While some teams won’t admit they’re in rebuilding mode, Heat president Pat Riley didn’t mind using the R-word on Monday, as Ethan Skolnick of The Miami Herald tweets. Comparing the current roster to recent Heat teams, Riley noted that the franchise was “tweaking” the roster during the Big Three era, “retooling” it after LeBron James returned to Cleveland, and is “rebuilding” now. With Dwyane Wade gone and Chris Bosh unlikely to suit up for the Heat again, it will be interesting to see if the team goes into full-fledged rebuilding mode this year, perhaps shopping veteran point guard Goran Dragic.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald passes along a couple more comments from Riley, who said he has yet to “hit send” on an email he wrote to Wade, and added that he’s had thoughts about “moving on” from his role with the Heat but still gets excited by the prospect of a new season.
- Asked about losing Bosh, Dragic admitted that it helps to have some certainty about what the roster and lineup will look like, but said he’d prefer to have the “small chance [Bosh] could be back,” per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “It’s not the prettiest situation right now.” Dragic said. “But we need to clear our heads and have one focus, one goal to get better as a team, get to know each other and try to build that chemistry we are going to need this season.”
- Tom Ziller of SBNation.com makes a case for why the Heat should waive Bosh, rather than keeping him on the roster.
- After being one of the league’s most underpaid players in recent years, Hassan Whiteside now has a maximum-salary contract, but he won’t let the new deal make him complacent, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
- Winderman and Jackson have each published pieces on Dion Waiters, with Winderman writing that the Heat’s new shooting guard won’t be thinking about filling Wade’s shoes, while Jackson notes that Waiters opted for happiness over money when he chose to sign with Miami.