The Official Fire Spo Topic

[HIF]

That's the way most coaches do a TO. the players go and wipe down and drink then listen to what the coaches say. Stop seeing things that are not there.

Pat Riley was defensive minded and he won a few games - in fact I'd be surprised if any of the true coaching greats of all time would have more than a W or 2 this season.

[Flash4thewin]

To be fair ive been calling for his head since last season but the playoffs showed hes basically coaching with one hand tied behind his back. Sadly i fear Wade is the one pulling the strings with Pat letting Wade do what ever he wants to help facilitate Wade signing this offseason. Deep down inside Spo probably knows hes a dead man walking the second we get another elite player on this team kinda like Stan when we got Shaq.

All last season Spo was trying to sell us on the BS idea that Beasley was such negative defensively it suited the team for him to play limited mins off the bench. Then in the playoffs come do or die, put up or shut up time he puts his so called worst defensive player in the game and plays him for long stretches.......It was the only chance we had to win but Beasley was so miss used all season and it was to little to late and we lost against the hawks. If Spo really believed the BS he was saying about Beasley all season being such a negative to the court he would have never played him, and he even played him out of position at sf as a rookie never playing that position in his entire life.

[Heat_team02]

Things Spoelstra can do to improve the team.

1) Get Beasley the ball early and often. I know he likes going to O'Neal early which I agree with but when O'Neal gets doubled it should be moved around to Beasley. Get more half court plays drawn up for him. Let Wade score his later on since he usually starts slow anyway.

2) Get Beasley the ball late in games. When Wade gets doubled teamed the ball should work it's way back to Beasley.

3) If a team is getting to the basket too easily then Haslem is not the man to have on the floor. Anthony should be there to force opponent adjustments to outside shots creating more opportunities for misses.

4) Activate Chris Quinn and test his productivity to that of Chalmers. This is an experiment that I think should take place at some point. I personally feel more comfortable watching Quinn shoot & handle the ball than I do watching Chalmers and Quinn at least tries to stay in front of his man. Also give Magloire 10-12 minutes.

5) More motion in the offense and cuts to the basket off screens. Do we ever fast break anymore?

[Miami's Finest]

Maybe some of you are happy b/c of our wins and losses, which hasn't improved even though this is supposed to be a better team than last year. But those that get to actually watch the games see why Spo is the worst coach in the NBA.

Please someone tell me what he does good. He has never made an in-game adjustment, routinely gets outcoached, his subbing patterns make no sense, and player development is non-existent. Our offense goes cold way too often (give the ball to Wade for 1 v 5 basketball) and we still have players fighting over defensive rotations.

It's a joke to think that anyone can defend a video editor that has no experience in way over his head, that refuses to learn from his mistakes and has made everyone on the roster worse.

[HIF]

FYI

I watch EVERY game.

[heat4life]

I see we have a lot of unemployed coaches posting on these boards, ready to guarantee us a better coaching job than Spoelstra...

I agree with BFO with most of what he says. We ARE an average team; we have little talent on our roster with players that might not give two craps about playing for a team that will dispose of them at the end of the year.

I don't think Spo is perfect. He coaches like a 2nd year coach would. Substitutions and rotations (along with the refs) are things fans always complain about even if we were the best team in the league. Fans always think they can "do" or "know" better during a game.

Some of the things Spo does I question myself but I will never pretend to be someone who knows what happens in a huddle, a timeout or the practice floor; hence why I will not call for his head. IMO, he's done a decent job with what he has and should be judged once he gets a set of players that require him to win more than he has so far. We just don't have those players yet. We are an average team.

[Chessboxer]

Does anyone see a similarity with this situation as MJ with Doug Collins? They had to get Phil Jackson because Collins was too friendly with MJ, and had no control over him. I think Wade and Spo have a similar relationship, and it means Wade isn't really being coached.

Interesting take, and Its certainly possible. I mean it was Riley who had to call out Wade a couple of weeks ago to step up. Usually thats something the coach would do, that usually doesn't come from the GM.

But we are not in the lockeroom and Spolestra may have said it, we just don't know as wer'e not privy to that information.

[DWadeno3]

I see we have a lot of unemployed coaches posting on these boards, ready to guarantee us a better coaching job than Spoelstra...

