Eric Spoelstra

[BobC]

No disparagement to Spoelstra, but how many think he owes a lot of his success to being under the wings of Pat Riley for all these years, and that he is to some extent an extension of Riley?

[Touch'EmAll]

Charles Barkley commented that Boston had the better talent, but the cerebral department is where they and their coach fell short.

[esehombre]

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

Charles Barkley commented that Boston had the better talent, but the cerebral department is where they and their coach fell short.

Certainly agree with that - also agree that if the team with most amount of talent does not win, the blame should go squarely on the coach. A nice comeback from down 3-0 but what an embarrassment losing a game 7 by 20 on your home floor.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by esehombre

Certainly agree with that - also agree that if the team with most amount of talent does not win, the blame should go squarely on the coach. A nice comeback from down 3-0 but what an embarrassment losing a game 7 by 20 on your home floor.

not sure if any of the past 20 championship series, the cerebral department mattered by the coach....Bulls? Lakers? Pistons? Celtics.

This is very unique where basically every time heat win a series the opposing coach is talked about being fired or is fired... i agree this is and about the only time, coaching may of mattered and also you can see the Celtics sort of gave up when down in game 7 giving up many easy buckets they hadnt given up in the prior 3 games..

[todeen]

Originally Posted by BobC

No disparagement to Spoelstra, but how many think he owes a lot of his success to being under the wings of Pat Riley for all these years, and that he is to some extent an extension of Riley?

Coaching pedigrees are in every sport. Football is talked about all the time. Then look at Mark Few with Gonzaga. His assistants have gone to Arizona and Boise St and have garnered respect. Same with GMs, especially people under Epstein during his tenures in Boston and Chicago.

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[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by todeen

Coaching pedigrees are in every sport. Football is talked about all the time. Then look at Mark Few with Gonzaga. His assistants have gone to Arizona and Boise St and have garnered respect. Same with GMs, especially people under Epstein during his tenures in Boston and Chicago.

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agreed the Coaching tree is important and does help but it still takes the Coach to take it to the next level. Now all "assistants" and not all trees/pedigree work out.

Look at Bill Belichick and his Tree of assistants and it does not always work out. Considered one of the Greatest NFL coaches and yet his tree has failed

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/pat...l-head-coaches

[nolemmings]

I give Spoelstra all props and not to sound contrarian, but I see a bit of recency bias here. The Heat finished slightly over .500. They lost their first play-in game, then beat a sub-.500 team to advance, in a game they trailed at home with 2 1/2 minutes to go. Where was the greatness in all of that?

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

I give Spoelstra all props and not to sound contrarian, but I see a bit of recency bias here. The Heat finished slightly over .500. They lost their first play-in game, then beat a sub-.500 team to advance, in a game they trailed at home with 2 1/2 minutes to go. Where was the greatness in all of that?

The greatness is getting the most of his players and having never given up with all the adversity and to get to where they are at now in the Finals.
In addition the 2 championships and all those trips to the finals and sometimes with talent and other times like this year not as much talent and with so many undrafted players and older retreads that others gave up on

with that said i want them to lose and lose bad since they beat my team

[Peter_Spaeth]

My favorite anecdote about the relative roles of a coach and superstar is about KC Jones and Larry Bird.

In a critical game the Celtics were down 1 with a few seconds to go. On the sidelines KC is drawing up a play, and Bird says eff that, give me the effing ball. And of course that's what happened.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

The greatness is getting the most of his players and having never given up with all the adversity and to get to where they are at now in the Finals.
In addition the 2 championships and all those trips to the finals and sometimes with talent and other times like this year not as much talent and with so many undrafted players and older retreads that others gave up on

with that said i want them to lose and lose bad since they beat my team

I get all of that, and again, I like Spoelstra. But it remains that for 84 games his team was barely above average, and but for a last minute surge against the lowly Bulls a few weeks ago this team is playing golf.

To dovetail into Peter's comment, it was Jimmy Butler who willed that team to win Game 6, including what should have been the game-winning play that led to 3 free throws. One could argue that Spoelstra's decision to then double team the inbounds pass and thereby let the inbounder have a free path to the rim for the game winning put-back at the buzzer contributed significantly to the loss.

EDITED TO ADD: I guess my main beef is not with Spoelstra but with the NBA in general. IMO it is a sham to have an 82 game regular season only to have two-thirds of the teams still make the post-season where they can put together a run. Yes Spoelstra gets a whole lot out of his guys, but he didn't need to in order to finish in the top 10 of his conference, which is all that was required.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

To dovetail into Peter's comment, it was Jimmy Butler who willed that team to win Game 6, including what should have been the game-winning play that led to 3 free throws. One could argue that Spoelstra's decision to then double team the inbounds pass and thereby let the inbounder have a free path to the rim for the game winning put-back at the buzzer contributed significantly to the loss.

Oftentimes, when a coach/manager makes a call for some play or move, and the players execute as expected and they win, the players get most all of the glory. But other times when the same coach/manager makes a call for a particular play or move, and the players don't execute it as they should or were expected to and they end up losing, the coach/manager more often gets blamed for making the bad call/decision.