I don’t want to puff up Strus ans Vincent or anything, but they did let them the two of them go without getting anything back for either. Those guys aren’t all stars, but they were pretty important last season.

Riley has had such a good run that it feels like every move is rationalized into genius. The Heat were an okay regular season team last year and had a good, but a little flukey run through the playoffs. They had an average scoring margin of about +4 per game in the east playoffs sustained in part by shooting that was a little lucky. Good, but not dominant.

It really seems like they let key guys go because they were lining up for a big trade that never came. They’re returning a team that is at best neutral relative to the one they had last year in the regular season. Does Herro coming back make up for the guys they lost? Maybe! But it does feel like they aren’t showing any kind of urgency to maximize what’s left of Butler’s prime. Riley seems to prefer the churn and not mortgaging the future too much, but that may bite them at some point.