Spo will be shown to be an amazing coach

[batterybro42]

I have always believed in coach Spo, however great we were during the Big 3 era, he was hamstrung in his creativity and what his style of coaching encompasses. Spo is one of the few coaches in the NBA I consider to be system guys, what I mean by that is he doesn't need stars to be successful, but rather players that fit his system and style of play. Pop is a great example of the pinnacle of a system coach, and regardless of talent these type of guys can win based on the their style of coaching alone.

Lebron reminds me a lot of Peyton Manning, in the fact that when he is on the floor he runs your team, he dictates the sets, and completely controls your offense. Just like a offensive coordinator with Peyton Manning is rather irrelevant, coaching Lebron is much less hands on than what a normal team dictates. Spo's pace and space offense centered around the half court PNR, and ball movement, was hamstrung by the isolation style of basketball we ran with Lebron. With James every play runs off of him, even when he doesn't have the ball, the offense is dictated by how he is defended.

Typically in the half court, the ball would move to James and our offense was dictated by how the defense choose to defend him. The great coaches in the league have found ways to stifle such an attack. The answer is to simply leave James 1 on 1, dare him to take over a game, with the understanding that James wants to collapse the defense draw double teams, and kick start ball movement to open jump shooters. Teams like the Spurs and Dallas figured that if they let James have his, limit their help defense, that they could truly stifle the ball movement, and force James to make the choices they wanted him too. The gamble was James' greatness, sometimes he would go for 40 plus, but the overall goal for defenses was to take his shooters away, and make the ball stick. This was the story of the 2014 NBA finals, and what lead to the end of our run.

How soon we forgot that coach Spo proved capable of winning nearly 50 games with a roster no where near the talent we currently have. For those who need a refresh this team won 47 games under Spo.

PG Carlos Arroyo/Chalmers
SG Wade/Cook
SF Quinton Richardson/Jones
PF Michael Beasley/ Haslem
C Jermain Oneal/Anthony

That is a really poor rotation, but in an offense that encouraged ball movement, demanded spacing, and a scrambling defense we were able to be successful, and far overreached our talent level. Spo's defense requires players to expel a tremendous amount of energy, and last year we simply were too old, and too shallow in our rotation to be successful playing it. What we have now is an infusion of youth, a excessive in solid wing players, and guys who understand ball movement, and team play.

I believe the addition of Mcroberts was one of the most underrated free agent signings of this offseason. He was finally given an opportunity, and he took full advantage of it. He showed he has amazing feel for the game, the ability to knock down big shots, and create offense for himself and his teammates. The Borris Diaw comparison is made a ton, and its no mistake they have almost identical numbers, and actual had the same PER last season. I expect him to be a huge catalyst to our offense and even defense. He plays with tremendous energy and unselfishness, that becomes infectious within a team. This was clear to me during the playoffs last year, outside of big AL I thought he was their best player, their heart and soul, and I couldn't be more pleased having him. Just like Diaw was the X factor this year for the Spurs I expect him to be ours.

We are about 8-9 guys deep that all bring something to the table, are proven scorers, and team players. Without LeBron controlling the game, guys will be free to play naturally, and I imagine you will see many different players contribute scoring wise.

I am going into this next season with cautious optimism, I really believe we have a product capable of being extremely consistent over the course of a season. I would not be shocked to see us improve on last years win total, and take a lot of teams by surprise. One thing that got overlooked is how draining our daily grind was over the last 4 years. Night in and night out we were a playoff game for opposing teams, we drew their best shot, had a tremendous amount of scrutiny, and a big target on our backs. That is going to fade this season, the pressure that encompassed our guys will dwindle, and you will see a much more free flowing team. I am not saying losing James' was a positive, but what I am saying is that this is a different team, a different system, and a completely different set of circumstances. I am starting to feel like we have just as much of a chance as anybody next year, and it certainly won't surprise me if we are right there at the end of it all.

Trust in Spo we have a lot people with things to prove on this roster including himself. I think it puts us in a great position, with the wind at our back, and a chip on our shoulder, this season will be very interesting. Go Heat

[Effigy]

That's an interesting idea. I think I agree that we will get a chance to really see what he can do with his stars locked in long term he can run the team as he sees fit now. No cow-toeing to egos. Let's find out if he's a good coach!

[Tony15]

So 2008-2010 means nothing? He won 47 games with Wade & Michael Beasley...

EDIT: I see you mentioned, by bad OP....


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[SlowPaced]

Spo is a great defensive coach. I hope we become an elite defensive team like we were back in those days. I prefer to see this team win 82-76 than 105-99. There's a reason why I chose this nickname.

