People love to forget about Jimmy’s 2021 first round exit, one of the most embarrassing sweeps I’ve ever seen, and arguably the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a star player of Jimmy’s caliber. 25% Fg, 26% 3pt, got outplayed by Brynn Forbes.

Obviously he’s more than made up for it with his overall resume, but it’s still such a weird outlier.

yea awesome job ignoring the rest of the line,

at least in terms of winning a title

and it’s probably true, Riley most likely didn’t think Dame was going to change the Heat’s title chances that much. There would be significant defensive problems they would have to address. Also Dame is probably better when he has a pick and roll threat like Giannis, he would have had to adjust the way he plays in Miami more.

I just don’t think Riley feels like Dame or Beal were difference makers in the Heat’s playstyle. Even if they acquire Dame or Beal, they wouldn’t change the way they play. He probably views Dame and maybe even Beal as defensive liabilities.

And who is to say Riley is even wrong. They’ve made the finals twice in the last 4 years, and even made a conference finals in between. Yes, they did have a horrible first round exit in 2021, but that was a series where Jimmy Butler was exceptionally bad, I mean just plain horrendous, he was outplayed by Bryn Forbes. Riley probably thinks that won’t happen again, and maybe for good reason.