Tank? Heat’s Pat Riley ‘can’t stand the word’ and makes clear ‘I’m not going to change’
.JPG "Bam Adebayo (13) shakes hands with Pat Riley, president of the Miami Heat, right, during the second day of Heat Training Camp on Oct. 1, 2025, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.")
After needing to take part in the NBA’s play-in tournament in each of the last four seasons, recording one playoff win in the last three seasons and missing the playoffs this season for the first time since 2019, the Miami Heat wants to escape this middling era.
But to get different and better results, the Heat doesn’t believe it needs a different philosophy. Heat president Pat Riley made that clear during his annual season-ending news conference on Monday at Kaseya Center, emphasizing his disdain toward tanking for a top draft pick.
“I’m not going to change. I’m not going to try to lose. I’m not going to tank. I can’t stand the word,” Riley said. “I know they’re now talking about it in the NBA about how can we deal with tanking. I never heard that 15, 20 years ago. There’s a 65-game limit on awards, you’re just sending out messages to players that don’t have to play and they can still win something. I mean, it doesn’t make sense to me. But that’s the way it is today.”
That’s just not the way it is for the Heat, as Riley noted there have only been “three or four times that it was obvious that we weren’t going to win, and it was probably going to be a lottery team” during his 31 seasons with the organization.
Even after getting to this year’s Feb. 5 trade deadline in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, the Heat didn’t seriously consider trading players on expiring contracts such as Norman Powell or Andrew Wiggins (who has a $30.2 million player option for next season) during the season. While Miami didn’t aggressively explore the market for the return it could get for Powell and/or Wiggins, a league source said the Heat was never offered a first-round pick for them.
“I think at the trade deadline this year, when everybody was clamoring about trade this guy and that guy for an asset, I’m not thinking about trading anybody for an asset,” Riley admitted. “I’m thinking about we’re at the sixth spot at the time of the trade deadline. So I should just let it go?”
Riley and the Heat won’t just give up on a season, especially when making the playoffs remains a possibility.
“We kept our roster together,” Riley said. “We weren’t out selling, we were just sort of waiting. And with the hopes that when we, this year at the trading deadline, we were sixth. And right in the mix with four other teams, five other teams, for a playoff spot. “
But after reaching a season-best nine games above .500 and the sixth spot in the East on March 12, the Heat dropped 10 of its final 15 regular-season games to enter the NBA’s play-in tournament as the conference’s 10th-place team.
“The drop-off in the last 15 games was astounding,” Riley continued.
While losing in the play-in tournament pushes those teams into the Draft Lottery, the Heat went into the play-in tournament hoping to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in for the fourth straight season. But the Heat’s season ended in the play-in this time, falling to the Hornets in Charlotte in the East’s No. 9 vs. No. 10 game on April 14.
“I know it makes sense, from your standpoint, just give up that last two games or whatever it is,” Riley said, referring to the play-in tournament. “And let’s just go into the 13th pick or the 12th pick or whatever it is. I didn’t want to do that. I’d much rather compete. And I think the players would and coaches would, to compete in the play-in, which is a playoff, basically.”
So the Heat ended up with the No. 13 Draft Lottery seed organically, falling to the Hornets in a competitive play-in game after pushing to get as high up in the East standings as it could during the regular season. The Heat’s No. 13 lottery seed comes with a 4.8 percent chance of landing a top-four selection and a 1 percent chance of snagging the No. 1 overall pick.
But since the NBA flattened odds for lottery teams in 2019, only four of the 35 teams that have been slotted 10th through 14th heading into the lottery have jumped into the top-four picks. So the Heat’s chances of moving up to a top-four selection is low from the 13th lottery seed.
However, tanking for a higher lottery seed is just not how the Heat operates, even with the draft presenting one of the primary ways to acquire a superstar talent in today’s NBA (with a trade serving as the other common pathway to adding a superstar).
“We’re in a period right now where I think you don’t make radical changes,” Riley said. “Not in my philosophy. I’m not going to tank, I’m not going to lose.”
The NBA is also against tanking, as it appears to be set to implement a new anti-tanking draft reform that would begin with the 2027 draft.
Termed the “3-2-1 lottery,” this new system includes expanding the lottery to 16 teams, flattened odds and a relegation zone where the bottom three teams would be penalized with fewer lottery balls for the No. 1 pick. NBA owners will reportedly have a final vote on the new lottery system on May 28.
As for the Heat, it moves forward with its philosophy that has worked for most of Riley’s time with the organization. Since Riley joined the organization in 1995, the Heat has made 24 postseason appearances while making seven trips to the NBA Finals and winning its only three NBA championships.
It’s just that the Heat’s philosophy has now led to three straight middling seasons — a three-year stretch that hasn’t included any playoff series victories.
“We’re not going to go into the lottery and do that insanity because I will quit if I ever get ordered to go down that road,” Riley, 81, said. “I’m always thinking about ways to win.”
SUMMER LEAGUE NEWS
The Heat will again begin summer league at the California Classic as part of a four-team field that also features the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.
The Heat will play three games at the three-day event on July 3 against the Spurs at 8 p.m. EST, July 5 against the Lakers at 4:30 p.m. EST, and July 6 against the Warriors at 10 p.m. EST. The California Classic will be played at Chase Center in San Francisco.
The Heat will then move on to Las Vegas Summer League, which will run from July 9-19 and feature all 30 NBA teams.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 9:39 AM.
