Everyone has an opinion about Pat Riley, Miami Heat

For his part, Spoelstra tried Thursday to focus on some of the positives of the season, one that ended with the Heat missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018-19.

While he acknowledged, "we don't like this feeling at all," he also said he was proud of the franchise's prior success that made this such an anomaly, and highlighted the progress of the young players, mostly Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Pelle Larsson, but also giving mention to Kel'el Ware (with whom he battled at times, but said "I appreciate his intention") and rookie point guard Kasparas Jakucionis, who worked his way into the late season rotation and even earned some starts.

Spoelstra said he believed the team left "four to six" wins on the table, and believed that if they made the playoffs, "we could gain some momentum" and maybe make a run.

"I had a feeling about this team," Spoelstra said.

Most fans on #HeatTwitter rejected that premise -- some said in response to that tweeted quote that their feeling was "nausea" -- and most consistently speak of the need for change.

That sentiment was echoed in national media corners this week.

The Hoop Collective podcast on ESPN took aim at the Heat's defensive freefall.

As ESPN's Tim Bontemps said, "The Heat have a lot of questions to answer this summer. They’ve had the same basic group for five years now, and they’ve been treading water. Something has to change. If they run it back with basically the same team, I just don’t know… something significant needs to shift.”

It's not really true that they've had the same basic group -- Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo and Nikola Jovic are the only two players still present from even the 2023 Finals run, and Herro and Jovic hardly played in that.

But the frustration seems to be mostly with the Heat constantly linked to superstar -- or whale -- hunts in which their spears come up short, for one reason or another. Maybe it's a shortage of assets. Maybe the team decides to wait on a trade, as was the case this February when the Bucks considered but ultimately rejected their offer of Herro, Ware and lots of others for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Maybe they weren't as interested as the media made it seem.

Whenever it happens, you can be sure that some in the media will aim for Riley.

Kendrick Perkins apparently isn't aware that the Heat are more of a committee now or, like many of his colleagues, doesn't care. Perkins, the former center now primarily featured on ESPN, appeared on the Road Trippin' podcast and had this to say:

“Pat Riley going ‘I’m going fishing, I want to catch a big fish. I want to catch a whale.’ Every f*cking offseason, every trade deadline. But you keep bringing in sea bass? The Miami Heat have been in the play in tournament for 4 consecutive years. They just don’t make real powerful moves…. I understand Pat Riley the godfather has done so much for this game and Heat Culture, but he’s past his time when it comes to being the guy who oversees this organization. At some point you have to have a real f*cking conversation and ask yourself is Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro two guys that’ll get me where I’m trynna go? The answer is no!”Kendrick Perkins

Even former Heat point guard, and two-time NBA champion, Mario Chalmers was a little off in his assessment of an organization he's spent so much time representing and then watching. He did this, un-ironically, on a podcast called Run It Back.

“Nobody wants to come to South Beach, everybody used to want to come to South Beach…in my opinion they’re scared of the work, they don’t want to put in that type of work to be in a Miami Heat organization and Heat culture…”

“I think Pat (Riley) might have to let go of the reigns a little bit…”Mario Chalmers

But Riley definitely has pulled back the reigns, since he's not pulling all the strings like he once did, before Chalmers was even drafted to the Heat in 2008; that's actually the season Spoelstra officially replaced Riley as the head coach, and the practices are not what they were under Spoelstra's predecessor.

And Riley isn't really "overseeing the organization" as Perkins alleges, but.... well, forget it. It is what it is. The one thing Perkins, and others, are right about is that the Heat aren't what they were. And, as a collective or otherwise, the front office needs to fix that.

So Miami matters again.