Commentary: Means to an end

This ends soon for the Heat - if not Sunday afternoon in AmericanAirlines Arena, then almost certainly Tuesday night in the United Center in Chicago - and it ends ignominiously.
Whenever it does conclude, Heat coach Pat Riley needs to win an argument with himself. He needs to talk himself into quitting.
Don't be mistaken.
This isn't a call for Riley's dismissal. Not at all.
This is a suggestion that Riley once and for all should get away from coaching and tend solely to his duties as team president. He should give in to the fatigue accompanying the relentless monotony of the courtside job. Riley has done so, memorably, on previous occasion in Miami and elsewhere, but he should make it stick this time. He should retreat to his president's office and set about undertaking single-minded reconstruction of the Heat.
Riley, for my money, remains among the upper echelon of NBA bench bosses. He's willful. He's tough. He's smart. He's a leader. He still makes a considerable difference on any sideline he patrols, and the Heat team Riley built and led to a championship a season ago will stand forever in franchise history as documentation of his formidable presence and influence.
But the best thing Riley could do for himself and the team now is to infuse it with a new and young-blooded coach of his own choosing, whose lack of familiarity with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade would provide the Heat with the clean slate it needs.
Riley's exhaustion is showing, and the 3-0 hole Miami is standing in against Chicago in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series has exacerbated the wear.
Last season took a lot out of Riley, and hardly has this season - complete with his prolonged absence because of hip surgery - reinvigorated him.
"Last year was the hardest season I ever had," said Riley, 62, who has coached all or parts of 23 seasons in the NBA, after practice Saturday afternoon. "I took over and never got up to speed. There was no planning. I spent seven weeks trying to talk Stan (former coach Van Gundy) out of quitting."
Now, can he talk himself into doing so?
"When the season's over, I'll address a lot of things," Riley said.
The Heat has a still-young superstar in Wade, yet there's precious little vibrancy to the team. That's in part a representation of Riley's surrender to O'Neal's increasing frailties. O'Neal requires more and more physical protection each year, and there's a widespread residual emotional effect on everyone around him as he's accommodated.
Ask yourself: Isn't the Heat's on-court style and off-court demeanor much more reflective of Riley and O'Neal than it is of Wade?
Now, ask yourself: Isn't it time for that dynamic to change?
Hand over the keys
Age, as the Heat is discovering against the Bulls, isn't playing well this time around.
O'Neal isn't going anywhere, but Riley, by concentrating only on duties as team president, could begin the process of transforming the Heat into a group that better fits Wade's talents and, sure, even his sensibilities.
Wade, for his part, calls Riley "top of the line" and has enjoyed his guidance.
Riley and O'Neal have done their best to give Wade room to grow both as a player and a person. But there comes a time when providing room to grow isn't enough. There comes a time when someone like Wade - a great player and an emerging identity not just for the Heat, but for the game - needs a space all his own.
Nobody should understand such a thing better than Riley and O'Neal, who long ago secured iconic stature with their multiple championships.
Riley, though, is the one who best can facilitate a transformation of the Heat, because he's the one who can be director without being coach. He's the one who can be the merchant of change, and, hey, it has occurred to him before - once right here in Miami - that the best place for change to start is in the coach's chair he occupies.
Riley stepped away from the Heat bench previously when he handed the team to Van Gundy, remember? Maybe he decided he wanted it back or maybe he's telling the truth about having tried to convince Van Gundy to stay.
Doesn't matter. Old news.
Doesn't matter in this instance, either, that Riley took the Heat to the title in relief of Van Gundy.
What matters is the state of the team, which is awash with questions.
Riley stayed the course with much the same group of players that won the championship, and it didn't work out. If such a result wasn't 44-38 predictable during the regular season, neither should it have come as a shock. And though Miami's first-round playoff predicament is startling, it also might have been expected, considering how disjointed the season was with significant injuries to Wade and O'Neal added to Riley's surgery.
It all seems to have caught up to the Heat.
"I don't want to make that assessment right now," Riley said. "I really don't. I think everybody knows what it is and what the adversities were. We overcame a number of them, and that's where we are. That's how we got to this point. It isn't the best situation, because continuity is really what makes a team consistent. But that's what we had to deal with."
A new start will be required.
It should be a dramatic one Riley can make happen by winning an argument with himself