran off as i'm known to yeah and
00:49jimmy ran
00:50off because it got it was it was very heated um because somebody even put when i was talking
00:55about prime rib with tobin there two things could be right prime rib is overrated also nobody beats
01:01a dead horse like hockman and i may have done that last year at the press pat riley press conference
01:07beating solana over the head with a prime rib like take about not having enough questions prepared
01:14what a difference a year makes solana i think you had a top three question i think pat riley gave
01:21us
01:22a little insight as to what he might feel about giving up significant stuff in return for a kawai
01:30or a yannis or a jaw i thought it was a very very uh good question by you i'm with
01:39you on the prime
01:40rib take i want to get that out of the way oh good oh wow i thought you were going
01:44to be mr
01:44meat guy for sure no i'm with you 100 percent two i almost did fight you and i still have
01:50my resume
01:51prepared the following day i went home and i put my resume in and then you put my name on
01:56the show
01:56and i didn't even get to apply anywhere else but i that was the closest i've ever been to quitting
02:00a
02:00job that that conversation three i genuinely think nothing bothers pat riley more than players missing
02:10games nothing very evident mr 305 is brought to you by miami lakes chevrolet where you walk in as a
02:29customer and drive out as family by the way we are 15 minutes away from giving away a pair of
02:36eagles
02:37tickets today today's pair is going to be given away at 320 the eagles are bringing their long
02:43goodbye act three tour to hard rock live may 13th we've got a pair of tickets every day this week
02:50and again the first pair comes today at 320 if you can't wait to win purchase your tickets at casino
02:58dot hardrock.com slash hollywood just go to the events page yeah i thought it was very clear in
03:05the press conference today pat riley places a massive premium on being available he said it's
03:14one of the reasons that he loves bam and i believe that's one of the reasons that bam is completely
03:19untouchable but also i i when i saw when i heard it and it's a lot of great question again
03:25bro
03:26when i heard it i looked at d wade d wade played 70 games like 10 times 77 79 wade
03:35was out there so
03:37the star the best player in heat history was on the court and that was a that was a riley
03:42assigning
03:43that was a riley draft um does he have to adjust to the new age of nba that's a separate
03:50question
03:51that's a see that's the separate question he's not now whether he needs to is a separate question
03:58but he was clear today he is not buying into load management he is not buying into hey it's better
04:08off to have a higher lottery pick than to be a play-in team he is not buying into any
04:15of the
04:16new way of thinking when it comes to the nba your question is a question that's going to be debated
04:24amongst heat fans ad nauseam until the next season starts and if they don't have a whale
04:30the the discussion will continue but he was so clear today he is not i mean not one iota is
04:40he moving off
04:40what he believes creates a winning franchise having players available competing 82 games a year
04:48and feeling grateful if you get to play 84 instead of 82 and and i think the big question
04:56because there there's a lot of follow-ups that i have in terms of okay he weighs availability over
05:04anything else when acquiring potentially another player right well that matters if your team needs
05:11that star player to compete because jimmy butler in 2022 the season the heat were the one seed that's
05:18the year that they lost in game seven of the eastern conference finals jimmy brick the three that would
05:22have won them that game would have put them in the finals he only played 52 games that season or
05:2857
05:28games that season but the heat were still good enough as a team around him to be the one seed
05:34in
05:34the eastern conference was anybody complaining that year that jimmy butler didn't play games where the
05:39heat as frustrated with jimmy butler that year no because the team was still good the problem is
05:44right now the miami heat are not good enough to not have their best player their talent out there
05:51and and continue to compete that's a that's a bigger issue and a bigger question as well because if
05:56you do get rid of the guys riley kept kind of putting together the young talented players well
06:02guess what you're gonna need your star player to be out there and does that eliminate kawaii leonard
06:06from the conversation does that eliminate john morant and and yannis on to the kumpo it might it really
06:13might um and as far as you know his way of thinking with how they should be approaching every season
06:21which he flat out said it like i'm not tanking that's not the way i do it he even
06:26joked the day that they tell me we're tanking that's the day i quit you know he made that joke
06:31i wonder how aligned everybody in that building is with that way of thinking i just wonder i'm not
06:40saying that they're not aligned because it sounds like they are but pat riley clearly wants to go
06:46make the acquisition this summer and go get the whale or go or not the whale doesn't want to use
06:51the
06:51whale but you know go get the player right go go he wants to i mean that's obvious like i
06:56i i came
06:57away from that thinking even stronger like yeah they're going to be active in the trade market
07:01obviously um but is it worth it if that move doesn't put you in the conversation with the okcs and
07:10with the san antonios if you're literally giving up three first round picks into 2030 and 2032
07:17does nick arison feel aligned with that vision does eric spolstra feel aligned with that vision
07:22in other words sacrificing five six years down the line your draft capital to go get a yannis now i
