Spolestra

[Andresrenee]

People are starting to see the truth. See the attached article. Right on point with respect to the shortcomings of Spolestra. Riley clearly stated that he needed to reinvent himself.

Jason Whitlock on what LeBron James should do - ESPN

 

[bksballer89]

That's a terrible article. Offense wasn't the Heat problem. The defense was the issue.

 

[bksballer89]

Only 1 other team was more efficient than Miami this season

 

[bksballer89]

You can't compare the Heat system to the Spurs. The Spurs doesn't have 2 players as good as James & Wade (on some nights) on offense.

You also can't compare the last pick in the first round and a early 2nd round pick to a lottery or top 20 pick in Leonard. Let's not forget that Chalmers and Cole are Point Guards, not a small forward like Leonard is.

This article is flat out retarded. What a waste of 5 minutes I'll never get back.

BTW Cole numbers are almost identical to last year but he regressed right?

Chalmers didn't regress either. His numbers improved all across the board from last season. I'll take 10 PPG & 5 APG on 45% shooting from the field and 38% from 3.

This guy is freaking clueless.

Both players just had bad postseasons but both players had good regular seasons but neither guy could ever get it going in the playoffs.......IT HAPPENS

 

[Andresrenee]

Not in the finals, 87, 86 and 92 points in the finals against a Western Conference team won't cut it and did not cut it. We lost those 3 in a row. In 3 of our 4 games against OKC where we won, we scored 100 points in the 2012 finals. In 3 of our 4 wins in the 2013 finals, we also scored 100 points. The issue for us was In The finals. Posted the article to get Paula going on his beloved coach.

 

[bksballer89]

Not in the finals, 87, 86 and 92 points in the finals against a Western Conference team won't cut it and did not cut it. We lost those 3 in a row. In 3 of our 4 games against OKC where we won, we scored 100 points in the 2012 finals. In 3 of our 4 wins in the 2013 finals, we also scored 100 points. The issue for us was In The finals. Posted the article to get Paula going on his beloved coach.

The offense was not the issue in terms of blaming Spo. Guys had shots they should hit. How many open shots did we miss? Wade missed a ton of bunnies. When you allow 104+ points in 4 of 5 games, you're probably not winning that series. As a coach you can't go out there and hit the shots for the players. All you can do is do everything in your power to make sure your guys are getting quality looks.

You do realize San Antonio was one of the best defensive teams in the league right? The only teams who had a better DEF EFF were the Pacers, Bulls, and Warriors. They play in the West with a ton of explosive offensive teams and finished 4th while we play in the east with a lot of garbage offensive teams but finished 11th.

SAS shot 59 % 2X, 57%, & 47% but it's not the defense fault right? The one game that we held them to close to our season avg in opp fg% we won. You're not winning a series when a team shoots nearly 60% 3 times in 5 games.

If our defense was better it would've led to us having more success on offense.

 

[hockey878]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IakSy1cO9ss

Defense was the problem. Not only wade. But there were many more efforts like in the video above. just casual jogging.

if you want to beat the spurs you need to be sharp defensively all the time.

 

[bksballer89]

No doubt. You can't allow a team to shoot nearly 60% 3 games in a best of 7 series and expect to win.

 

[bksballer89]

I think once we bring in younger/more athletic players we will see an improvement in our defense. The defense had a bad year even though they showed flashes of that Miami Heat defense from previous years.

This year we finished 11th in DEF eff.
Last year we were 7th
2012 we were 4th
2011 we were 5th

The last 2 years our defense been off. We need to get back to playing Miami Heat defense as we did in 2011/2012

 

[Logicallylethal]

Like Pat Riley said in his exit interview..."everyone needs to get a grip"

The offense is far from the problem. Can it improve? ...of course, but that's not even close to being the reason why we lost in the Finals

1) Losing Miller and the steep decline of Battier had a huge effect on our depth on defense.
- It took away 2 wing players that can guard multiple positions and hit the 3 and forced us to play Rashard more...who was good on offense and good on defense against Indy...but not so great on defense against San Antonio

2) Dwade's lack of burst, decline in health, and lazy defense in the Finals.
- There's an 11 minute video clip on how bad Dwade's defense was in the Finals and man it was atrocious. So many open looks from 3s and easy baskets inside were a) because Dwade got blown by on the perimeter causing frantic rotation and help from Miami defenders and b) because Dwade was lazy getting up the floor causing mismatches or 4 on 5 situations that San Antonio quickly took advantage of before he was able to get back into position


If we add some younger wing players (Ariza!) who can defend next year and ease Lebron's minutes a bit in the regular season we will be back contending for a title again. Barring another match up with San Antonio, I see us having a great chance at winning #3 in the big 3 era. Bosh showed us in the final two series that he was ready for the #2 role. I see him averaging 21-22 ppg next year. He has those capabilities, he just needs the touches consistently and the confidence.

