Who Does Pat Riley Consider the Core and How Will They Be Maximized?

Pat Riley had his post-season presser this afternoon, which can be discussed from a hundred different angles. But I’m going to discuss the thing that stuck out most from this 45 minutes discussion: their core.

We heard that word spread out throughout the press conference, which is something that is pretty obvious to people that pay attention to this Heat team. They are confident in their top two players, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, but they need to fulfill that core and surround them as best as they can.

But, is there more to that current Heat “core?”

Riley seemed to think so, as he was asked about Tyler Herro’s down year and late-season slump, he responded, “He’s a core player. That’s all there is to it.”

There are always certain guys that Riley talks about with a certain energy and it’s not just saying what you want to hear. He did that with Herro today.

Of course that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t be included in a trade if the right deal came along, but he seems to like their young prospect and the trajectory that he is on.

Other than Herro being included in the core, another interesting point was made about a certain someone in that core, Adebayo. When asked about Adebayo increasing his aggression, he shifted his answer saying, “I think Spo has to evaluate a bit how he uses Bam. Bam is one of our primary ball-handlers, gets us in offense and sometimes there is a disconnect between running offense and really being effective as an offensive player.”

That just furthers the discussion that we’ve had over the last few months. Yes, Adebayo is an incredible passer and the offense is based around that play-making, but when backs are against the wall, your star must have the ball in his hands with a scoring mentality. He followed that statement with: “I think all of these things will be worked out.”

This may be the core at the moment, but it’s far from a finished project. He ended the presser saying, “There will be a lot more news coming along the way.” They know that they’re going to be active in all avenues within free agency, sign and trades, and even the draft, since he mentioned: “I can guarantee I’ll probably get a couple good players out of this draft somehow.”

We will see what happens over the next few weeks, but Riley seems fairly confident in their current spotting and current core, so it should make for an interesting off-season.