Heat @ Orlando 31/12, 5:00 ET

[Slot Machine]

Honestly, I think Spo is an above average coach...he just a talent coach.

He's one of those coaches that comes in with a new plan after the off season with his shiny Big 3 and he has an idea of how to play and he pretty much sticks with it until the wheels fall off.

And if it doesn't work...it's pretty much heroballing.

Spo to me, is simply Phil Jackson...he's not gonna change, he is gonna need at least two superstars and some veteran role players. He's not gonna give a damn about a rookie, or young players...if you don't have All Star talent out of the box...you gonna be left behind. It is what it is.

This is simply too much of a Championship team to be any good during the regular season. And believe it or not...the Heat got too passive superstars to be an excellent consistent dominating regular season team. It's not a machine, they pretty much have the same flaws...which really I think is mental and systematic flaw - the same type of teams still kills them...and they know it, and they don't care.

Wade is horrible, he just is...watching him is like watching a trainwreck, the constant bitching about the calls he isn't gonna get, the constant just running into a brickwall, the constant sloppy ballhandling, the constant TOs, the constant bricking of the jumpshot...the jumpshot he can't get off, the losing the man playing defense, the not getting back on defense.

He hasn't worked on his game at all, it's obvious he is gonna end up like AI, when that athleticism goes, father time comes knocking and those injuries kick in...being elite is over and AI was elite until 32 and at 6 feet. AI at least still had a jumper he could get off, he still got 5 ftas a game and point guard skills in his last years at Detriot and Philly...he could've came off the bench if he wanted to to this day...Wade can't even run point at this point.

Lebron is Lebron, he's a guaranteed playoff spot. Bosh is invisible most of the game because for some reason, the offense just refuses to go through him. He is just the Glue guy that gets whatever else is left, he should be getting 23 points a game and have Wade just take a backseat to everything...Wade is not that good besides looking at his box score and seeing him get at least 20 a game on 50 percent shooting....and that's gonna be him til he's 33...he isn't Kobe or Michael Jordan...more like Vince Carter without a jumpshot that has rings.

All in All...this is just the type of Organization the Heat is. It's the Lakers lite since Pat Riley got here.

How is Spo an above average coach? What does he do that's special? What coach could do worse than he has with this team?

He's not a good motivator, his rotations are a trainwreck, and it takes him insane amounts of time to make in-game adjustments. Seriously, I was watching the game and figured I'd watch the entire thing, but I just decided to go to a party early because watching Spo stick with a smallball lineup against a squad playing 4 6'10+ guys was making me angry. Comparing him to Phil Jackson is just...wow, how could you even come to that conclusion? Going from what you said, I guess if you took all the negative traits of Phil, you could see Spo being similar, but still.

I remember in 2009, the excuse was that it was his first year, and he needed time to learn. In 2010, nothing changed and he was terrible again. I'll never forget how badly he ruined Beasley that season with his favoritism of Haslem and how he refused to play Beasley in 4th quarters even when we desperately needed a second scorer when Wade was getting doubled. What about the debacle in Game 3 of the Boston series with how badly he botched the defense on the last play? I'll never forget him complaining about how "it was too difficult to coach the D on the last play because they had so many options" even when everybody and their mother knew it'd be a Pierce isolation. Even with LeBron playing like complete ass in the 2011 Finals, I believe we still could have won if Spo hadn't stubbornly stuck with Bibby until it was too late. Now I know everybody will point to Spo starting Battier in the Finals, but what about how badly he managed the playoffs before that? We didn't win because of Spo last year, we won because LeBron went god-mode. Spo has just gotten lucky enough to coach phenomenal players like '09 Wade or last year's LeBron.

The whole paragraph about Wade is out of line or just plain incorrect. He has a shooting coach, so he's obviously working on his game and has a developed post game which he won't lose. His jumpshot is also the best it's been since '09, but don't let facts get in the way of your argument. People here expect Wade to be like Kobe with his longevity, but fail to realize that his longevity is the exception, not the rule. Calling him "Vince Carter without the rings" is a f*cking joke and shows a lack of ball IQ.

To all the people who complain about Bosh not getting enough touches or the offense run through him, why doesn't he step up when he's the best player out there with the bench unit? He has all the spacing one can ask for, yet he's incredibly passive or ineffective. He needs to show he's capable of having the offense be run through him, before it is. The other lines are laughable. "Wade's not that good except for scoring 20+ on good efficiency!" is seriously one of the stupidest things I've read on this board.

