When the Miami Heat emerged as a suitor for Gordon Hayward, it all felt very familiar. Pat Riley has always pursued the best free agents on the market – LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Kevin Durant, now Hayward – largely because of his obsessive preservation of cap flexibility. You can’t fault the guy. Since 2010, Riley has assembled the Big Three, won two NBA Championships, weathered the departures of the best player in franchise history and the second-best player in league history, and retained Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic in free agency.
But Riley didn’t get Hayward this offseason.