Fire Spoelstra

[mh_3]

Here's an interesting point I found about the 3 Heat players:

Last season's stats for James compared to this season's aren't all that different, except when you look at the AST% of his shots. Last season James was assisted on 48% of his shots from inside and he went inside 36% of the time, in other words 17% of his shots were from inside and were assisted. This season? 30% plays from inside, with only 30% of his inside plays assisted, or 9% of his shots were from inside and were assisted. That's a significant decrease.

Bosh is the same too:
Last season Bosh went inside 46% of the time and was assisted on 48% of those plays (with more shots), in other words, 22% of his overall shots were shots from the inside that were assisted. This season Bosh is only going inside 26% of the time and is assisted on 42% of those plays, in other words 11% of his overall shots are shots from the inside that were assisted.

D-Wade:
While D-wade is taking slightly more shots from inside, and is seeing his assist percentage slightly higher on those shots, his numbers have no basis for comparison since there's no telling what they were the previous season without Spoelstra.

However, his AST% numbers are generally found in players asked to assume primary ball handling responsibilities (i.e. Kobe, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Billups) and not indicative of playmakers that defer ball handling responsibilities (i.e. Anthony, Pierce, Gordon (LAC), Durant).

Conclusion:
So are these stats just anomalies? Are the Heat taking their two key acquisitions in the paint less and assisting them less simply because more is being asked of them due to the Heat's lack of PG play? That's possible, but were the Cavs really that good at playmaking that they were able to get Lebron the ball betterr than the Heat's current squad? For that matter, were the Raptors really that good at playmaking that they were able to get Bosh the ball better too?

There is clearly something wrong with the Heat's ability to run off the ball plays to get its superstars points, and it's not the talent nor execution of the players. It's the offensive plays called.

Great post man. Why Spoelstra doesn't run any plays for the Big 3 moving to the rim OFF THE BALL is beyond me. You'd think a coach who finally gets talent and the oppurtunity to win a championship would utilize the talents of his players more.

[andre316]

There is clearly something wrong with the Heat's ability to run off the ball plays to get its superstars points, and it's not the talent nor execution of the players. It's the offensive plays called.

Yep. Slow-developing isolation plays that allow opponents to cheat off Wade, LeBron, and Bosh because those guys don't punish them with movement when they don't have the ball. Opposing defenses get time to think instead of being scrambled and forced into making mistakes.

Also, lots of shot clock used, so in the event Plan A fails Plan B has to be rushed or scrapped in favor of off-balance jumpers, usually with terrible offensive rebounding position.

[AWDDavid]

Fast-forward three seasons to now, and the Heat are at another dangerous, desperate crossroads. The Heat have lost four of their last five games and are in danger of falling to third place in the East with a loss to the Bulls on Sunday. Miami's best players -- Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh -- are cracking in key moments of close games and then questioning the approach.

The Heat are squandering big leads and then blowing some disturbing hot air after demoralizing losses. And questions linger -- even within the locker room -- as to whether the level of mental toughness among Wade, LeBron and Bosh will ever match their immense talent.

To panic now would be to replace Spoelstra and pretend that this is all a coaching problem. It's not. This is on the players. This is on LeBron, Dwyane and Bosh. Make no mistake about it, this team would drive Riley crazy on the bench, too.

Spoelstra's handling of the rotation, questionable adjustments and decisions on late-game personnel have left plenty to be desired at times this season. So there's enough blame to go around for a Heat team that's 14-17 against teams with winning records, 5-12 in games decided by five points or less and statistically one of the least-clutch squads in the league.

But any notion that Riley can fix this by simply gelling his hair, tossing on an Armani suit and taking his old seat on the bench is silly and flawed. Buying into that logic would be to suggest that Riley doesn't already have a dominant presence around his $400 million creation.

He attends practices. He sits less than 200 feet from the team's bench at home games. And, as Spoelstra relayed before the Friday's 30-point blowout loss in San Antonio, the two of them communicate -- either by phone or in person -- after each game for instant evaluations.

Riley's there. It's the players who don't show up in clutch moments often enough. Riley could return to the bench and bring Jerry Sloan and Don Nelson to the staff as assistants, but would that get LeBron to bail on the jumpers and drive to the basket just once in a while?

