Riley: Teams should be able to pay 1 player as much as they want

Pat Riley said Saturday he was "floored" by the events that led to Dwyane Wade leaving Miami after the Heat reportedly played hard ball with the future Hall of Famer in contract negotiations.

But what if Riley and the Heat never had to play hard ball? What if the organization could've rewarded Wade for his legendary career without worrying about how the aging star impacted their salary cap picture ?

That seems to be the basis for Riley's latest idea, which is that each of the NBA's 30 teams should have a franchise tag that would allow them to pay one player as much as they wanted without it counting against the cap.

For now, it's simply the idea of one team's president, but given Riley's clout within league circles, and the fact that both the owners and players can opt out of the collective bargaining agreement within the next year, it's certainly worth considering.

After all, Riley's franchise tag proposal would see MVP candidates like LeBron James and Stephen Curry take advantage of their actual on-court (and off-court) value, while also perhaps acting as a disincentive for players like Kevin Durant to join a team already boasting a clear-cut franchise player.