Pat Riley to Skip Games to Scout Prospects

The Miami Heat's record sits at 11-47. Dwyane Wade has played through injury, but his stats are down across the board. Just a few weeks have passed since the Heat traded away one of the faces of their franchise, the over-the-hill Shaq O'Neal. The man they received in that trade, Shawn Marion, has done nothing to turn the team around. To date, the Miami Heat are this season's most disappointing franchise.

On Thursday, Pat Riley announced he would be missing one or two upcoming Heat games. This time, Riley's knees are in good shape. Instead, Pat Riley will attend various NCAA tournament games for scouting purposes.

When describing the situation and his own role (Riley is both coach and president of the Heat), Riley said, "“I’ll be flying in and out, but I think right now, I’ve got to do that. I need to do that.”

True, Riley does have an obligation, as the team president, to be on top of player evaluation for the upcoming draft; surely, such a disappointing season will result in a top four draft pick. However, at what point is enough enough?

Riley admits he has seen plenty of the highly touted prospects on tape, but would like to see them one or two times in person. To be fair, he will try to watch them (presumably the likes of Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, and among others) without missing actual Heat games.

By skipping games, not matter how few, Riley is effectively saying this season is a waste. That mindset would directly contradict himself following a defeat at the hands of the Raptors. An upset Riley said, "I've got to ferret them out of here and just put them on the bench and bring in a bunch of young guys. The season's over for them. That's how they're playing, some of them, anyhow."

How, exactly, is placing scouting over your team's games any different?