Miami Heat Rumors: Pat Riley selling free agents on rings over money
By Josh Hill
The Miami Heat have a lot of decisions to make this offseason and once again Pat Riley is going to have to get creative in how he approaches free agency and how he decides to sell South Beach to players he thinks can bring back LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane wade.
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Miami may look like they have a ton of money off the books, and officially they do, but there’s three pending big money contracts in James, Bosh and Wade that are being accounted for in Riley’s free agent budgeting. As is such, Riley is going back to his 2010 mantra of rings over money to sell free agents on Miami.
Pat Riley is still setting up free agent meetings for his trip to L.A. this week, selling promise of rings over Miami's shrinking cap space.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2014
Unlike in 2010 though, when rings over money was a harder sell, there is a proven track record of success in Miami when it comes to winning rings which means free agents might be more apt this time around to buy into the cause.
Not having LeBron, Wade or Bosh immediately buy into the notion of rings over money might hurt Riley, but it’s a method that has worked before so if it isn’t broke don’t fix it — unless we’re referring to the Heat roster.