Would it get Bosh, knowing full well there are no other post-up options with his size and skill on the roster, to at least flirt with a power game? Would it get Wade to be more assertive and a little less accommodating to LeBron late in the fourth quarter?

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/5036/dont-look-for-a-familair-answer-to-heats-woes

[radikalBaller]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n7LWlLOrNk[/youtube]

[laloo]

But any notion that Riley can fix this by simply gelling his hair, tossing on an Armani suit and taking his old seat on the bench is silly and flawed. Buying into that logic would be to suggest that Riley doesn't already have a dominant presence around his $400 million creation.

He attends practices. He sits less than 200 feet from the team's bench at home games. And, as Spoelstra relayed before the Friday's 30-point blowout loss in San Antonio, the two of them communicate -- either by phone or in person -- after each game for instant evaluations.

Spo gets killed because he doesnt make in-game adjustments. None of the above is going to help him in those situations.

[OceanBlue]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n7LWlLOrNk[/youtube]

Just saw this myself, so awesome! Come on, Riley, pull the trigger!!!

[truthiness]

This is on the players. This is on LeBron, Dwyane and Bosh. Make no mistake about it, this team would drive Riley crazy on the bench, too.

If this is on the players, I'd say the Heat should trade Wade, Lebron and Bosh for Gary Neal, Matt Bonner and George Hill. They don't have egos and will execute the system.

I'm really tired of this ****.
It's beyond ridiculous. Anyone still defending Spoelstra at this moment either has an agenda or knows less about basketball than Spoelstra does about coaching.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

Riley could have made a difference, but that was months and months ago. Its far too late now. At this point, a move would reek of panic and desperation, and there simply isn't enough time left for the players to adjust to a new offensive scheme.

I've resigned myself to the fact that the rest of this season is going to be about rooting for an underdog, despite the fact that our talent says we should almost always be favorites.

On the bright side, think of how awesome it would be if we pulled it off now? Also, consider that the Lakers' regular season has been pretty much just as tumultuous as ours.

We won't be anyone's favorites heading into the playoffs, but no matter what, we'll have a puncher's chance, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for any Heat team since 2006.

[Heat_team02]

I went on some other message boards and found some golden nuggets

by BaskervilleHomes;

The coach or coaches have not been able to come up with a substitution and/or time out scheme to stop the opponents from pouring it on and on and coming back on them to erase Heat's large leads, as Orlando did , as Utah did, and others have done. It seems that if the opponents are shooting well from long range, the HEAT players just take it up the kazoo and will not make an effort to stop it, as if, oh well, nothing we can do about that good shooting. And the coaches can not inject players into the lineup to change the pattern and stop the bleeding. How about a quick time out when sensing a catastrophe coming?

The coach will not dare take Chris Bosh out for a play or two when better defense is needed. Bosh is a country club type of player. He just does not play hard or foul hard.

Bosh should have never been in the last shot situation when a 3 point is needed to extend the game into overtime. Spoelstra does not dare take him out when he clearly does not add anything at that juncture of the game.

The starting center selection is puzzling from game to game... I know that they have beaten the dogs of the league but all the better teams have handled the HEAT schemes easily. It seems to me that one center should start and not a different one every game.

Wade's game is regressing. His man scores at will and he is gambling on defense rather than playing face up defense. He is very erratic and a prolific complainer to the referees. A cry baby and a turnover machine who can't make free throws anymore.

Instead of grinding it and driving it to the paint where they can score easily or draw fouls, they continue to try jump shots rather than make the other team work hard inside the paint. You have HEAT stars passing off shots to questionable bench players. The team overpasses. Heat players drive inside and when you think they are going to score with a dunk or a layup, they inexplicably pass it outside for a long range jumper.

Bosh is soft and he is no power forward. I had not seen him play before this year and I thought that he was a superstar but he is not a superstar. He is one of the most overpaid player in the league.. Again, it is shameful to call this guy a power forward. He is basically a face to the basket jump shooter and that is all his game. He can not grab rebounds when playing the top teams.

