Eric Spoelstra

[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.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by BobC

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.

True but that play was not the fault of any Heat player. It is unrealistic to expect him to chase the inbounds pass and get a hand up on the shooter and then pivot, sprint, find and box out the man who inbounded the ball. The shot was well defended and the player did as he was told. The play backfired, and if there is blame for that, it falls on the coach.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

True but that play was not the fault of any Heat player. It is unrealistic to expect him to chase the inbounds pass and get a hand up on the shooter and then pivot, sprint, find and box out the man who inbounded the ball. The shot was well defended and the player did as he was told. The play backfired, and if there is blame for that, it falls on the coach.

True, but the double-teaming of the inbounds pass, wasn't that supposed to stop the inbounds pass from being made in the first place? If so, there wouldn't be anyone to have the defender have to run back and get a hand in the face of. Also, is it at all possible that one of the other players was supposed to have come up to help defend on such an inbound pass as well?

I did not see the actual play, but understand how that call looks like a dumb idea, especially since it didn't work. My point is that had the call worked, the players who executed it would have been praised for a great job, and virtually no one would really be praising Spoelstra at all for having called to do it. Meanwhile, since the players could not execute the stopping of the inbound pass on the called double-team, many people, just like you, are putting virtually little to no blame on the players, and laying it on Spoelstra. You've just demonstrated exactly what I was saying. LOL

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by BobC

True, but the double-teaming of the inbounds pass, wasn't that supposed to stop the inbounds pass from being made in the first place? If so, there wouldn't be anyone to have the defender have to run back and get a hand in the face of. Also, is it at all possible that one of the other players was supposed to have come up to help defend on such an inbound pass as well?

I did not see the actual play, but understand how that call looks like a dumb idea, especially since it didn't work. My point is that had the call worked, the players who executed it would have been praised for a great job, and virtually no one would really be praising Spoelstra at all for having called to do it. Meanwhile, since the players could not execute the stopping of the inbound pass on the called double-team, many people, just like you, are putting virtually little to no blame on the players, and laying it on Spoelstra. You've just demonstrated exactly what I was saying. LOL

You actually might want to watch the play before making such remarks. The play was designed to deny the ball to Tatum, which in fact happened. The ball went to Smart, whose defender made it tough or impossible to get off a good shot, and an off balance shot was hoisted. There was no one to follow and cover the inbounds passer. It was designed that way. It was executed that way. It failed that way.

EDITED TO ADD: One thing seems certain-- Coach Spoelstra will really be put to the test in this Series. He has shown he has the ability to put together a winning plan, and yes, it would help immensely if his players could execute that plan. Still, this puzzle will be a tough one to solve.

[nolemmings]

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