Heat Notes: Riley, Crowder, Dragic, Adebayo, Roster

Heat team president Pat Riley isn’t planning on making any major changes to the roster this offseason, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. Speaking to the media on Friday, Riley said he’s committed to keeping his young core intact.

“I think we’ll stay the course with our (draft) picks, stay the course with our young players,” he said. “We have decisions to make, obviously, with player contracts and free agents, and really do a deep dive into this season, myself and [coach Erik Spoelstra] and [GM Andy Elisburg], about how good we really are right now.”

Riley addressed a number of topics, including the team’s free agents. Here are the highlights:

  • At the top of the team’s free agent list are Jae Crowder and Goran Dragic and Riley hinted he’d like to re-sign them. However, he also wants to preserve cap space to make a run at a top-level free agent next season. “It’s going to be a little bit dicey for us because of wanting that flexibility,” he said. “But if things can happen prior to that, I think we have to take care of our own, as much as we can.”
  • The tricky timing of a possible Bam Adebayo extension also weighs heavily on Riley’s mind. If Adebayo signs a rookie scale extension this offseason, it would eat significantly into the Heat’s cap space for next offseason. Riley could try to convince Adebayo to delay signing an extension until next offseason but Riley isn’t keen on doing that. “I’m not going to approach it that way,” Riley said. “I really don’t want to get into any kind of discussions at this point about it. … We value Bam Adebayo. He’s an All-Star. And he’s young. And he’s great. And we’re going to do what’s in his best interest.”
  • Even though the team made a surprising run to the Finals in Orlando, Riley isn’t sure the team as presently constituted can pull that off again. That could play into his personnel decisions. “We were in the Finals. Are we a finalist?” he said. “Can we get through the Eastern Conference next year with what’s happening in Philadelphia or what’s going to happen in Milwaukee or what’s going to happen in Brooklyn or Boston? We already know that Boston has got their team together and they got three first-round picks in the draft. Toronto, there’s a lot of very good teams. So yeah, that’s a question that I’ll kick around in my mind. I’ll talk to Spo about it.”
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