It seems like in the past few years, we've heard a few coaches and GMs get accused of "tanking."  Oftentimes, these assertions seem to be off-base.  The Celtics were accused of it last year despite the fact that Paul Pierce seemed determined to play through injuries even when the C's were at the bottom of the league.  Then there was the question of whether Doc Rivers would actually put his job on the line by intentionally losing.  It never added up to me.  Yet, I can't help but to wonder why Pat Riley hasn't been accused of it yet.

For starters, Riley is one of the few coaches in the league who also acts as GM.  Unless you believe that Riley is planning on firing himself from both posts, that makes it somewhat unlikely that he has to worry about job security issues if he were to start tanking.  Also, unlike Isiah Thomas, who's done a dismal job in every single capacity with the Knicks, Riley was the GM responsible for orchestrating the Shaq deal with the Lakers, and subsequently, parlaying that into a championship.  Then there's the fact that Riley is a Hall-of-Fame coach who has won championships with the Lakers and the Heat.  How do you fire a guy with those credentials?  Does anyone sincerely believe that Riley would get sacked if the Heat finished last in the league this year?

The Heat are a league worst 9-44 right now.  Obviously, they had the injury bug early through the season and dug themselves a hole.  Plus, there's a lot of dead weight on this team.  Even considering those issues, though, does anyone really believe this team is that bad? Simply having Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion should make them better than the Timberwolves and is there any way this team could be worse than the Grizzlies? 

To add fuel to the fire, they're playing in the Eastern Conference!  The bottom of the EC is about as terrible as it gets.  The Washington Wizards right now are in line for the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and they're 3 games BELOW .500 at 26-29!  Are you seriously telling me that a Pat Riley coached team could not win more than 9 games against this bunch? 

Then, there was the whole Shaq trade.  Don't get me wrong ... that was a great move on the Heat's part and it showed us just how shrewd Riley could be.  At the same time, though, it also signaled an intent on the Riley's part to give up on the Shaq experiment and begin rebuilding. 

Sure, the Heat would be bad this year regardless after all the injuries to Shaq and D-Wade, but at some point, it seems a bit excessive.  Once the Heat acquired roughly 30 losses and looked as if they had no chance to make the playoffs, even in the horrendous East, did Riley decide it was time to play for a draft pick?

It's difficult to draw any conclusions at this point, but if a Pat Riley-coached team with Marion and D-Wade manages to stay at the bottom throughout the season, would that not make anyone else a little bit su####ious?  This Heat team is disoriented right now, but surely they can't be this bad!