LeBron has spoiled people here with his play. He's so consistent, and so remarkably good that Wade not playing up to the same incredibly high standards equates to people here thinking he's not good. Here's the thing though, no one else in the NBA is playing to LeBron's standards either.

I'm not even one of the people here who think Wade is above criticism. He definitely has things he needs to work on, but your post is a joke.

EDIT: I forgot to touch on how bad Spo's minutes management is. LeBron should not be playing as many minutes as he is, especially with the workload he is asked to carry. Seeing LeBron gasping for breath in the 2nd game of a back to back after playing 44 minutes in the 1st game is a red flag. Spo asks too much of LeBron as is, and then panics when things fall apart without him. These 40+ minute games need to stop. If we can't beat bad teams without LeBron playing very heavy minutes, we have some deeper issues that Spo needs to work on.

[ricochet]

Wade has actually been playing well for many games now. Yes, he has bad games in between, but he's much better than at the start of the season. More lift and better shooting too now. He was has been scoring extremely efficiently also. He was in a slump in the first half and couldn't make his FT's the second half. It's like people are waiting for him to have a bad game to start blaming him and proclaim he's done.



http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/12/30/heats-lost-weekend-a-hiccup/

Everyone should read this. As a team we are tired. Most importantly, LeBron is tired and Wade is working himself up from injury. Guys like battier etc are not in their 20's. they are definitely just looking to coast through the regular season.

[playboyj305]

Beasley has poor basketball IQ and most likely will take a bad shot especially in late game situations. I trust the experts (Spo/ Pat/ Miami heat coaching staff) to sit him down in those situations. Besides these guys see him in film, games, and in practice and determine the best scenario for every instance. If he was so good they wouldn't have traded him for Mike Miller.

I know many of us want to blame someone for this poor rebounding and defense. Its several issues. They fact that we have such small lineups at times. I am not worried. Its only January and we should be pacing ourselves and seeking which lineups work in each game.

[Run DLC]

I can't believe he compared Spo to Phil Jackson.

[King_John]

I couldn t watch the last two games but reading this board and checking the boxscore it wasn t much of a loss. I can t remember any defending champion that was playing down to the competition as much as the Heat do this season. Not quite sure if this will hurt us in the end or not.

[RexBoyWonder]

How is Spo an above average coach? What does he do that's special? What coach could do worse than he has with this team?

He's not a good motivator, his rotations are a trainwreck, and it takes him insane amounts of time to make in-game adjustments. Seriously, I was watching the game and figured I'd watch the entire thing, but I just decided to go to a party early because watching Spo stick with a smallball lineup against a squad playing 4 6'10+ guys was making me angry. Comparing him to Phil Jackson is just...wow, how could you even come to that conclusion? Going from what you said, I guess if you took all the negative traits of Phil, you could see Spo being similar, but still.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Im not even mad right now, but im dead serious when i say this : when i watch some of these games i wonder if Spo is trying to make sure we struggle as much as possible.
Rationally, of course he doesn't, he wants to do well.
But i really just can't believe how bad his substitution are, how bad his feel for the game is, his timing is so awful and his adjusments (or lack thereof) are almost amturish. it's unbelievably bad.
I admit this roster is a challanging roster to coach well, because we dont have much talent outside the big 3. but some things are just mind boggling.

How much longer will he make the corpse of Mike Miller "guard" SG's? how long does he need to **** see that he's constantly getting abused, cant move his feet and can't even guard SF's anymore?

How many times will he a pull a guy out just when he's getting in the Zone? this especially hurts with role-players like Cole that need to build confidence..but even With Bosh, it's just senseless.

How much longer will he gift wrapped minutes to players that bring absolutely nothing to the court?
What exactlly are Miller and Haslem supposed to to out there? Get back in time to their 20's when they were good? Slow, Old, cant defend and cant score. Miller might be useful if Allen and Battier cant hit a shot, but Haslem has nothing left, nothing.

Cole - do you see him hesitate to shoot lately? that's the worst thing that can happen to him - losing his confidence in his shot. and it's all on his coach. You HAVE TO take open shots when the D gives them to you. your coach job is to drill that to your brain - it's a good shot - take it. then again, if Cole can knock down a few in a row - he's immediately benched for no reason.

Bosh - how long will it take this Bot of a coach to see that he needs to play next to a big man? Battier isn't a magic soulation, it's a very limited one that only works if you dont over-use it, and only against certain teams. Battier is getting worn down, Bosh is getting called "soft" while the truth is - we just need a big physical player to play next to him.

