A move that no one saw coming could open the door for the Miami Heat to do something jarring themselves. If the Heat were waiting for the right moment to make a big move in the front office, now could be the ideal time to do so. What if the Heat decided to replace Pat Riley with Ujiri?

Let me preface this by saying, this is probably not going to happen. Especially with the way the Heat likes to promote from within, even if Miami was open to the idea of Riley being replaced (of course, by his own desire), they’d probably look for his replacement internally first.

But if there’s any name that does carry some cache as one who could be worthy of replacing Riley, or one who could potentially fill his big shoes, it’s Ujiri. He has a proven track record of being a great front-office leader and did manage to build a championship roster on the fly (and pretty quickly) during his time with the Raptors.

Pat Riley probably isn’t walking away anytime soon

Ujiri does hold water in the NBA universe, and he’s a name the fan base would probably be excited about, especially considering how much Riley has struggled recently. For as much as Riley is known as being star-hunting executive, so is Ujiri. Perhaps even more so of late.

Before he was fired, anytime there was a star player on the trade block, the Raptors were naturally one team that was linked to them. With all due respect to the city of Toronto and the Raptors franchise as a whole, the big reason why they were constantly brought up was because of Ujiri.

That’s what the Heat needs. That’s why Riley was so popular over the last couple of decades in Miami. No matter who the target was, the Heat could never be counted out. Even though that’s still somewhat the case of late, that aura, as the kids say, certainly faded over the last five years.

And now that the Heat could be pivoting toward more of a youth movement, now could be the time to turn over the leaf at the top of the front office. After all, Riley is 80 years old, and there doesn’t appear to be any quick fix for the Heat. Does he really want to spend another 3-4 years rebuilding the Heat at his age, and at this point in his career?

I’m sure there will be plenty of interest in Ujiri across the league. With the way the Heat have disappointed of late, maybe Miami should throw their name in the hat, too.