Miami Heat team president Pat Riley made it quite clear that his goal is to make the playoffs year in and year out, but he also admitted over the weekend that sometimes you don’t get what you want.
Riley was at the Heat’s annual Family Festival on Sunday, and opened up about his goals for the Heat and the likelihood that they reach them.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”HN-300×250-Image”]
“Sometimes you don’t get where you want and you do what you have to do to make the playoffs. And that’s where we are,” Riley said.
In recent days, Riley has candidly discussed his desire to make the playoffs this season despite the fact that the Heat currently sit at the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 28-34.
He expanded upon that sentiment Sunday, saying both he and Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra share the same goals.
“Well, I have high expectations. I’ve always had, Spo has ’em,” he said of Spoelstra, who also was at the event. “I believe our players not only believe in the expectations, but we’re right now in a wonderful stretch drive. That’s how I look at it. It’s competitive.
“Our last 10 games, with the exception of Denver, Detroit [went] right down to the wire. So I think this whole thing’s going to go down to the wire and I think we’re going to make the playoffs, and that’s what it’s about.”
While Miami’s record is certainly not impressive, a playoff berth is still very much in reach. The Heat sit just a game and a half back of the eighth seed and two and a half games back of the sixth seed.
It’ll be tough, but it’s quite possible. It’s also possible that if the Heat do advance to the postseason, they’ll do so with a losing record in the 2018-19 campaign.
For Riley, that fact is not ideal, but also not a huge focus point.
“I don’t care. It’s all relative. It can be judged,” Riley said. “That’s the way the league is. The league has tremendous parity. There might be six who you would consider to be real, viable contenders for a championship. There might be six teams at the bottom that are viable candidates for a lottery. And, so, there’s 18 of us that are in the middle of the pack, that are trying to fight our way to the top.
“So we’re not happy with that, but we’ll deal with it.”
He also had a message for those who may be unhappy with the state of the Heat over the last few seasons.
“The result over the last two years has been this, which is: ‘OK, we’re competing for a playoff spot, top of the stretch again — six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 all fighting for that spot,'” he said.
“So what? That’s where we are, enjoy it. There’s a lot of people out here enjoying this little race.”
[xyz-ihs snippet=”HN-300×250-TextnImage”]
