BBallFreak wrote:contract wrote:BBallFreak wrote:You do that, but a star player brings us closer, no matter how you slice it. That is an undeniable fact.
This is the equivalent of arguing that re-signing Bosh gave us a better chance to win a championship than if we had let him walk. Forgetting the health stuff. Chris Bosh in a million years was never going to lead a team to the championship. Never. Ever. We could have brought in Dragic and every other player that supposedly fit perfectly around him, and it still wasn't going to happen. He wasn't that guy.
Every step forward may seem like an advancement, but if you're not headed in the right direction ... you may in fact be getting further from your goal.
First, why do you assume that Butler will be the best player on the team when Riley is done? He signed Wade and Bosh in 2010. Did Wade stay the best player on that team, or did Riley make another big move?
Second, yes, having a star player absolutely gets us a lot closer, whether we get there or not. You don't win without them in this league, so having one is preferable to not having one. It's a pretty obvious and logical jump.
Finally, when have you ever known Riley to stop trying to make his team better? You cannot possibly believe this is where he's going to stop. This isn't the final roster, it's the first step. Buckle up, kid. It's going to be a hell of a ride...
In 2010, we had the capspace in order to sign Wade, James and Bosh. To accomplish that, we wasted two years of Wade's prime from 2008 to 2010 by not adding any talent on long-term contracts. Riley had a vision and didn't want to sacrifice anything for it and it paid off.
In recent years, however, no patience and no vision have been visible. After the departure of LeBron, which admittedly handcuffed us in free agency, we simply had an off-year health wise in 2014/15 and missed the playoffs. We followed that up with a good 2015/16 season which included the emergence of Whiteside and the additions of Dragic and Joe Johnson mid-season. We were stopped in game 7 of the second of the playoffs, this with Bosh being out due to blood-clot issues. Had we still had him, we could've at least given the Cavs a run for their money in the ECFs.
From there on, it's a vast downhill track. In the 2016 offseason, we had the Wade contract issues, causing him to leave for Chicago. Bosh had major health issues and it was likely he was never gonna be able to play again, if that wasn't already decided at that point, I'm not sure anymore. Either way, we attempted to sign Durant and struck out on him. We signed Whiteside to a max deal, which was alright. Other than that, we should've just used that season to tank and acquire assets. Instead, we signed the likes of Dion Waiters and added Tyler Johnson's balloon contract.
Nonetheless, we still added a nice player in the 2017 draft with Bam Adebayo. Other than that, I'd describe the 2017 offseason as a trainwreck. We added Dion Waiters and James Johnson to massive long-term deals, added Kelly Olynyk, whom I like as a player, to a massive contract as well and were on the verge of TJ's salary exploding soon enough. While we didn't have our draft pick in 2018 due to us sending him out in the Dragic trade, we didn't need to handcuff us for the foreseeable future either.
The TJ contract was ultimately flipped for Ryan Anderson's contract.
Instead of having cap flexibility this year, we are tied to the likes of Waiters and Johnson and Olynyk. That's poor planning without a true vision if I've ever seen it. Riley has usually always had some sort of longer term plan, but as he gets older and time as the president of the Heat gets shorter for him, he seems to be impatient and a little more short-sighted. What reason did he have to sign Waiters, Johnson and Olynyk to the contracts he signed them to?
Without the contracts of Waiters, Johnson, Olynyk and the aftermath of Tyler Johnson, we could've possibly had a max contract slot while having a foundation of Dragic, Whiteside, Winslow, Adebayo, Richardson and Derrick Jones Jr. And even if it wasn't a max contract slot, we could've easily created one, if not two by moving Whiteside and Dragic. I admittedly didn't calculate it all the way through, especially under CBA rules, but either way, we could've had much more flexibility at the cost of maybe having a few poor seasons instead of barely making/missing the playoffs.
Now to the current situation: We have added Butler, an all-star caliber player, but not the lead guy on a championship team. It's a nice piece to have, if you have the opportunity to add other nice pieces, which I don't see us having. We have Dragic, Winslow and Adebayo left as assets. Who are we supposed to land with such a package?
I'm pretty sure Olynyk and Johnson will opt in next year and Waiters will still be under contract, so we also won't have massive cap flexiblity next summer. And even if we do, which major free agents are gonna be on the market next summer? I don't see many.
Thus I ask myself: Who are we supposed to add over the time of Butler still being, at least somewhat, in his prime? And do we expect him to sit through two poor seasons after the trouble he caused with the Timberwolves, just for the sake of us potentially being able to add a quality free agent in 2021?
Riley has greatly improved our roster in the past but even he can't work miracles and he is also not free of mistakes. In recent years, I think he's committed more of them than usual and it deserves to be pointed out, despite the greatness he has shown over so many years in Miami. It's not that I want him gone, I just want him to have more of a vision than he currently has.
