RealGM

Players see the continuity. And you can sell family. You can sell the fact that the culture is one of people who don’t want to leave. They get promoted. The two head coaches that I’ve had since I’ve been here were assistant coaches for me. They worked a long time just laboring away. Then one day I called their name, and they were the next in line to be the head coach. Continuity goes a long way in being successful as an organization.

I believe in what’s called the “one-voice” management philosophy. There’s a single voice. And the single voice is a big circle. The middle of that circle has to do with your philosophy as an organization and your culture. So we have one voice. That voice is [team owner] Micky Arison. That is my voice. That is Erik Spoelstra’s voice. It’s the voice of the players. There’s a universal way that we do things. But it’s the same philosophy. We all want the same thing. But Erik becomes the spokesperson.

We don’t like to build through the draft. If you’re going to do that, then you’re probably going to have to lose for two or three or four years in a row, and get high lottery picks. In my 19 years here, we’ve been in the lottery three times. We ended up getting three good players out of that.

shanedude wrote:Had no idea that Lakers team went to the finals 9 out of 12 years and won 5 times. WUT.

shanedude wrote:Had no idea that Lakers team went to the finals 9 out of 12 years and won 5 times. WUT.

When I retired as a coach, I had been president and head coach. I had a lot of control over what was said and how we did things. I had to give up some of that control, which is hard at times. But it wasn’t that hard to let go of it, because the voice really never changed. The philosophy really never changed.

What I'm so impressed with about Erik is that I feel I made the right choice in selecting him because he’s a young coach. He’s achievement oriented. He’s ambitious. He’s analytic. He’s technological. He’s an X-and-O master. He’s not as loud a motivator as I was, but he motivates in a different way. And the team respects him for that.

Riley (cont'd): So I don’t get in his way. We meet every day. We talk every day. I will make X-and-O suggestions and things like that. But I trust that what he’s set up for this team is a winning formula. That’s on both ends of the court, and also in the locker room.

It’s whatever your needs are. We spent four years planning the 2010 free agency [that brought Lebron James and Chris Bosh to the team, and re-signed Dwayne Wade]. All we wanted to do was make sure our team had enough money, to be able to go out and sign three marquee free agents, because we knew these free agents were going to become available in 2010. So we pointed toward 2010 as a goal, to be able to really build our team.

But prior to that, we wanted to stay competitive too, and we did. We were a playoff team for two of those seasons. Our fans understood that there was a long-term goal here. But we put the best team that we could out on the court. We gave them short-term contracts because we didn’t want any contracts to go into 2010. That was a definite organizational decision to move in that direction.

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

BIRDMAN BIRDMAN wrote:

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

Good thing Ira's not our GM. I remember him wanting to ditch the 2010 plan to get Michael Redd and Kirilenko

EDIT: If you want some lulz

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-0 ... chael-redd

RexBoyWonder wrote:

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

There's no doubt Riley planed ahead and wanted to keep cap space for the summer of 2010 but I think some people overstate the details, I don't think he (Or anyone) could have known in the prior years that we'll land Both Lebron and Bosh, it just worked out perfectly for Pat and for us. If Lebron wins a title with Cavs in 2008 or 2009, he probably never leaves. Bosh then could've chosen the Bulls.

But in sports like in life, sometimes you make your own luck. By being smart and thinking ahead Pat put us in a good position, and the basketball gods rewarded him with the big 3.

Despite the new CBA that is designed to hurt teams like ours, Im optimistic about the next stage of the big 3 because Pat is as proven as it gets.

BIRDMAN BIRDMAN wrote:

whitehops wrote:crazy they had the vision to prepare four years in advance for the big 3

Good thing Ira's not our GM. I remember him wanting to ditch the 2010 plan to get Michael Redd and Kirilenko

EDIT: If you want some lulz

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-0 ... chael-redd