 

[hockey878]

Like Pat Riley said in his exit interview..."everyone needs to get a grip"

The offense is far from the problem. Can it improve? ...of course, but that's not even close to being the reason why we lost in the Finals

1) Losing Miller and the steep decline of Battier had a huge effect on our depth on defense.
- It took away 2 wing players that can guard multiple positions and hit the 3 and forced us to play Rashard more...who was good on offense and good on defense against Indy...but not so great on defense against San Antonio

2) Dwade's lack of burst, decline in health, and lazy defense in the Finals.
- There's an 11 minute video clip on how bad Dwade's defense was in the Finals and man it was atrocious. So many open looks from 3s and easy baskets inside were a) because Dwade got blown by on the perimeter causing frantic rotation and help from Miami defenders and b) because Dwade was lazy getting up the floor causing mismatches or 4 on 5 situations that San Antonio quickly took advantage of before he was able to get back into position


If we add some younger wing players (Ariza!) who can defend next year and ease Lebron's minutes a bit in the regular season we will be back contending for a title again. Barring another match up with San Antonio, I see us having a great chance at winning #3 in the big 3 era. Bosh showed us in the final two series that he was ready for the #2 role. I see him averaging 21-22 ppg next year. He has those capabilities, he just needs the touches consistently and the confidence.

I posted it two or three posts earlier!

Also agree that ariza is the guy we need to add. He can allow wade to really just be a short burst Ginobili type guy

 

[anotheridiot]

Never liked Spolestra, his look during the finals was deer in the headlights. Pat Riley needed to take a seat next to him on the bench. Wade and James are the player coaches on this team.

Riley knows exactly what he has, with Spolestra "only" making 3 million after so many years of service, two decades in the organization. Kerr, Fischer, Kidd never coached before and started at 5 million.

 

[Logicallylethal]

Hearing word that Afflalo is on the trading blocks. I like his all around game. He can handle the ball, spot up and shoot, create his own scoring opportunities, and plays good defense.

 

[bksballer89]

Never liked Spolestra, his look during the finals was deer in the headlights. Pat Riley needed to take a seat next to him on the bench. Wade and James are the player coaches on this team.

Riley knows exactly what he has, with Spolestra "only" making 3 million after so many years of service, two decades in the organization. Kerr, Fischer, Kidd never coached before and started at 5 million.

All of them are overpaid. Spoelstra is a good coach even before the big 3. He led the 2010 Heat who only had Wade and a bunch of garbage to 47 wins. He can coach. My issue with him is the substitution patterns.

He has outcoached Rivers (multiple times), Pop, and Brooks in the playoffs during his current tenure.

The defense need to improve by getting younger players. As I said before you can't blame Spo for guys missing wide open shots and failing to close out on shooters and poor rotations.

Blaming Spo is useless.

 

[bksballer89]

Kerr, Fisher, and Kidd got their contracts for 2 reasons.

1) Desperate organizations looking to make a splash.

2) When you hire someone within the organization you're not giving them a ridiculous contract. Spo next contract should be around there

 

[Heatles84]

Jason Whitlock is one of those talking heads trying to cause controversy. He was convinced that the Pacers would dethrone the Heat the last two seasons. He also called himself an exceptional athlete while at Michigan St. (he was an O-lineman) and would never have cramped up when Lebron did in game 1.

Lastly, he's also trying to cheapen Miami's titles. The Spurs were the better team. Two titles out of four years while going to four straight Finals is hardly underachieving.

Spo still has some growing to do as a coach. But the Spurs were just flat out better.

 

[Heatles84]

And I agree with you guys as well. Whitlock stated that defense doesn't win titles, offense does. The Spurs did nothing different this year then last year. The fact is, our defense never got into it's groove. I don't have a link, but for the last 10 years (at least), every title winning team has had a defense in the top 10 in the league.