Erik Spoelstra The NBA is full of talent, personality and suspense. During the offseason, It’s easy to forget how wonderful the league can be. So, I’ve assembled 67 Reasons I’m Excited For Next Season (67RIEFNS). They’ll be presented in no particular order.
By nature, NBA head coaches face immense pressure.
As the money at stake has increased, job security is down league-wide. Owners no longer see teams as toys, instead looking at them to produce revenue. That trickles down the organizational chart, often landing on the coaches who fail to produce the wins that sell tickets and raise the value of local TV contracts.
But no coach has faced more pressure in the last four years than Erik Spoelstra.
A team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh faced obvious championship expectations annually. Media descended upon Miami to cover the Heat with unprecedented depth. And to top it all off, his boss, Pat Riley, is a championship-winning coach who once replaced Miami’s sitting coach once the team was ready to win a title.
Not only did Spoelstra have to win, he had to win immediately. Not only did he have to win immediately, he had to win big immediately. Not only did he have to win big immediately, he had to appease a number of bosses.
Riley is the most obvious, but Heat owner Micky Arison could have gotten impatient and ordered a change. What interests me most, though is how Spoelstra won over LeBron, Wade and Bosh.
In a few short years, Spoelstra has gone from the NBA’s youngest coach to the league’s second-longest tenured (behind only the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich). That transformation happened only because LeBron, Wade and Bosh allowed it.
At any moment, the big three could have gotten Spoelstra fired. They obviously carried more cache within the organization than even Riley’s hand-picked successor. But they chose to let Spoelstra coach them.
There could have been only one reason.
Spoelstra did not have an overly impressive resume until LeBron and Bosh showed up. The coach hadn’t even won a playoff series.
He couldn’t use an impressive playing career to impress the big three, either. He played at the University of Portland and a couple years in Germany, and that’s it.
What Spoelstra had was an ability to coach.
LeBron, Wade and Bosh are no fools. They’re smart players, smart enough to recognize when someone can’t do the job. That they let Spoelstra coach them while their championship window was open is quite telling.
Spoelstra didn’t simply roll out the ball and let them play. He made small ball the team’s identity. He created an offense that incorporated both LeBron and Wade, two players with similar skill sets who too often butted heads on the court their first year in Miami. Spoelstra designed a defense featuring aggressive trapping that took advantage of the Heat’s athleticism.
Simply, Spoelstra coached at championship level.
Now, with LeBron in Cleveland, the challenge changes. Expectations are lower, but so are the resources. Spoelstra must adjust his style to fit a new team.
Spoelstra, who has coached two NBA champions, has been described by some as a Hall of Fame lock. That’s really not a certainty, though. Rudy Tomjanovich, who led the Rockets to titles in 1994 and 1995, is not enshrined.
Tomjanovich won just four playoff series outside his championship years. Spoelstra has already won six in non-title years, so his résumé is already looking better.
But he hasn’t won any without LeBron, the greatest player of the generation. That, fairly raises, questions.
Spoelstra can’t rest on his two titles and call it a legacy. It doesn’t sound as if he’s interested in doing that, anyway.
I think Spoelstra, still just 43, will remain successful, even without LeBron. But he must prove it.
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- miamibeatles - Oct 23, 2014 at 8:04 AM
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Spo is the innovator of the Pace-N-space offense and the aggressive switching, trapping, defense we played. Genius.
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- cantonbound13 - Oct 23, 2014 at 8:14 AM
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Don’t forget the flopping & whining.
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- miamibeatles - Oct 23, 2014 at 8:38 AM
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4 Str8 Finals, 2 championships. Flop on.
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- dls612 - Oct 23, 2014 at 9:48 AM
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@cantonbound
you’re on time as usual! Soon as i seen the pic of spoelstra i knew! You’re well known for all the wrong reasons
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:01 AM
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pace n space isn’t an offense other than 4 out 1 in. He just made up the rhyming name. Don’t give him that much credit please. All he did was move Bosh to the 3 point line so LeBron could bully his way to the paint.
They won, yes. Genius. NO.
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:02 AM
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And watch some college ball. Basketball players have been aggressively switching and trapping forever. Check out VCU. Nothing new. He just had the athlets and speed to do it in the league.
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:03 AM
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To call him an innovator is blasphemus to all basketball coaches who came before him.
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- andrewwiggins22 - Oct 23, 2014 at 9:31 AM
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I’m seeing Heat finishing 4th in the East behind Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto/Washington.
#justsaying
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- phinagain - Oct 23, 2014 at 10:17 AM
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I think he already proved he can be a good coach without LeBron. He took over after the 15 win season and took them to the playoffs. They went back again the next year. Then they got the big three together.
Now he still has two of those big three, plus the experience of 4 straight finals appearances. They don’t have LeBron, but they should still be in the discussion as potential conference title contenders. Optimistic? Yes, but given the quality of coach he has shown himself to be, it’s certainly not unrealistic.
