How Will Pat Riley's Coaching Absence Affect the Miami Heat

The Miami Heat is a team that is stumbling right now. Shaquille O'Neil has been out quite some time now with an injury, leaving the brunt of the scoring up to Sports Illustrated's athlete of the year, Dwayne Wade. Adding to the problem is that superb defender James Posey who is also one of the team's best defenders, failed to meet Pat Riley's specific weight loss goal for each player. Along with power forward and scorer Antoine Walker, the two men have been put on the inactive list until they achieve that weight loss goal.

Now Heat coach Pat Riley is having a hip surgery that will leave him sidelined for several games. Fellow coach Phil
Jackson who coaches the Los Angeles Lakers also had the same procedure and missed 17 games during the season.

Dwayne Wade is also injured and has been playing through pain. This Miami team seems to be in turmoil but if you look at the situation in the Eastern Conference, the teams are so bad that the Miami heat won't have to win many games to make the playoffs. In the playoffs the Heat have a very good chance of repeating and winning the Eastern Conference. Detroit is looking bad and sorely misses the defensive presence of Ben Wallace who signed a free agent deal with the Bulls.

Pat Riley is a very tough guy and is determined not to be out too many games this season when he has the hip surgery. Coach Pat Riley is also the Miami Heat team president and General Manager and he was one responsible for the blockbuster trade that sends Lamar Odom to Los Angeles for Shaquille O'Neil. Without Pat Riley, the Miami Heat will be hard pressed to make a huge trade to help this team that has been struggling of late.

There was also a lot of speculation that Pat Riley might have further injured his hip when he kicked a locker in frustration after his team lost another game a couple of weeks ago.

The timing of Pat Riley's move to have hip surgery now is interesting because at some journalists point out, Pat Riley could have had the surgery this past off-season. However, I do believe Pat Riley when he said that he was trying to coach through the pain but that the pain had become too unbearable to take. Most people try and hold off from having surgery and in Pat Riley's case, this was no different.