PLEASE SEE THE LAST POST FOR THE WEDNESDAY BUZZ COLUMN, POSTED LAST NIGHT. THERE'S HEAT, DOLPHINS AND CANES NEWS IN THAT POST, INCLUDING UM'S LATEST QUARTERBACK COMMITMENT THIS MORNING.
Sixteen highlights from Pat Riley’s Heat news conference today:
### Riley said the Heat won’t be as active in free agency this year as the past two. He said he will be patient with his $3.1 million mid-level exception – it’s not even certain Miami will use it – and then he will “cannibalize the market” for a player or two in August and September. “We are not going to rush into anything.”
One free agent that already has visited: Center Greg Oden, who has had five knee procedures and hasn’t played since 2009. Riley said: “We will explore that. You have have to monitor that very closely.”
### Riley said the Heat will exercise its $4 million option on Mario Chalmers and he wants to keep free agent Chris Andersen.
He obviously wants to keep Ray Allen, but Allen hasn’t informed the Heat if he will opt out of his contract and Riley isn’t sure what he’s thinking. By opting out, Allen could make $3.7 million from Miami next season, as opposed to the $3.2 million he’s due.
### Riley said most of the improvement will come “from within.” He wants his players to come back “leaner, lighter, stronger, quicker and faster. Erik [Spoelstra] and I have already had two conversations about that.”
### Riley suggested he doesn’t want to use the amnesty clause on Mike Miller unless “there’s a mandate to.” He said it hasn’t been discussed. Miller will make $6.2 million next season, and keeping him could add another $14 million to Miami’s tax bill.
He called Miller a “great, great player” – “not just a great shooter” – and said he didn’t play enough this season. “Mike is as healthy as he’s ever been. He’s worked very hard on strengthening his back. We want to keep this team together.”
### On how much Micky Arison is willing to pay with regard to the luxury tax, Riley said: “That’s up to him. We talk about it a lot. Winning helps to some extent.”
### He compared his team to the old TV series, The Fugitive. “That’s sort of like I feel our team was. We have truly been the hunted. After 337 games [in three years] and being hunted and being characterized in a certain way, it’s very fatiguing, very tiring. But I still feel like we’re on the run. They’re still coming after us. That motivates the hell out of us. I don’t want to get caught. I don’t want the players to feel like they’re going to get caught.”
### More on the roster: “If we get everybody back that we want back, then we have 13 roster spots filled with contracts. One of [the other two] will be one of our younger players. It’s a good free agent market. We are going to be very fluid.
“We are not going to be that active in the way we were the last couple years with Shane Battier and Ray Allen.”
Though he wants "improvement from within, you just never know. We didn’t know Chris Andersen would be available in January. That’s where we will be patient.”
### Amid unsubstantiated Chris Bosh rumors printed in at least one out of town newspaper, Riley said “you don’t [change] your core that much” on a team that has won a championship. “I don’t think you should, unless something happened that knocks your socks off. We don’t like to change.”
Riley didn’t mention Bosh, but the Heat wants to keep him. Riley said Bosh "made five plays in the last 30 seconds [of Game 6] to help us win."
### The Heat doesn’t have a draft pick. “After the first 10 or 12 picks, I’m not sure there’s that player out there” that would make a big enough difference to trade for, Riley said.
### A day after LeBron James said the idea of riding it out longterm here with Bosh and Dwyane Wade would be “the ultimate,” Riley concurred.
“That would be my dream. I hope what he said yesterday is something that will come true. When we build these rings again, what I would like to put on inside is ‘I got no worries.’ They’re coming again and they’re going to come harder and harder.”
### Riley, on now being a part of nine championship teams: “I have been lucky, very fortunate. I say that with all humility. Two great organizations, two great owners and willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
### Asked about the problems Indiana's Roy Hibbert created for the Heat, and whether it will compel him to add another big man, Riley said: “We didn’t have any problems against Hibbert. We cornered the market on big guys three years ago.”
### On getting younger: “We’re not concerned about it as far as next year. One day, we’re going to have find another Dwyane Wade. . In order to do that, you have to lose. I’m not interested in getting into the lottery.”
### Riley has trademarked the term three-peat and he and his business partner “have made a considerable amount of money from that. Most goes to charity. I’m not using this as a platform to become a brand and make money off it.” He said he’s not sure the Heat will even use that term next year in its bid for a third title in a row.
### Riley, 68, has no plans to retire: “I don’t think about it – I love what I am doing right now. Why would anyone want to get off this train? I take it more personally than I’ve ever taken it. As long as Micky will have me, I will be here.”
### Would a loss in Game 6 (or 7) have changed the way he approached this offseason? “It probably would,” Riley said. “The absolutely dynamics would have been a negative flood of energy. We probably would have been thinking differently. But I don’t want to go back and think about it. You all know what it would have been like. The point is, we found a way. In this game, there are miracles.”
### Couple other things: The Heat's Chet Kammerer expects UM's Shane Larkin to be picked between 12 and 20. He isn't sure if any other Canes will be drafted, though he likes Kenny Kadji.... Center Justin Hamilton -- last year's second-round pick out of LSU -- has an injured hamstring and his status for the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues is undetermined, Kammerer said.
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