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- toycannoni - Oct 23, 2014 at 10:28 AM
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i would agree with this
wade being healthy is the key to how far they will go…
i like the addition of mcroberts and if napier can give them some help at pg i think they will be top 4 in the east
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- toycannoni - Oct 23, 2014 at 10:21 AM
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spo reminds me of mike shannahan….couldn’t win the big one without horseface elway and hasn’t done anything since
don’t get me wrong, i like spo and i’m not saying he won’t win another championship, but i also wonder if he was part of the reason lebron decided to go back home
i think lebron respected his strategies and coaching moves but i also remember lebron calling for james jones to be in the lineup more, in last years playoffs, and then praising spo for putting jones in after a victory…calling it a big time coaching move
you put 3 point shooters on one side of the floor and the defense has to choose between a lebron drive or 2 or 3 sharpshooters
spo didn’t play jones enough last year despite his 50% accuracy from downtown and lebron was dog tired in the finals vs the spurs
the heat win the first 2 games in san antonio had the wear and tear not caught up with the king in the finals,and i think in lebrons mind, miami screwed the pooch by dumping miller and then not playing the guys that made the game easier for him
jmho
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:18 AM
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They lost because “wear and tear” caught up with LeBron? Riiiiiiight, none of the Spurs players had any wear and tear though. And now it’s Spo’s fault for not playing….wait for it……JAMES JONES!? They got blown out every games except for 1. Miami couldn’t guard San Antonio, that’s why they lost, and Jones wasn’t going to help with that.
LeBron fans will go to any lengths to make excuses for him.
I agree with some of what you said but you gotta stop making excuses for LeBron. I know it’s your opinion and respect that LeBron is your fav player. But it’s ok to point out he averaged 4 TO’s a game vs the Spus. That isn’t Spo’s fault.
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- toycannoni - Oct 23, 2014 at 1:52 PM
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lol….lebron haters are a dime a dozen..
being a magic fan to boot i can understand your hate towards him and the heat much better
0 for 25 and no future to look forward to would make any fan bitter, especially when shaq (arguably) the best big man to ever play the game and then dwight howard dumped your team for greener pastures
you should try giving the king a break though….he did go back home….i doubt dwight will be back and we know shaq was 4 rings richer by leaving
all i can say is don’t be mad bro…
you seem to always agree with some of what i say, except when lebron is involved *facepalm*….i get it now, knowing that your just a bitter magic fan
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- toycannoni - Oct 23, 2014 at 2:51 PM
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let’s not forget that i was talking about spo as a coach….discussing the finals is another story entirely and since you brought it up….
the heat lost because the spurs were a lot deeper team, with a coach that knows how to use his players and rest them when they need it
they didn’t get blown out in the first 2 in san antonio…so your every game but 1 statement is wrong to begin with
playing 82 games takes a toll on everyone, but when your sidekick misses 27 games and you’re in a dog fight for homecourt advantage in 81 of them fatigue will get the best of anyone
the heat dumped mike miller to save money and they got very little help from chalmers or cole in bringing the ball upcourt or scoring
all i’m saying is it would have helped to give lebron some help but they refused to use jones hardly at all….even ray allen was stuck playing more minutes than he should have
it caught up to them in the finals…they had game 1 in the bag and then lebron went down with cramps and fatigue….they won game 2, which means they would have won 2 in san antonio and heading home
no excuses and san antonio deserved to win but who knows how it would have ended with the greatest playuh in the game going home with a 2-0 lead and some help or rest like he had in 2012 when they beat the spurs
i understand your bitterness with the heat and lebron so i don’t expect you to see it any other way….no prob
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- truehooper1421 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:07 AM
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He is a good coach and knows and understands how to play. I will give him credit for being open minded (not a lot of coaches are) and willing to make major adjustments during games and throughout the season. To me, that’s a big factor in being a good coach. Making adjustments. Spo does that very well. Scott Brooks could really learn something from him in that regard. Most coaches are stubborn and want players to fit their coaching style when great coaches like Pop adjust their coaching style to their players.
Heat will make the playoffs and potentially second round. He’s a very good young coach, not great yet but has years and years and years to become great.
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- unfrozencavemanlawyer2 - Oct 23, 2014 at 11:27 AM
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Not a Heat fan- but I like Spo and am curious to see how well he will coach without a stacked deck. He is a good strategist and still has a long career ahead of him.
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- lakerade - Oct 23, 2014 at 2:20 PM
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Deep postseason success is possible for Miami in a still weak Eastern Conference, but really only if Bosh and Wade can resume their roles as The Guy. No more coasting while defenses load up on LeBron, so I think it’s more about the players’ heart than coaching this year. I can see it from Bosh, he basically had 4 years off, but Wade? Taking every other game off ain’t gonna fly this year.
