The Heat's Stats Since Pat Riley Arrived In Miami Are INSANE
We spoke about this today on Picks Central. The Miami Heat are one of those teams that seem to have never been bad, and always in the mix. They came into the NBA as an expansion team in 1989, and have had a number of teams make deep deep runs into the playoffs. Pat Riley took over in 1995 as President and Head Coach, and that decision has had a direct correlation to the team's success. As a Knicks fan it pains me having read Blood In The Garden, that Riley wanted the same position with the Knicks and wasn't given it. In those decades after the Knicks became a complete mess, while the Heat became a juggernaut.
Early on you had the late 90's teams that literally fist-fought with The Knicks.
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Then you had Dwayne Wade and Shaq deliver a championship in 2006.
Then Lebron did "The Decision" breaking Cleveland's hearts, and building a super team in the process. He teamed with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and collected two titles, with four total trips to the finals.
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In recent years, they rode Jimmy Butler to a Finals appearance in The Bubble, and another one this year. Some lucky bounces along the way, some great fortune of landing Shaq in a trade, and Lebron and Bosh all deciding to play there via free agency. You need some of those breaks along the way, but after a while you just take the identity of being a flat out good franchise that knows what they are doing.
The Heat have never had a #1 pick. Since Riley arrived they have been in the lottery just 6 times. They are 9th in all time wins since they became a team in 1989.
Shoutout Dylan who did a full deep dive on some of the stats since Riley took a position of power in South Beach.
I mean this is borderline insane. Should we be talking more about how great Miami has been, should Riley go down as one the best executives ever ? Do we realize how good the Heat have been for 30 years ? It almost feels like The Heat are disrespected in terms of listing out the best franchises in the NBA. When the topic comes up of history, and storied franchises, names like the Knicks and Sixers and Celtics get thrown around. The Knicks haven't won since 1973, The Sixers since 83, and The Celtics once in 08. Yes, those franchises were all successful back in the day, but you shouldn't penalize the Heat for only being around for a short period of time. In terms of most success, they have to start being mentioned.
The numbers don't lie. They have delivered, year after year, and decade after decade, ever since Pat Riley took his talents to South Beach.