What if Pat Riley had come back to coach the big 3?

[NigerianBasque]

Hi guys, I'm a long time lurker (since 2004) and a bandwagoner from the Wade and Shaq era. Over the past couple of days I had been thinking about the whole big three era, and I remember when they started off 8-9 (i think..) a lot of people in the NBA were thinking Spoelstra was going to "spend time with his family" and Riley was going to come back.

My question is, let's say Riley did come back to coach, how do you guys feel the team would change? Offense? Defensive? More championships?

[DWadeno3]

Definitely not more championships. Spo didn't do a great job coaching wise in the 2011 Finals but just like in the 2014 Finals, we basically had one of our superstars (Wade 2011, LeBron 2014) perform on their regular standard while almost the entire team just folded. I honestly believe LeBron's production in 2011 could've been enough, had we received any type of consistent productivity from multiple role players. When Cardinal injured Wade, I knew that series was over though, because outside of Chalmers, there wasn't really any threat on our team and even Chalmers was inconsistent.

In 2014, we were just a team that was completely overmatched. Offensively we only really had LeBron with a little help from Ray, Rashard and Bosh, but defensively not a single player even had a solid series.

So I don't see what Riley could've done differently. All those close series where you can really see the difference in coaching, we won. Whether we won them because of great coaching or not is up for debate, but a better coach than Spo wouldn't have made a difference result wise.

[HIF]

Hi guys, I'm a long time lurker (since 2004) and a bandwagoner from the Wade and Shaq era. Over the past couple of days I had been thinking about the whole big three era, and I remember when they started off 8-9 (i think..) a lot of people in the NBA were thinking Spoelstra was going to "spend time with his family" and Riley was going to come back.

My question is, let's say Riley did come back to coach, how do you guys feel the team would change? Offense? Defensive? More championships?

Riley is my hero.

But he had lost it as a coach. He couldn't have gotten up every day and done the necessary. That's why he made the decision to step down. It was the right thing to do and he could put his efforts into building a team. Shorter exertion and far more enjoyable for him and his wife in between.

[insfo]

Hi guys, I'm a long time lurker (since 2004) and a bandwagoner from the Wade and Shaq era. Over the past couple of days I had been thinking about the whole big three era, and I remember when they started off 8-9 (i think..) a lot of people in the NBA were thinking Spoelstra was going to "spend time with his family" and Riley was going to come back.

My question is, let's say Riley did come back to coach, how do you guys feel the team would change? Offense? Defensive? More championships?

Riley is my hero.

But he had lost it as a coach. He couldn't have gotten up every day and done the necessary. That's why he made the decision to step down. It was the right thing to do and he could put his efforts into building a team. Shorter exertion and far more enjoyable for him and his wife in between.

[NigerianBasque]

Hi guys, I'm a long time lurker (since 2004) and a bandwagoner from the Wade and Shaq era. Over the past couple of days I had been thinking about the whole big three era, and I remember when they started off 8-9 (i think..) a lot of people in the NBA were thinking Spoelstra was going to "spend time with his family" and Riley was going to come back.

My question is, let's say Riley did come back to coach, how do you guys feel the team would change? Offense? Defensive? More championships?

Riley is my hero.

But he had lost it as a coach. He couldn't have gotten up every day and done the necessary. That's why he made the decision to step down. It was the right thing to do and he could put his efforts into building a team. Shorter exertion and far more enjoyable for him and his wife in between.

What about a hypothetical situation of Pat Riley in his coaching "prime" with that team? How would he handle the offense and defense? do we still do small ball??

[insfo]

Hi guys, I'm a long time lurker (since 2004) and a bandwagoner from the Wade and Shaq era. Over the past couple of days I had been thinking about the whole big three era, and I remember when they started off 8-9 (i think..) a lot of people in the NBA were thinking Spoelstra was going to "spend time with his family" and Riley was going to come back.

My question is, let's say Riley did come back to coach, how do you guys feel the team would change? Offense? Defensive? More championships?

Riley is my hero.

But he had lost it as a coach. He couldn't have gotten up every day and done the necessary. That's why he made the decision to step down. It was the right thing to do and he could put his efforts into building a team. Shorter exertion and far more enjoyable for him and his wife in between.

What about a hypothetical situation of Pat Riley in his coaching "prime" with that team? How would he handle the offense and defense? do we still do small ball??

Nope .. he would have gone consistently into the post using Joel Anthony

Seriously though, it was all the roster makeup .. having 3 guys taking up the bulk of the cap handicaps the team to a large extent - especially since none of those 3 is a dominant center. That said, I did not follow Riley closely during his LA "showtime" coaching days .. so not sure how that worked .. but with both NY & Mia he always had a dominant center when the team did well.

[NigerianBasque]

Riley is my hero.

But he had lost it as a coach. He couldn't have gotten up every day and done the necessary. That's why he made the decision to step down. It was the right thing to do and he could put his efforts into building a team. Shorter exertion and far more enjoyable for him and his wife in between.

What about a hypothetical situation of Pat Riley in his coaching "prime" with that team? How would he handle the offense and defense? do we still do small ball??

Nope .. he would have gone consistently into the post using Joel Anthony

Seriously though, it was all the roster makeup .. having 3 guys taking up the bulk of the cap handicaps the team to a large extent - especially since none of those 3 is a dominant center. That said, I did not follow Riley closely during his LA "showtime" coaching days .. so not sure how that worked .. but with both NY & Mia he always had a dominant center when the team did well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2akdYIFJ2A

[theFRANCHISE]

I think they would have won the 2011 Finals and had a three peat (11, 12, 13) that first finals was very winnable.

[mopper8]

I think they would have won the 2011 Finals and had a three peat (11, 12, 13) that first finals was very winnable.

Disagree. I've read in a couple places that Riley wanted Spo to stick with Turiaf/Haslem as starters when Bosh was injured in 12. Maybe we win in 11, I don't know, but we lose in 12 with Riley, I don't think we even get past Boston.

[Flashpoint]

Quadrapeat. An HC is an overseer, a motivator, and a firm grip on the steering wheel. His staff which Spo would have been a part of should be drawing up schemes. He'd know how to implement it and keep our players heads right. We definitely win that first finals and the next two. Riley is just light years ahead of Spo as a leader and as someone able to draw on a deep well of experience. I really miss Riley's tight, coherent rotations. As much as I believe we gave up a championship by letting Spo learn on the job, he did coach 2 championship teams and that deserves some praise. If he can get this year's team into the finals then he'll finally have accomplished something truly impressive.

[ifrosty13]

I always dreamed of seeing Pat Riley coach another championship team, just because it was the man I grew up watching on the sidelines as a Heat coach, and it has always been weird for me to see somebody else. With that said, Riley is old now, he has his old tactics, and he can be stubborn. It wouldn't work well with players. I don't think he can handle anymore the flying, the sleeping in and out of hotels any given night, the practices (the guy has grown some serious man-boobs lately). As much as I would love to see it happen, I've accepted the fact that he's fallen out of style and wouldn't last a minute as a coach without some drama (a la Shaq practice feud)

[KingDavid]

He would have murdered everyone in practice.