[RexBoyWonder]

We shall see

[krikor]

we have to see, he got rings...
but his style of game is not one i like... i like more defensive bball..with big frontcourt..
we played too small under him..now that lebron is out..i hope i see him drop smalball..go for bigger frontcourt..
thats how our rebuild/retool should take way..

[KingHomer]

Spo isn't in the Doc Rivers/Pat Riley camp of coaches and that's not necessarily a good/bad thing. What he IS is a sponge and i think the shallacking that Miami got from the Spurs is going to be a real good lesson and something he might take away into this coming season.

[dolphinatik]

so ya im still bitter.... that year we won 47 games we played Beasley at PF which was his best year with us and still we ran our least effective unit of Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Haslem, Anthony 75% of the time. We tried many lineups but not the best statistical lineup which was Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Beasley, Oneil. We continued to force starting and gametime minutes to innefective lineups.

After that year Beasley was pushed out to the elbow and Chalmers was moved more off the ball. The next year we didnt improve and individual players regressed, then the next year we got Lebron. We added better players but still ran a system that didnt take advantage of our players talents. We like to turn our pg's, slashers and pf's into spot up shooters. I hope Spo has improved in his ability to maximize our talents. I not looking at wins and losses im looking to see if he is making our players better. Im tired of seeing Heat players look great their first year but regress in our "system" every year after.

[thinktellectual]

Spo is a great defensive coach. I hope we become an elite defensive team like we were back in those days. I prefer to see this team win 82-76 than 105-99. There's a reason why I chose this nickname.

His defense took A LOT out of the players, so you can thank that defense (and putting Lebron on Jason Terry) for losing in 2011.

I think Spoelstra is gonna get exposed this season.
His fanbois/apologists will blame the team, but so far the team should warrant at least HCA in the 1st round in the weak East.

[GreenHat]

so ya im still bitter.... that year we won 47 games we played Beasley at PF which was his best year with us and still we ran our least effective unit of Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Haslem, Anthony 75% of the time. We tried many lineups but not the best statistical lineup which was Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Beasley, Oneil. We continued to force starting and gametime minutes to innefective lineups.

After that year Beasley was pushed out to the elbow and Chalmers was moved more off the ball. The next year we didnt improve and individual players regressed, then the next year we got Lebron. We added better players but still ran a system that didnt take advantage of our players talents. We like to turn our pg's, slashers and pf's into spot up shooters. I hope Spo has improved in his ability to maximize our talents. I not looking at wins and losses im looking to see if he is making our players better. Im tired of seeing Heat players look great their first year but regress in our "system" every year after.

I don't remember too many lineups with Marion and "Oneil" together...

[GreenHat]

This team still has enough talent and the conference is bad enough that we should do fairly well up until we have to play a good team in the playoffs.

[mopper8]

so ya im still bitter.... that year we won 47 games we played Beasley at PF which was his best year with us and still we ran our least effective unit of Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Haslem, Anthony 75% of the time. We tried many lineups but not the best statistical lineup which was Chalmers, Wade, Marion, Beasley, Oneil. We continued to force starting and gametime minutes to innefective lineups.

After that year Beasley was pushed out to the elbow and Chalmers was moved more off the ball. The next year we didnt improve and individual players regressed, then the next year we got Lebron. We added better players but still ran a system that didnt take advantage of our players talents. We like to turn our pg's, slashers and pf's into spot up shooters. I hope Spo has improved in his ability to maximize our talents. I not looking at wins and losses im looking to see if he is making our players better. Im tired of seeing Heat players look great their first year but regress in our "system" every year after.

I don't remember too many lineups with Marion and "Oneil" together...

nice catch

February 13, 2009

Traded Marcus Banks, Shawn Marion and cash to the Toronto Raptors for Jamario Moon, Jermaine O'Neal,

http://www.basketball-reference.com/tea ... tions.html

[Miaheatfan3]

That was a good read, and I also want to be optimistic but... I'm sure Spo will kep playing small-ball unless the Heat sign a good center, if not Spo will play a frontcourt of Deng, Mcroberts and Bosh, with a second unit of Birdman, Granger and ¿Beasley?

[HeartBreaking]

he can, and probably will, but lets not act like the heat are picking up the scraps. They still have wade/dENG/Bosh, and with lebron gone Bosh and wade are both going to elevate the level of play tremendously. (Hopefully wades knees hold up.) Its really hard to play a whole season depending on lebron and than turn it up in the playoffs. Bosh is going to step up BIG TIME