The gigantic problems at point guard and center are a giant hemorrhage. Nobody can defend at guard in this Heat team. The money spent on Bosh, should have been spent on getting better players at point guard and center.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/06/2 ... z1FpYVsOZp


Lebron on the Spurs
“They do a great job of forcing triggers,” James said. “They know exactly what you’re going to do defensively and whatever you do or whatever you try to take away, they have a counter for it.”

Dwade on the Spurs

“I think they did a good job of reacting to what we were going to do defensively. As you see, they were zipping the ball on a string to their shooters because they kind of knew what we were going to do.”

By Spearfish;

Pat Riley, are you listening to the subtle but public comments of your two stars James and Wade? Two days ago James said there was great coaching... on the team that beat them, (suggesting, by omission that they were outcoached) and after the Spurs debacle, Wade said "They (the other team) kinda knew what we were going to do" (and reacted accordingly). Eric Spoelstra is predictable, repeats mistakes, unable to react to other team's adjustments and repeats dumb things like predictably taking out hot players for "rests" when they are in the midst of hot shooting streaks.

[mh_3]

Lebron on the Spurs
“They do a great job of forcing triggers,” James said. “They know exactly what you’re going to do defensively and whatever you do or whatever you try to take away, they have a counter for it.”

Dwade on the Spurs

“I think they did a good job of reacting to what we were going to do defensively. As you see, they were zipping the ball on a string to their shooters because they kind of knew what we were going to do.”

By Spearfish;

Pat Riley, are you listening to the subtle but public comments of your two stars James and Wade? Two days ago James said there was great coaching... on the team that beat them, (suggesting, by omission that they were outcoached) and after the Spurs debacle, Wade said "They (the other team) kinda knew what we were going to do" (and reacted accordingly). Eric Spoelstra is predictable, repeats mistakes, unable to react to other team's adjustments and repeats dumb things like predictably taking out hot players for "rests" when they are in the midst of hot shooting streaks.

I feel like this team has no confidence with Spoelstra leading this team. I wouldn't either. Look, he's a good coach, but no where near the level of Doc, Poppovich, and Jackson.

[mh_3]

• Two sentiments expressed by a few Heat players to confidantes in recent days: 1) Although there was no word on coach Erik Spoelstra’s behind-closed-doors behavior after the Spurs loss, a couple players were mystified that Spoelstra — after the Orlando debacle Thursday — talked about how the loss will help make them better and how they’re close to a breakthrough, instead of acting livid and fed up with the blown leads. More anger, and being tougher on players making mistakes, would be justified, one player said. Considering the Heat takes so many jumpers, one questioned why Miami doesn’t post up LeBron James more.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/05/2 ... z1FqADrpkT

It looks like the players are starting to question Spoelstra's leadership. SHOCKER!

[Heat_team02]

Well the one silver lining is the firespo.com website is kicking. There have been over 100 votes in the past couple hours with the total at 20,503 and counting.

[HIF]

So that's 30 heat fans and some Bulls and Celtics fans a hell of a lot of times.

[Iputsomepantson]

Lebron Isolation at the end of the game. Talk about predictability....Thibs knew that was going to happen 5 days ago, that's why he put Noah on Lebron to throw him off.

[RJM]

That's it. I'm convinced.

[mh_3]

Lebron Isolation at the end of the game. Talk about predictability....Thibs knew that was going to happen 5 days ago, that's why he put Noah on Lebron to throw him off.

It's the same play we went to against NY.

[Heat_team02]

Eric Spoelstra, why he should be fired.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42J_cUtf81s&playnext=1&list=PL60C5A4F5FFB58391[/youtube]

[mh_3]

Eric Spoelstra, why he should be fired.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42J_cUtf81s&playnext=1&list=PL60C5A4F5FFB58391[/youtube]

Yeah I posted that vid earlier in another thread. Bruce is a very knowledgeable fan of the game. He's a Bulls fan, but always puts himself in other fans' shoes.

[GloriaJames]

not trolling or anything, but it's funny when i go through my post history and see this thread at the top of the page after any loss. i guess every single heat loss has been spoelstra's fault?

[mh_3]

not trolling or anything, but it's funny when i go through my post history and see this thread at the top of the page after any loss. i guess every single heat loss has been spoelstra's fault?

A lot of us here (including me) have been wanting this guy to at least grow half a brain for the last 2 years.