The Heat are no doubt on a heater as far as team construction is concerned, and you can't hit on so many positive outcomes related to roster moves without some luck on your side. What I think gets a little lost with them is how they're set up to take advantage of good fortune.

Everything they have in place - leadership, personnel, decision-making processes - helps accomplish:

-Increasing their odds of success across the board, with moves for present and future, seemingly small or large.

-Blending all those moves into something more.

Every tiny decision is made in concert with a cohesive infrastructure at play, so that when you hit on a run of draft picks or free-agents signings or trades, you can turn all of that into an Eastern Conference Finals run. Everything is in place to follow up success with success.

Nothing wrong with acknowledging some luck along the way. There's plenty you can't control, decisions that aren't yours to make, after all.

Anyone can flop the nuts, you still have to play the cards. And every hand after that.

The best teams also influence what they're dealt.

I'll end with this series of conversations I had with Shane Battier, Ray Allen and James Jones about luck and basketball seven years ago.

http://nba.com/heat/newsrecap …

And this quote from Erik Spoelstra.