Miami Heat president Pat Riley has always managed to assemble star-studded lineups throughout his Hall of Famer career.
Presiding over teams consisting of current and future Hall of Fame superstars like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen, Riley has won six NBA championships as either a head coach or top front-office executive.
Despite the lack of conventional star power on the current Heat roster, Riley believes his current group of players led by Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside has what it takes to transcend their relatively low profile.
Riley explained his team-building philosophy in an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio:
We have a team of young stars. We have some veteran players who are stars. Will the internal growth of the team transcend having to have a Big Three, and then that will take care of itself? And then out of that, I can assure you that players will rise up and become noted as stars or All-Stars or superstars. So we're ahead of the process of having to rebuild by not having to draft young players. It just takes time with young players and that does mean you're going to probably lose and you're going to have to accept losing sometimes if you're going to rebuild through the draft and I've never been a proponent of that. ...
This group of players that we have I think is one step ahead of having to rebuild that way because I think we can win. I think we proved that the second half of the year last year, but I think we're one step away from where we are going to finish.
Last year's Heat team finished the season on a remarkable 30-11 run, but early-season struggles dug a hole in the standings that proved too deep to overcome. The Heat finished with a 41-41 record, failing to make the playoffs for just the second time since 2008.
