Saturday, June 23, 2012

Miami HEAT and the Pat Riley Effect


Under Pat Riley's presidency, the Miami Heat set themselves apart from every other franchise founded after the NBA-ABA Merger.

History




The Phoenix Suns, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks and Orlando Magic have won a higher percentage of games than the HEAT since they were founded (0.503).

The Suns and Blazers have made the playoffs more frequently than the HEAT, which have made the playoffs 16 times in 24 NBA seasons (67%).

Riley Effect
What the HEAT have, that every other franchise founded after 1968 doesn't have, is Pat Riley.

Ask the Knicks if they would rather have the draft pick they got for Riley and used on Walter McCarty or the two championships he's won with the HEAT by signing dominant players like Alonzo Mourning, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James.

The Knicks aren't the only team that wished they had Riley, though. The table below lists the playoff appearances (in the "Yrs" column) and titles for every NBA team, sorted by the year they were founded.

The scariest thing about the Riley Effect is that it's just getting started...



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