That's a fine opinion, but I wonder if Riley thought they were gutless when they left their last teams to join the Heat to make it easier to win a title? Let's me real, there's no courage in basketball.
One, Lebron would be the biggest idiot in basketball to go back to Cleveland. He skipped college, but I don't think he's a dumb guy. Cleveland's ownership and management don't know how to put together a contender. Two, when it comes to betting on management, I wouldn't bet against Pat Riley. Miami is pretty limited on flexibility, but Riley is as good a guy as any to figure out how to do it. Miami is still a glamor team and will still draw interest from players to come and play for below market wages. For Lebron, it might be easier to jump to a team that's already situated, but staying put isn't so bad an option either.
You note adding GP and Antoine Walker and fail to mention adding Shaq? Those two guys came off the bench for that team.
Anyone would have added Shaq. He added Shaq and the team lost in the finals. Nearly won 60 games. The media felt they were on the verge of a title. Instead of standing pat he made unpopular transactions and wound up with Walker & Payton who were not regarded highly at all. Then he wasted SVG. If you listened to what the media was saying you would have figured it was Apocalypse Miami. Nah, Riley took the reigns of the team he created, the team everyone thought was destined to fail, got Walker's ass into shape and won the title. He got more out of Payton that Phil Jackson could ever have hoped to. He had players dropping pieces of paper into a mysterious bucket, man. Dirk's soft ass never stood a chance.
Whatever. we're just posting on a message board, not carving sacred tablets. He seems to me different than he seems to you. Shrug. He sounded very defensive, and if he was properly confident, I don't know why he felt the need to browbeat the big three publicly like that, with over the top references to confetti and bro hugs. "I don't think anyone can call him out, ever." LOL. Okay, I guess we should call him Dear Heater. Hair is not disimilar. He has been successful as a coach in LA, (with Magic, Kareem, and James Worthy). Never won it all in New York. Has accumulated good talent and won again, as an exec, in Miami. Deserves his props, for sure, but not a lifetime pass to act like a mafia d-bag at a press conference. That's just my take, and I've been a fan of his since the Showtime days. I think he's a little nervous and doing what he needs to do to keep the gang together.
How often does this type of persuasion work? It might work on 12 year olds with low self esteem. I bet Lebron is trying even harder to explore his options right now. In the end I wouldn't be surprised if he stays but it will be in spite of these comments, not due to them.
That's weird. Payton played better there than he did in Miami, and that Laker team got to the Finals and probably would have won the title if Malone had not sprained his knee. Hard to see how that is a failure, but I guess you are entitled to his opinion.
I am pretty sure Lebron would prefer staying in Miami over moving somewhere else if the basketball situation are roughly equal. Why uproot your family unless the new team offers something significantly better than what you currently have? The question is whether Riley and Micky Arison, the team owner, can convince Lebron that they are able, and willing, to put together a title winning team. It's already been reported (by Brian Windhorst) that Lebron was frustrated at Miami for saving luxury tax $ rather than maximize the talent level of the team. They let Mike Miller go via the amnesty and signed only minimum wage guys like Oden, Lewis and Beasley. More than just the $, however, I think Miami hasn't done a good enough job creatively looking for talent when you compare them to the Spurs. Much is made of Duncan & co. taking pay cuts, but what these pay cuts did mostly was to enable the Spurs to keep the guys they already found in obscure places: Splitter in the late 1st round, Green and Diaw off the free agent scrap heap, etc. The Spurs still had to go out and actively unearth these guys and work them into the system. Miami, meanwhile, seems to have only gotten older. As a result, the supporting cast really didn't do much this time around-- not as much as they did in the prior years. Birdman was injured and less effective in the playoffs. Battier was nearing retirement and looked it. The two younger guys, Cole and Chalmers, were pretty useless in the Finals. Ray and Rashard had some good moments but wasn't consistently helpful. Haslem barely plays. They haven't been that good in the draft and the younger free agents they took a chance on haven't worked out (Beasley, Oden). If I were Lebron, I'd ignore all the "guts" talk, and ask whether Pat and Micky have a realistic plan here to surround him with talent. Lebron has a lot of wear on his body already and you have to keep the talent pipeline flowing if you want to keep up in the NBA title picture.
Payton was a disaster in the triangle. That Lakers team got smashed beyond belief. By the least talented finals winning team I've seen in my lifetime.
He may not have been a good fit for the Finals, but again, he played better for that team than he did with the Heat. Karl Malone sprained his knee and the Lakers fell apart.
I agree. Then if I was Lebron I would ask Daryl Morey the exact same question and see what he says. If the goal is championships, I think that is the pragmatic approach. Morey showed Dwight Howard the roadmap. He bought in. Dwight saw a lot of teams roadmaps. He chose Houston's.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. He somehow came off more like Dan Gilbert than his normal Riley self. It's tough getting old though, for real. I really think after Wade's comments & tone, now paired with Riley's, those two are nervous about Lebron. In the end, I would bet Riley and Aronson show a good enough road map to Lebron to keep him in Miami. I think he's *much* less likely to leave than Melo.
