Pat Riley on Miami Heat: ‘I feel very good about where we are’
The Miami Heat were dealt a devastating blow when the game’s best player, forward LeBron James, decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this month. Many expected the Heat rebuild and thought big man Chris Bosh was on his way to the Houston Rockets. Instead, the Heat re-signed Bosh and guard Dwyane Wade, then signed former Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers’ forward Luol Deng. After the offseason, Heat president Pat Riley feels very good about the team.
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“I feel very good about where we are right now, at this moment, with the 12 guys under contract,” Riley told Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. Unlike a lot of the prognosticators . . . I feel with all the conversations I’ve had with these players, that we’re going to be up to the challenge.”
The signing of Deng to replace James is one of the reasons Riley is excited.
“I think the first day that I met with him, I truly believe if we could have signed him, he would have signed. At that time, we were an exception team. We were sort of dealing with the thought we were an exception team. . . . So that discussion had to take a number of meandering roads. But he knew that we wanted him, that we would do whatever we could to get him.”
Bosh averaged 16.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 51.6% from the field, 33.9% from three and 82.0% from the free trow line. Wade went for 19.0 points, 4.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 54.5% from the field, 28.1% from three and 73.3% from the free throw line. Deng averaged 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 43.1% from the field, 30.2% from three and 79.1% from the charity stripe.