Riley Out, Spoelstra In

[CRHeel94]

According to the Herald a press conference has been called for this afternoon. Here's the link:
http://www.miamiherald.com/592/story/512660.html

[Lane1974]

Ira reporting Spoelstra is in, Herald says Fratello, Carlisle, Larry Brown could be potentials

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/bask ... 6288.story

[BFRESH44]

Good money. This is the ideal situation really. Riley was one of the greats, but right now this is the best and most ideal situation no question...

Let the Spoelstra era begin..

May 20th can't come soon enough...

[magicfan4life05]

I think Spoelstra will be a very good coach in the nba in the mold of van gundy kind of. Im gonna miss watching riley on the sideline, he was a great coach, but i wish he left under different circumstances, its tough seeing him to go out like this

g/l heat fans

[Lane1974]

Spoelstra doesn't have SVG's heart on his sleeves personality, he seems more analytical, X&Os type. Not that we knew SVG's charisma when he was an assistant either...

[Miami's Finest]

I think Pat is great and love everything he has done for the Miami Heat but this is definitely for the best. The Spoelstra era could be decided on May 20th, it would be much easier at least.

[unowen85]

Spoelstra was a point guard when he was ballin, so I'm going to correctly assume that he's going to want Rose on his team.

[CRHeel94]

I've heard good things about Spolestra (hard worker, well liked by players, etc.), but I have to say I'm a little concerned that he has no previous HC experience; i believe SVG had some previous experience (Wiscy?). He'd be smart to have a crusty old vet coach as a sounding board (will Rothstein stick around?).

[Lane1974]

SVG coached Wisconsin for one season and then was Riles' assistant for like 8 years... Riles himself had no HC coaching experience when he was named Lakers coach, I think he was only an assistant for a season or two... then look at guys like JVG and Lawrence Frank, they had no HC experience and could be compared to Spoelstra's career path... I remember SVG would run practices and summer league and training camp under Riles eye, I'd presume Erik would have been doing the same stuff under Riles (and Stan) as SVG did

[tsherkin]

Spolestra is an interesting thought; Rose is not. The Heat have a ball-handler and while Rose would make life for Wade a little easier, the gigantic, yawning abyss they have where there should be a frontcourt is of considerably greater import, in my opinion. Beasley, 100%.

[Heat3]

I'm surprised about Spoelstra. Earlier this year Riley seemed hesitant about Spoestra's readiness.

[heat4life]

Countdown to a Mopper post on Spoelstra begins now....

[lalalisa]

Countdown to a Mopper post on Spoelstra begins now....

lol if this doesn't bring Mopper out of hiding, I don't know what will

[Heat3]

As for Spoelstra's experience, hasn't he been with Miami longer than Riley? He started editing game tapes for Heat coaches and has now worked his way up to HC!!

Edit: Do you think this affects Zo's desire to return?

[rocketworld]

i recommend JVG...great guy

[Lane1974]

Spoelstra played against Zo in college and they were on the same all star teams and invitationals leading up to the draft, I'm sure Zo wouldn't retire based on Spoelstra, they have been in miami together all along

[CRHeel94]

SVG coached Wisconsin for one season and then was Riles' assistant for like 8 years... Riles himself had no HC coaching experience when he was named Lakers coach, I think he was only an assistant for a season or two... then look at guys like JVG and Lawrence Frank, they had no HC experience and could be compared to Spoelstra's career path... I remember SVG would run practices and summer league and training camp under Riles eye, I'd presume Erik would have been doing the same stuff under Riles (and Stan) as SVG did

SVG was a head coach at the college level for eight years (.595 winning %) with Wisconsin at his last stop, so he actually had some head coaching experience to fall back on.

I've always found the Lawrence Frank and JVG stories as very interesting given their backgrounds. JVG rose through the assitant ranks and never played pro ball, though he did play low level college ball (he was cut from Yale's frosh squad). Frank was a manager at Indiana and rose through the assistant coach ranks. IIRC, Frank didn't even play high school basketball. Both are considered sharp basketball minds; if Spolestra turns out as good as these two, we'll be in a good spot.

Riles was an NBA player so that's a little different (plenty of other ex-players with little or no HC experience).

[kosmovitelli]

Hola Heat fans !

At age 37, Erik Spoelstra is a young promising assistant coach. He developed and improved Dwayne Wade.

I don't know if you guys already read that but here's a nice article about Spoelstra. Click on the link for the full article. Below it's only a snippet.

A nice and long read about Spoelstra (from november 2007)


Spoelstra quietly worked the sidelines as an assistant coach, training young players, among them Dwayne Wader, the hottest NBA superstar of late. He devised their game plans from long hours of watching video recordings of games the team played. Spoelstra was an insider in the process that led to the team's first gold.

Born to a Filipino mother, the former Fe Celino, the 35-year-old Spoelstra is an ex-collegiate basketball players at the University of Portland, Oregon, a former professional player/coach for Tus Herren, a team in the professional sports league of Germany.

In Portland, where he was the starting point guard for four years, he averaged 9.2 points, 4.4 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game and was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year.

Spoelstra graduated from Portland in 1992 with a degree in communications. He's the first Filipino American ever to crack the highest playing rank in the NBA bureaucracy. There are only 90 bench assistant coaches in the NBA, a highly selective profession.

"While playing professional basketball in Germany, I applied for an entry level video coordinator position with the Heat. I applied for an entry level video coordinator position with the Heat. I had always wanted to get into coaching and I figured this might be a good way to get my foot int he door," Spoelstra relates. "I never imagined I would be here for eleven years."

"He did such a good job with that position and with working with players in the off-season that he became a bench coach on the Heat staff," says Tony Fiorentino, a former Heat assistant coach and now a SUN sports TV analyst.

Head coach Riley adds: "Erik comes as a whole package to the Heat organization. He is an intelligent operator who knows how to push the right button. He has a knack for seizing weak spots in opposing teams' defenses and turns around with smart game plans." [...]

Spoelstra has two tasks as an assistant coach. First, he trains perimeter players in support of Riley's defensive and offensive thrusts. Second, he prepares plans for the Heat's upcoming games.

"We primarily run our offense through O'Neal in the low post," Spoelstra says.

This set play runs on a scenario where the Heat perimeter players get the ball to O'Neal in the middle for a post-up offense. If a strong double team confronts O'Neal, the ball is pitched back to the perimeter players for them to shoot from the outside, or pass to a cutter either from the baseline or the wing for an inside shot.

Spoelstra's task along this strategy is to coach the Heat's outside players on passing well to post players, making plays to stretch the defense, and the like.

"We also push our offense through Wade and give him enough floor speace to let him play above the rim," Spoelstra explains. With the Heat's big men

[Lane1974]

agreed, but Spoelstra was a college point guard, and he grew up in an NBA family, and has been feeding at the teet of Riley for 10 years, lot of similarities to JVG

[Lane1974]

press conference is going to be on ESPNews
at 4pm eastern