By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
As the “Sun Sentinel” reports, Riley had only good things to say about the starting point guard of the Heat.
“Going back to when we made the decision to give up two first-round picks to get Goran, who was at the time coming off third-team All-NBA selection, we knew we were getting a great guard and a competitive guard, a two-way player, a great person, all of those things,” the Heat’s president said of the 2015 trade that send the Slovenian star to Miami.
“I think since he’s been here, he has proven to be that,” Riley said of Dragic as an elite presence. “I think last year, he had, to me, an All-Star year last year, if you stop and think about the numbers that he put up. What he did over in Slovenia this year in the games, by being the MVP, and getting 35 points in just three quarters of a game — and then I loved his Hulk pose that I saw. So he didn’t have to deal with the conditioning test.”
Heat players during Riley’s stewardship have had to pass a grueling, timed sprint test in order to take the court for training camp. Riley said Dragic’s success against elite NBA talent at EuroBasket offset the requirement still in place for Erik Spoelstra’s other players.
“I’m just proud of him,” he said. “I’m proud that we have him. And he’s right now the player that I think Spo relies on as much as some of the other guys or maybe even more so in how he wants to play.”