07:29don't know i don't know the answer to that i think everybody's aligned because i think everybody just
07:34wants to get back to winning but again i i don't know could that be why they didn't trade for
07:38durant
07:39last summer could that be why maybe they couldn't get the yannis deal done because some of the other
07:44decision makers some of the other people with a seat at the table don't want to sacrifice long
07:49term post riley because they see a different vision they have a different course but to that
07:55point you bring up okc you bring up san antonio um go nicks we can go boston built or bought
08:02built or bought because the teams i just said they were all built they were all built they weren't
08:07bought they weren't whale hunting and that's what riley's good at i don't know that i don't know
08:12that's true okay yes boston san antonio all draft picks right but san antonio sga and them all draft
08:20picks no they're not they traded for sga sga was on the on the clippers and okay see okay see
08:27i mean
08:28leveraged everything to get draft picks they lucked they right and san antonio had one of the longest
08:35runs of being a futile team in the in the nba in order to get that draft pick and that's
08:40something
08:41that riley refuses to do and they traded for dearon fox who's their second best player or or starter
08:47on that team it's not like every player on their squads are are players that they drafted also yeah
08:54they were really bad for five years we've gone through this already like they had like 14 and 15
08:59win seasons if i remember san antonio for five seasons was was bad and by the way like i don't
09:05blame them but yeah i mean that's that's one way to go about it it was very clear to me
09:10that pat riley
09:11he said it i'm not tanking it was very clear to me that they don't want to go down that
09:15path while
09:16he's there and that they'd rather remain flexible which is what they're doing and try to be in
09:22conversations for major acquisitions whether it's this offseason whether it's next offseason he talked
09:26about 2027 the summer of 2027 and how they'll be flexible for that as well uh but what i what
09:32i got from
09:33him based off your question was i don't think he'd have any problem obtaining kawai jah yannis
09:42but the price is gonna matter to him right because if the first thing he looks at is games played
09:50if the first thing that he looks at is games played he's not giving up three firsts
09:57for kawaii now if someone just wants to get him off the books he'll facilitate it because he likes a
10:05player like that but he told solana and everyone flat out the thing he values most obviously if it's
10:12the first thing you look at the thing you value most is availability and he said that before by the
10:19way but he was as adamant about it today as i've ever heard him really based on solana's question
10:25when he said it's the first thing i look at
10:30it was interesting by the way going back to numerous debates we've had about bam at a bio
10:38whether or not the heat consider him untouchable he told you no we're not trading him the only way
10:46he said and it was a joke obviously was if he got eight picks and went by ya uh which
10:51is what he
10:52called victor wimbanyama he called him when by ya came close and you guys mocked me you guys
11:00he's 80 years old 81 how dare you you guys mocked me when i said the only player that the
11:06miami heat
11:06the only players plural that the heat would consider would be the top literally the top five players in
11:13the league that that's how they view bam at a bio whether or not that's the right way to go
11:17about it
11:17was not the conversation i just told you that's how the heat viewed bam out of bio from
11:22the very beginning they are not moving the guy that they proclaim the next culture bearer that
11:29they that they handed the torch to after udonis haslam that they view him at that echelon of player
11:36and that the only way they're moving up would be for the jokers and and the victor wimbanyamas and
11:41you guys mocked me no we didn't end of the effing world oh you you think they view bam as
11:49and and
11:49he just told you no he did not we're not considering trading bam at a bio because that's
11:55how they that's how that is how it is internally there my whole offseason was bam and them my whole
12:01offseason you remember that phrase bam and them it's bam and whoever they bring in but bam can't be a
12:08one bam's not a one and they're not calling one we have to have a better player than bam offensively
12:14so that whoever blank and bam that was the whole point that we were getting at this whole offseason
12:21before this season started and he didn't he never called him a one and i don't believe that they
12:27believe bam at a bio can be the best player on your team but what he did say was we
12:32want to build
12:33this thing around bam and that's how they view him a centerpiece to a title contending roster they
12:40want to put a superstar a a high level player around bam they'll never trade bam out of bio and
12:48that's all
12:48i'm pointing out that we debated this several times y'all tickled my pickle with donovan mitchell
12:55last week donovan mitchell is the one bam is the two that's a team that i can get behind but
13:03it has
13:03to be bam and them we're not we didn't say we don't want bam we said that we need bam
13:09but we need
13:10a higher player and we need other people i don't think we ever debated how the heat view bam i
13:16thought
13:16it was how we view bam no we had conversations and i remember one specifically where where i mentioned
13:23joker in that conversation and again like i i'm not i'm i'm not trying to turn that's ridiculous
13:29though he would trade he would trade bam for joker in a heartbeat my point is we've had the conversation
13:35of how they view bam and i had pointed out several times their their entire philosophy is to put a
