Cult of Riley never more essential in wake of trade
This isn't about Joel Anthony and isn't about Toney Douglas.
This also isn't about Greg Oden, who only now is moving into the Miami Heat's rotation at center, and it's also not about Andrew Bynum, and how money freed up from Wednesday's three-team trade might make such a signing more financially palatable.
No, this is about Pat Riley.
Now, more than ever.
With the dump of Anthony's salaries for both this season and next, the Heat continue to thin their tax roll, one that the NBA made especially onerous in the current collective-bargaining agreement.
Last summer, it was the amnesty release of Mike Miller, who might just have come in handy during the Heat's recent spate of injuries.
Now it's moving Anthony and his tax burden off the books, a move, when accounting for his 2014-15 salary could save the Heat in excess of $10 million in luxury-tax payments.
And next could be a look at Udonis Haslem, whose contract also extends into next season, and who, like Anthony, has spent almost the entire season in his warmups.
Beyond the Heat's Big Three -- with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all able to opt out of their contracts by July 1 -- the only salaries on the books for next season now belong to Norris Cole (at $2 million), Haslem (at $4.6 million) and Chris Andersen (a $1.5 million player option he well could bypass). Douglas, the combo guard acquired from the Golden State Warriors, has a $1.6 million expiring contract.
With the move of Anthony, it becomes clearer that the plan going forward is the hope of more Big Three and then plenty of cheap labor.
Like convincing Oden to return on a minimal deal.
And Birdman.
And Michael Beasley.
And Rashard Lewis.
And the replacement for Shane Battier.
Riley said of Wednesday's trade, "This was not a money move; this was a flexibility move."
Fine, semantics. In today's NBA, money is flexibility.
So now, never will the Riley cult of personality be as significant. This past offseason, he convinced Ray Allen not to opt out, after a playoff shot that assuredly could have placed him (and possibly the Heat) in a higher tax bracket.
He got Lewis and James Jones back on their minimal deals.
He got Andersen to bypass a minimal raise that was assumed as a given.
And now Riley will have to do it again.
With anyone else in charge, there might be a critical eye from James, Wade and Bosh when it would come to rounding out a lineup with flotsam at power forward and, possibly, jetsam at point guard.
But even with reduced salary-cap leverage these past two seasons, Riley has found a way for Erik Spoelstra to have enough to make it to the NBA Finals.
And it's not as if the NBA Draft is going to change the equation. The Heat's upcoming 2015 first-round pick goes to the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of the sign-and-trade for James in 2010. Now, the 2014 or 2015 first-round pick due from the Philadelphia 76ers goes to the Boston Celtics (one that likely will turn into a pair of second-round picks unless the 76ers make the playoffs this season or next).
But it's never been about the draft since it's been about the Big Three.
It's been about the subtle additions, Allen at the mini-midlevel, Birdman, Ronny Turiaf, Lewis, Oden, possibly yet Bynum, at the minimum.
Now the trick is to maintain the mantra of "sacrifice" with those who walk into Riley's office, while convincing James, Wade and Bosh that by re-upping they wouldn't be sacrificing their championship visions alongside a minimal-wage supporting cast.
Those who doubt Riley were out in force in the middle of last summer's free agency period. Then Oden arrived, followed by Beasley. Then Lewis regained his legs and Cole continued his growth under the tutelage of Riley's development staff. Suddenly, the Heat were reinvigorated, on the cheap.
The tax savings produced by the trade of Anthony open no cap space, create nothing more in terms of exceptions than what the Heat already had going forward.
No, this is all about the Pat Riley trust fund, trust that he can again by buy low and sell high hopes to the three players on his roster who matter most.
