Some of you guys are misdirecting your anger at players

[truthiness]

You need to understand that:

1. Players have limitations.
Some have more, some have less. Those with few limitations are called superstars.
It's the coach's job to put the players in position to succeed.

You can't ask Bibby to guard some quick guard and then be pissed at him cause he didn't do a good job.
You can't ask Joel to hit mid range J's and be mad when he misses.

2. Bosh has been misused all season long.

I've been saying it, others have been saying it, now a Raptors fan came and said it.

He asked for the ball down low. Got it next game. Delivered. Then everything went back to what it was before, and he's again getting the ball on top of the key.

3. Chalmers, despite his limitations, is the Heat's best PG

He's been getting a lot of hate here at times, but he is what he is: a role player. He's inconstant, can make silly mistakes, but he brings more to the table than he takes off the table.

And especially in this series he can match-up well against Barea (better than anybody else, anyway) and Kidd, and he has been creating open shots for others.

4. You can not attack a zone with P&R or ISOs

And that's all the offense this team has.
Dallas has been playing a lot of zone, and as soon as they go to it, Miami's offense stalls.

5. You can not attack a zone with Joel Anthony

This one should be obvious even to a toddler.

6. If you want ISO's you should space the floor.

Having your bigs at the edge of the paint allows the opposing bigs to stay IN the paint and be ready to help if the man in the ISO beats his defender off the dribble.

You want ISO's, bring the shooters. You can't have rebounders/defenders with no offense on the floor if your offense plays ISO's.

7. When your long J is not falling and you're getting absolutely no calls on the penetration, being more aggressive is not the answer.

Yeah, that's about Lebron. He's a smart player, and he saw Joey Crawford wasn't going to give him any calls. He was going to either get mauled with no call or called for the offensive foul. That meant every time he tried to be aggressive, he'd commit a turnover. So he chose to move the ball.

Now, if you have a REAL offense, moving the ball would get an open shot. But this is not the case. I am pretty sure Lebron misses the offensive genius that was Mike Brown. No, really, Spoelstra makes Mike Brown look like an offensive genius.

8. Also missing: Rotations. Adjustments. Exploiting match-ups. Answering their adjustments. Changing things that don't work instead of sticking you the crap that clearly doesn't work.

Can someone please remind me how many titles has this guy won with his "system" ? Cause that much trust in that "system" must be backed up by some nice results, right ?


So you can harp on the players all you want, but the truth is: you give the same players to Phil Jackson, he's waltzing through these finals, bad hips and all. It'd be 4-0, all blowouts. Hell, you don't even need Phil Jackson. Mike Brown would win a title with this team without breaking a sweat.

[andremcosta]

Great post.

[heatwillbeback]

Chalmers needs to start imo.

[StrawberryShake]

i hate the 2-3-2 format so much

[truthiness]

i hate the 2-3-2 format so much

Why ?
In theory, it helps the team with the HCA. In this case, Miami.
With this format, every team that won g3 at 1-1, went on to win the title. 11 out of 11.

Of course, the Heat will be the first to lose despite taking g3, which will only serve to prove (again) how much of a moron this coach is.

Blaming it on the format is an cheap excuse.
The real culprit looks like this:

[Tuff Gong]

/colin powell

when you get up there like an ass and promise this city 7+ championships, then i'm going to hold you to a super high standard. to completely disappear in the fourth quarter of 4 consecutive nba finals games is deserving of having your heat ripped out by the media and fans.

[Tuff Gong]

Blaming it on the format is an cheap excuse.

I agree, but it's not as stupid as blaming it on the coach when the players don't execute. Hell, one of the star players (the "best player in the league" mind you) disappears or simply doesn't show up at all.

Spo coached well enough for this series to be a sweep, but the players blew two games which led the having the opportunity to blow a third. Tonight was more like a game Dallas should have won to be fair though.

[Miamis3rdRing]

Our offense sucks for a team with this much talent. That's no surprise though, we all knew that.

The sad part is our defense, something Spo prides himself on, has been exposed. Mike Bibby on JJ Barea?!?!

How many open looks are the Mavs going to get? The whole series I've felt like the Mavs have been getting good looks from downtown. Finally, we paid the price.

Dallas has all the confidence in the world right now. Terry and Stevenson are able to talk trash to a guy with 2 MVP awards. They know that even a 10 point deficit with 5 minutes left isn't much to over come against this Heat team.

Carlisle is coaching circles around Sporon.

BTW, those 'clutch shots' LBJ hit were not good shots against Chicago/Boston for the most part. Great makes, but not high percentage. Spo's offense is a joke.

It's going to take the Mavs hoisting the trophy in our arena for Spo to adjust. I just hope our guys can play out of their minds and somehow steal the series.

Edit:
Just want to add that our players deserve some blame too. I didn't like LBJ at ALL down the stretch. Poor shots on offense, and Terry lit him up (AGAIN!). Bosh choked big time!