I can go on about the mishandling of Jorts, the misguided attempt with Lewis and how he's wearing down LBJ. but you get the picture. Spo is the biggest disapointment on this team this year.

[DWadeno3]

Not a great game by us but man, this b****ing and whining on this board is even worse. Wade is done, Bosh is soft, our role players suck, Spo is an awful coach and we pretty much only consist of LeBron. What the f*** are you still doing here then? You jumped on the bandwagon in 2010, you might as well jump off of it just as quickly.

[RexBoyWonder]

Not a great game by us but man, this b****ing and whining on this board is even worse. Wade is done, Bosh is soft, our role players suck, Spo is an awful coach and we pretty much only consist of LeBron. What the f*** are you still doing here then? You jumped on the bandwagon in 2010, you might as well jump off of it just as quickly.

Who are u talking to? are u suposed to נק some kind of super-fan beacuse you joined this site a few monthes earlier?

My all point was that the players are doing fine, and Spo is not doing a good job so far. im one of the only posters that keep defending Bosh, and who even said anything about Wade? we have decent role players, we're not getting the best out of them. wer'e making everything much harder than it has to be, and that's a coaching issue.

[DWadeno3]

Not a great game by us but man, this b****ing and whining on this board is even worse. Wade is done, Bosh is soft, our role players suck, Spo is an awful coach and we pretty much only consist of LeBron. What the f*** are you still doing here then? You jumped on the bandwagon in 2010, you might as well jump off of it just as quickly.

Who are u talking to? are u suposed to נק some kind of super-fan beacuse you joined this site a few monthes earlier?

My all point was that the players are doing fine, and Spo is not doing a good job so far. im one of the only posters that keep defending Bosh, and who even said anything about Wade? we have decent role players, we're not getting the best out of them. wer'e making everything much harder than it has to be, and that's a coaching issue.

I'm not saying we don't have issues, every team does, but people portray it as if we weren't one of the, if not THE, top title-contender(s). It's one thing to discuss certain problems of our team, it's another to blow them completely out of proportion. In your post I didn't fully understand how it's just Spoelstra's fault when Cole is hesitant to shoot and who you'd play instead of Miller.
As for Cole, confidence doesn't just come from the coaches, it's also a matter of being confident in your shot yourself. Wade has his games when he pump-fakes the s*** out of the ball, do you think Spo has anything to do with it? I doubt it.
As for Miller, the only alternatives we have are JJ and Terrel Harris. The first is an equally bad, if not worse, defender than Miller while Miller is still more versatile and the latter is probably not consistent enough, even though I'd like to see him get some minutes during the regular season, especially since Miller shouldn't play too minutes during the RS anyways. Nonetheless, there really aren't any alternatives.

[Miaheatfan3]

Couldnt see the game but looking the recap and the stats I freaked out, vucevic with 29 rebounds.. unreal
I've seen wade struggled today but he came up big with that steal to seal the deal. LeBron just enormous as always

[Chosen01]

Honestly, the reactions on this board get ridiculous and make it unbearable to read sometimes. You have posters with obvious agendas still waiting for any moment for Wade to slip to bash him. People calling for Spo's head every second and oher predicting doom and gloom with any close game or loss Heat have.

When the Heat are down 3 in a series, that's when you should be worrying. Anyways, Happy New Years guys!

[fishfuego.]

The thing is, Spo is just a very, very good assistant coach playing the role of a head coach. He tries to mimic Pat Riley because he needs to copy and present the image of someone who's and all time great like Pat, knowing he doesn't posses the tools (motivational speeches, experience as a player, knowledge or history to override and demand from superstars like Lebron, Wade or even Bosh). He has to abide to the buddy buddy role.

Like many here have said, I feel he lacks in-game IQ, and sees the game too fast which it makes it hard for him to adjust on the fly, so to counter such short comings he does what it seems to be the next best thing, and that's ahead planning (it makes him look robotic), when that doesn't work he goes the hero-ball way because he has the personnel. It works verses lesser teams but it gets exposed when facing near or equally talented teams with better coaches. (edit: some may say he beat OKC, but OKC's coach is just as lacking IMO).

As far as Wade, I feel that he is playing through injuries while trying to do what his mind is program to do, and that's to play godly, I won't judge him this season knowing that injuries take time, sometimes a long time to heal.

[MiamiHavok]

Holy moly some of you guys are so melodramatic

[Slot Machine]

The thing is, Spo is just a very, very good assistant coach playing the role of a head coach. He tries to mimic Pat Riley because he needs to copy and present the image of someone who's and all time great like Pat, knowing he doesn't posses the tools (motivational speeches, experience as a player, knowledge or history to override and demand from superstars like Lebron, Wade or even Bosh). He has to abide to the buddy buddy role.