13:44talented team around bam on a bio right but i think the debate was do we believe that that's the
13:49right
13:50approach i don't think i don't think we were ever debate i mean the heat's been pretty clear that
13:54they're not interested in moving bam i thought maybe bam would request to be moved i i don't think
14:00we've ever really debated that the heat wanted to build around him it was just is that the wisest
14:05thing to do i mean it hasn't it hasn't worked in the last four seasons they've been playing and
14:11that's and that's a good conversation like that's a that's a fair conversation to have but i just
14:16know like we've talked about whether or not they should consider trading bam and i was i was flat
14:22out on this show telling you guys that like it's not it's not a conversation they're not trading bam
14:26the conversation is whether they should have that conversation it's not whether they believe it's
14:32obvious they don't want to move up they're not moving on from him period i mean he couldn't have
14:37been clearer today about calling him the standard bearer for heat culture like he could not have been
14:43more clear today and is that a good approach to have a standard culture the standard culture guy
14:51but not figure out how to build a roster that can win a championship and it was it was barry
14:57who asked
14:57the question he pointed to the three teams who have traded some of their centerpieces indiana with
15:02excuse me toronto with pascal siakam um he mentioned indiana with sabonis um there's one other team that i'm
15:11missing as well and he he asked barry like list those players he said yeah they're not bam
15:16trey young in the atlanta hawks he's like yeah those guys aren't bam out of bio um they they
15:21was very complimentary today towards bam i mean like crazy complimentary to bam also very complimentary
15:27to niko jovic i mean just talked about how i pegged him as a starter and he he put a
15:34lot of
15:35this season's problems of of jovic on injury he went out of his way to say a lot of this
15:43was injury
15:43based i think it was also you know every uh every postseason when he does this there's always like
15:48a guy or two that he tries to get into his frame of mind you remember it was tyler last
15:55season or was
15:56the season before like he's done this before did it with lebron right i mean he like he he comes
16:02into
16:03these postseason press conferences with an idea and my thought was this season it's jovic he knows
16:09how much money he's invested in him and i think he came in with a directive to himself like hey
16:16i've
16:16got to light that public fire under niko jovic because he can be what we think he uh was when
16:25we gave him that money and and i need him to hear it publicly so how did you feel we
16:30talked about
16:31early before you got on about the big the big lineup because the clel wear thing and all that
16:36did he have any clarity on that because i didn't see i didn't hear the whole press conference yeah i
16:40mean he he definitely said he'd like to see that through a little bit more by the way that shouldn't
16:45surprise anybody pat riley ever since we've we've you know followed him he had shaquille o'neal down in
16:51miami he traded for him he had patrick ewing in uh in new york he had kareem in la like
16:57he's always
16:58he loved hassan whiteside you know like he went and gave hassan money over duane wade he's always
17:03loved a true center a true big um but yeah i mean i think he he didn't want to be
17:10direct and say yeah
17:11that that lineup should have been played more 320 we gotta give away some eagles tickets
17:19we've got eagles tickets every day this week and you've got your chance right now i think we
17:26should take caller 13 since he was so complimentary towards and didn't the dolphins have 13 total picks
17:32they did 13 i mean what would we be doing if we didn't take caller 13 for these tickets i
17:39mean
17:39eagles bringing their long goodbye act three tour to hard rock live may 13th we have tickets every day
17:48this week you can purchase tickets at casino.hardrock.com slash hollywood go to the events page or be
17:57caller 13 right now 305-567-0560 305-567-0560 caller number 13 we'll get the tickets let's do a
18:12quick
18:12look at the headlines with solana brought to you by doralkia you always pay less with your
18:17pricito at doralkia visit them at doralkia or doralkia.com just to wrap up there crowder he said
18:24that he likes kalal wear and bam at a bio together like he was he said that um and that
18:30you have to
18:30be committed to it one way or another um yeah but it's not like he i don't think he would
18:36put spoh
18:36in that position to come out that though like that that's what that kind of would it seemed like him
18:41and spohan on the same page well we've seen that in the past too yeah yeah but we he he's
18:47the one that
18:48offered the niko jovich tidbit he's the one that said my starting lineup at the beginning of the
18:53season was and he listed off the names and kalal wear wasn't on that starting five it was niko
18:59jovich i thought that was surprising i'm surprised there weren't more follow-ups to that because
19:04like you drafted kalal wear and this was year number two the idea was that after starting him
19:13the last 30 plus games last year next to bam that they would grow on that and pat himself didn't
19:19have
19:19kalal wear to start the season in the starting five uh clearly eric's bullshit in either because
19:24they started niko jovich why did you follow up with that start your ass uh dress shirt
19:29this is this is brooks brothers bro bro bro bro by the way speaking of times that riley
19:36and spoh weren't aligned and i think of hassan whiteside did you see he won defensive player
19:42of the year in the chinese basketball league yeah white side did white side did
19:49they were doing it with blocks even in china even in china
19:54kind of
19:54you
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