[truthiness]

Blaming it on the format is an cheap excuse.

I agree, but it's not as stupid as blaming it on the coach when the players don't execute. Hell, one of the star players (the "best player in the league" mind you) disappears or simply doesn't show up at all.

Spo coached well enough for this series to be a sweep, but the players blew two games which led the having the opportunity to blow a third. Tonight was more like a game Dallas should have won to be fair though.

[Alex Trevelyan]

I agree, but it's not as stupid as blaming it on the coach when the players don't execute. Hell, one of the star players (the "best player in the league" mind you) disappears or simply doesn't show up at all.

Spo coached well enough for this series to be a sweep, but the players blew two games which led the having the opportunity to blow a third. Tonight was more like a game Dallas should have won to be fair though.

The team was in a position to sweep on talent alone. We don't have an offensive system good enough to beat anyone. When Jason Terry claims that if the Mavericks break 100 the Heat can't win, he's telling the truth. This team should average at least 100 ppg. At least. We scored 83 against the Mavericks in game 4. The truth is we won the Celtics and Bulls' series because the miracle shots were going in. Our defense, which has now collapsed, was feeding the offense. The offense was predicated by the defense, turnovers were fueling the break, once that stopped, the team was exposed.

Why is this team incapable of just blowing out opponents night after night? This is the greatest assemblage of offensive talent the NBA has ever seen and no one fears our offense. That's coaching, that's the scheme. LeBron's aura is gone as far as I'm concerned, but he's only as good as the system he plays in. LeBron James was forced to play 45-minutes a night because the head coach knew that the system he was playing in wasn't adequate to generate scoring without having Secretariat on the court for all but 3-minutes of the game. Our defensive system wasn't good enough to have Secretariat off the court for even a few minutes. It proves that it's all a house of cards. Coaching is to blame.

[jmbflame21]

I wish we could win the title this year and then have Spo "retire while he's on top"

Then, bring Adleman in and have this team winning 70+ games each of the next 5 seasons.

[kam_soluusar]

Ummm, my observation is this.

You guys are getting killed in the paint by Chandler. I don't know why Dampier and Ilgauskus have not been used. Granted, they are old and slow, but you need a BIG body in the paint. Anthony, Bosh, and Haslem don't fit that description.

secondly, Just because you have 3 "Supersatrs" it doesn't mean that you will win a title. Look at the Lakers when they got Malone and Payton to go with Kobe and Shaq. It didn't work.

I am not saying Miami will not be a great team, they will be. It's pretty harsh to expect a championship in the 1st year. I think that Miami will get a few rings over the next few years. But you need more depth, a problem that is incumbent with your Payroll being maxed out by your "superstar" players.

You can call me crazy if you want, but Chalmers is the perfect PG for your team. Remember he is only young, He can easily be a 14 pt 10 assist PG, if LeBron and Wade can learn to move better without the ball. I see this as your biggest hurdle. Instead Of LeBron creating for everyone else, when it is obvious to anyone that his best weapon is his offensive arsenal, get him to slash more, and be on the receiving end of a pass. I see LeBron and Wade handling the ball in a PG fashion way too much.

Just an observation from a neutral supporter.

Well not completely Neutral, I hate Dallas. I hate them like no other NBA team in the league.

[GreenHat]

/colin powell

when you get up there like an ass and promise this city 7+ championships, then i'm going to hold you to a super high standard. to completely disappear in the fourth quarter of 4 consecutive nba finals games is deserving of having your heat ripped out by the media and fans.

How many times does this have to be posted. Watch the video, Lebron is smiling and Wade is cracking up. It was more of a joke to fire up the crowd at what was basically a pep rally than a "promise"

I agree, but it's not as stupid as blaming it on the coach when the players don't execute. Hell, one of the star players (the "best player in the league" mind you) disappears or simply doesn't show up at all.

Spo coached well enough for this series to be a sweep, but the players blew two games which led the having the opportunity to blow a third. Tonight was more like a game Dallas should have won to be fair though.

But if the players keep not executing down the stretch and we are 100+ games in, there is likely some reason for it other than we just have the worst luck ever.

I can turn your last statement around and say our players are good enough and have played well enough for this series to be a sweep. The blame shouldn't all be on the coaching but some of it should be. We have the talent edge, but Carlisle has run circles around Spo. If the coaches were switched at the beginning of the series we would have already won or be looking to close out the series on Sunday. If the players had been switched this series would already be over or we'd at best be in the same position.

[GreenHat]

Our offense sucks for a team with this much talent. That's no surprise though, we all knew that.

The sad part is our defense, something Spo prides himself on, has been exposed. Mike Bibby on JJ Barea?!?!

How many open looks are the Mavs going to get? The whole series I've felt like the Mavs have been getting good looks from downtown. Finally, we paid the price.

Dallas has all the confidence in the world right now. Terry and Stevenson are able to talk trash to a guy with 2 MVP awards. They know that even a 10 point deficit with 5 minutes left isn't much to over come against this Heat team.