Like many here have said, I feel he lacks in-game IQ, and sees the game too fast which it makes it hard for him to adjust on the fly, so to counter such short comings he does what it seems to be the next best thing, and that's ahead planning (it makes him look robotic), when that doesn't work he goes the hero-ball way because he has the personnel. It works verses lesser teams but it gets exposed when facing near or equally talented teams with better coaches. (edit: some may say he beat OKC, but OKC's coach is just as lacking IMO).

Agree completely, this is what I've been saying. He's shown no signs of improvement either which is more concerning for me. He still takes out players who are heating up just like he did to Beasley and Q back in the day. He still has his spreadsheet of rotations which he'll never change in the middle of a game. From what I've read about him, he's good in-between games with preparation and what not, but even then, he's blown a couple of decisions. Even the psyche of the team seems to be the same, anyone remember how inconsistent our 2010 team was? We'd play way over our heads for a stretch then play like trash and so on. We've had the exact same thing going on in 2011, last year and now this year, too. At some point, the coach has to be to blame. I will say, however, that his plays out of timeouts have greatly improved from when he first started.

I'm not saying fire him because we've played poorly lately. I know that's obviously not the answer. It's just that he makes things harder than they have to be. I don't care about regular season losses, I care about chances of hurting our endgame of a championship, by relying too much on our stars.

For what it's worth, I thought he should have been fired after the 2010 season, but that ship has sailed.

[radikalBaller]

My only concern is that Miller and Allen should never be on the court together. Also we need more Cole+Joel and less Chalmers+Haslem. We win games by playing Defense, we feed of good defensive plays, so far our best Defensive Unit is :

Joel
Lebron
Battier
Wade
Cole

Now that's energy !!!

[LikeABosh]

I don't want to ever see a lineup of:

Cole
Wade
Allen
Battier
Bosh

ever again.

[Heat fan06]

Didn't expect to go 2-2 on the trip but we always look down on bad teams.

[WiseOwlWins]

It all comes down to Spo his "coaching" and accountability. I'd be happy with a loss if it was a learning experience but knowing how Spo works its point less.

Honestly, I think Spo is an above average coach...he just a talent coach.

He's one of those coaches that comes in with a new plan after the off season with his shiny Big 3 and he has an idea of how to play and he pretty much sticks with it until the wheels fall off.

And if it doesn't work...it's pretty much heroballing.

Spo to me, is simply Phil Jackson...he's not gonna change, he is gonna need at least two superstars and some veteran role players. He's not gonna give a damn about a rookie, or young players...if you don't have All Star talent out of the box...you gonna be left behind. It is what it is.

This is simply too much of a Championship team to be any good during the regular season. And believe it or not...the Heat got too passive superstars to be an excellent consistent dominating regular season team. It's not a machine, they pretty much have the same flaws...which really I think is mental and systematic flaw - the same type of teams still kills them...and they know it, and they don't care.

Wade is horrible, he just is...watching him is like watching a trainwreck, the constant bitching about the calls he isn't gonna get, the constant just running into a brickwall, the constant sloppy ballhandling, the constant TOs, the constant bricking of the jumpshot...the jumpshot he can't get off, the losing the man playing defense, the not getting back on defense.

He hasn't worked on his game at all, it's obvious he is gonna end up like AI, when that athleticism goes, father time comes knocking and those injuries kick in...being elite is over and AI was elite until 32 and at 6 feet. AI at least still had a jumper he could get off, he still got 5 ftas a game and point guard skills in his last years at Detriot and Philly...he could've came off the bench if he wanted to to this day...Wade can't even run point at this point.

Lebron is Lebron, he's a guaranteed playoff spot. Bosh is invisible most of the game because for some reason, the offense just refuses to go through him. He is just the Glue guy that gets whatever else is left, he should be getting 23 points a game and have Wade just take a backseat to everything...Wade is not that good besides looking at his box score and seeing him get at least 20 a game on 50 percent shooting....and that's gonna be him til he's 33...he isn't Kobe or Michael Jordan...more like Vince Carter without a jumpshot that has rings.

All in All...this is just the type of Organization the Heat is. It's the Lakers lite since Pat Riley got here.

I can tell you joined the heat bandwagon pretty late and you are just venting because this isnt the 90s bulls team you expected. get over it this team will coast into the finals. the simple fact that you compared wade to vince carter just shows you were a bitter cleveland fan who decided to jump ship in 2011.