MIAMI — Pat Riley doesn’t do nervous. But for three full weeks after the Miami Heat landed Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. from the Bucks, the Heat president was chewing on something.
Anxiety, he called it. Straight up.
“For me personally, there’s been three weeks of anxiety,” Riley said Thursday at the Kaseya Center, where the Heat formally introduced both Antetokounmpo and Portis. “This thing went down on June 23rd. We made the deal. Couldn’t talk to anybody until the sixth, and then after the sixth, we could actually talk to somebody, talk to the players, and everything involved. So it’s been like three weeks of me. I’m here. We are here. We can formally introduce Bobby Portis and later on Giannis.”
The wait was the worst part. Miami pulled the trigger on a monster trade — sending out Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and a pile of draft picks — and then had to sit on it for nearly two weeks before they could even talk to the guys coming in. That silence, Riley said, was brutal.
Why Riley loves having Bobby Portis
Everyone knows what Giannis brings. Two-time MVP. Freak athlete. Defensive wrecking ball. But Riley made a point Thursday to highlight the other half of that deal: Bobby Portis at age 31 might be the kind of grinder the Heat have been missing.
“It’s crucial to have a player like Bobby, that can play with somebody he’s played with for a long time, in Giannis, who knows Bam very well,” Riley said. Portis averaged 13.7 points and 6.4 boards last season while shooting 45.6 percent from three. He’s got the second-most career double-doubles off the bench in NBA history. Riley called him an “old school player” — the kind who could have played for him on the Knicks or the Showtime Lakers.
That’s high praise from a guy who coached both of those teams.
The Heat’s frontcourt now has Giannis, Bam Adebayo, Portis and Nikola Jovic. That’s a lot of size for a league that keeps getting smaller. Riley made it sound like Spoelstra will have fun figuring out that rotation.
The anxiety is officially over
Since the trade went through, Miami has also worked out a contract-and-extend with Andrew Wiggins and signed Tim Hardaway Jr. to add shooting. Riley said the hard part is done.
“The anxiety for me is over,” he said. “I can’t wait for training camp.”
Still, there’s one elephant in the room that isn’t going anywhere. The Heat are still reportedly in the mix for LeBron James, who’s been linked to Miami in whispers all summer. The team hasn’t confirmed anything, and Riley didn’t address it directly. But the rumor mill keeps spinning.
Miami finished 10th in the East last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. That stung. This trade changes the math. Whether they add more pieces or roll with what they’ve got, the Heat look different now. Riley can finally breathe.
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