Carlisle is coaching circles around Sporon.

BTW, those 'clutch shots' LBJ hit were not good shots against Chicago/Boston for the most part. Great makes, but not high percentage. Spo's offense is a joke.

It's going to take the Mavs hoisting the trophy in our arena for Spo to adjust. I just hope our guys can play out of their minds and somehow steal the series.

Edit:
Just want to add that our players deserve some blame too. I didn't like LBJ at ALL down the stretch. Poor shots on offense, and Terry lit him up (AGAIN!). Bosh choked big time!

I agree with most of this. We have way more offensive talent than OKC, yet we can't seem to score as easily as they did. Why is that? What were they doing differently?

We've stuck with Bibby for too long in general but specifically when he has to guard someone quick. That was a mismatch that Carlisle saw and exploited while we fail to exploit all the mismatches we have all over the court.

I too think that the Mavs have gotten way more easy looks in the halfcourt offense. A lot of our halfcourt offense that we score on isn't really a good shot, it just goes in. With our talent we should be able to get easier shots.

[rainking]

Truthiness, as always, you are bringing great analysis to the board.

1. Players have limitations.
Some have more, some have less. Those with few limitations are called superstars.
It's the coach's job to put the players in position to succeed.

You can't ask Bibby to guard some quick guard and then be pissed at him cause he didn't do a good job.
You can't ask Joel to hit mid range J's and be mad when he misses.

It is mind-boggling to me why we have opened the 1st and 3rd quarters these last two games with Bibby on Barea and Wade on Kidd. When I heard before Game 4 that Barea was going to be inserted into the starting lineup, I was thrilled. I knew that meant that Kidd would have to open against Wade, which was a huge advantage for us, while we could easily cross-match defensively with Bibby on Kidd and Wade on Barea. Bibby's not capable of guarding penetrating guards, Kidd doesn't penetrate...Easy matchup right? Nope. Spo, for reasons that I cannot understand, has put Bibby on Barea. Barea didn't dominate Game 4 because he still was struggling with his shot, but it was only a matter of time before this horrible matchup killed us, and that time was Game 5.

3. Chalmers, despite his limitations, is the Heat's best PG

He's been getting a lot of hate here at times, but he is what he is: a role player. He's inconstant, can make silly mistakes, but he brings more to the table than he takes off the table.

And especially in this series he can match-up well against Barea (better than anybody else, anyway) and Kidd, and he has been creating open shots for others.

If Spo is too stubborn to start Mario and bench Bibby, then at least have a shorter leash with Mike. Bibby is contributing nothing on offense and is a huge liability defensively. There is no reason he should be getting even the 15 mintues he got in Game 5. Mike's minutes should be split by giving Chalmers more of them, and going with Wade at PG for more minutes so that we can get Miller on the floor more.

5. You can not attack a zone with Joel Anthony

This one should be obvious even to a toddler.

My toddler actually did ask me during the game why we only had 4 guys on offense. I told him that our coach likes to make the game more difficult than it should be.

8. Also missing: Rotations. Adjustments. Exploiting match-ups. Answering their adjustments. Changing things that don't work instead of sticking you the crap that clearly doesn't work.

Can someone please remind me how many titles has this guy won with his "system" ? Cause that much trust in that "system" must be backed up by some nice results, right ?

Spo's failure to adjust our defense to the opponent is the biggest reason we are down in this series. We are playing Dallas the exact same way we played the Bulls. Trapping hard on the perimeter, packing the paint, and leaving shooters open on the weakside. We are guarding them as if Dallas has 5 Derrick Rose's out there. We don't need to trap so hard on PnR's. Barea is the only guard that looks to drive and score. Chandler is also not Noah. He can dive to the rim and finish. Our over-extension is being picked apart by the Mavs superior ball movement. The Mavs being cold from the perimeter in the first 4 games was fool's gold. They were missing open shots. Spo's failure to adjust finally cost us in game 5.

What's sad is that these tactical failures are obvious to anyone that knows the game, but apparently not to the one man that is in charge of making those adjustments.

[primecougar]

they cant put wade on barea. barea moves around way too much. with lebron struggling and wade being the only reliable option on the perimeter offensively, it would be foolish for them to waste his energy to guard barea.

this is the same reason terry is not wades assignment anymore. with lebron struggling a lil bit offensively hes a little more energy to chase terry.

making wade chase barea would be dumb imo. why tire out your best offensive option

[rainking]

So, it is better to put Bibby on Barea, when he has absolutely no chance to stay with him? That is silly. Wade is perfectly capable of chasing Barea around. It is not as if we would be asking him to chase JJ all game. It would only be when Bibby is in at the same time as Barea, which wouldn't be more than 15 minutes. Plus, Barea is not running all over the court off of screens like Ray Allen. Wade would simply have to contain Barea's dribble penetration, which he is much better equipped to do than Bibby. You are overstating how taxing it is to guard Barea.