I agree with BFO with most of what he says. We ARE an average team; we have little talent on our roster with players that might not give two craps about playing for a team that will dispose of them at the end of the year.

I don't think Spo is perfect. He coaches like a 2nd year coach would. Substitutions and rotations (along with the refs) are things fans always complain about even if we were the best team in the league. Fans always think they can "do" or "know" better during a game.

Some of the things Spo does I question myself but I will never pretend to be someone who knows what happens in a huddle, a timeout or the practice floor; hence why I will not call for his head. IMO, he's done a decent job with what he has and should be judged once he gets a set of players that require him to win more than he has so far. We just don't have those players yet. We are an average team.

What annoys me the most is that we have no variety in our offense. Did you watch the Hornets game? He kept running these pick & rolls with Wade even though they took him out of the game and Wade was the only guy who was really making shots that night so taking him out of the game ourselves is probably not the smartest thing to do. And you don't even have to be a coach to see that.

[Iputsomepantson]

To those who continue to wonder what coach would fit, I'm going to continue to stress Byron Scott. The guy has showtime roots with Riley first of all. Secondly he has shown that younger players can thrive in his system, even mixed with veterans (chris paul, david west, and chandler mixed with Peja and mo pete and kenyon martin and richard jefferson mixed with kerry kittles kidd and mutombo). While third, he has shown he can manage all-star personalities (see some of the players above).

Is Scott a long term solution at coach? No. He will probably last only 5 years max. But we need some new blood at coach to pep things up. Sort of like the Marlins did when they hired Jack Mckeon to win the world series. We don't have another Riley, Poppovich, or Jackson in Spo.

On another note: It wasn't a bad idea putting him in as coach, but he just doesn't have the ability to push our players and it's been shown that he has NO system in place. Our offense is kind of like the colts offense in that it's give wade/peyton the ball and do whatever he says. Only the problem is, Wade is no PG and we don't have reggie wayne and dallas clark doing damage on the other end of his passes.

[Iputsomepantson]

In addition to the last rant I just posted, I just wanna say it's not a matter of wins or losses right now as to why we should fire Spo. Wade is almost good enough on his own to beat teams like the Knicks, Pacers, and Wizards and the Heat just aren't good enough to beat teams like the Spurs or Mavs.

The problems I see are when: 1) your star player comes out flat and is arguably having the worst season of his CAREER, after the best season of his career, 2) ALL of our young players are regressing in their development, 3) the environment is becoming cancerous, and 4) your team shows horrible inconsistency.

Beasley said it best when he talked about this team either getting too high or getting too low. Spo needs to change that. I'm not expecting the guy to work miracles here, all I'm asking is that 1) he keeps the environment professional, 2) he gets the same performance night in and out of his players, and 3) at least one of the players we plan on keeping past this season develop into a core component of our team, in particular Beasley.

If we lose a few more games because of Beasley's mistakes oh well. But right now what I see from Spo is that he has no control of the team and Wade has no idea how to win with the players of our future. That does no bode well for the future of this franchise.

[BFO]

Byron Scott? Are you kidding me? He has been run out of town at every stop. He'd be lucky to last a year or two in my humble opinion.

I do agree about our offense. There is a lot of standing around watching which is kind of dumb considering we don't really have any other creative players other than Wade. I think with some faster ball reversals with Beasley and Wade on the wings we could see some good looks, but that is dependant on the player at the top being a reliable 3p shooter to keep the D stretched, and a reliable post presence to keep the D from overplaying, again, something we don't have. We are also limited with our running game due to the fact that JON can't keep up, and Joel stinks as the secondary break.

It is a little unrealistic to say that Spo doesn't have a complete playbook; he does, it just stalls when Wade decides to go iso or when there's a breakdown; our guys don't seem too good at broken plays.

And as for fast break points? Fast breaks are primarily created by good defense. Watch Philly get on their breaks, half of them are triggered by Dalembert blocks, same as San Antonio. We don't have a reliable shot blockerto create that. We also have a team with two new starters, we are missing rotations on D and not adjusting in-game as we could be. This stuff takes time to come together. I guarantee you our best games this season has been when we have held our opponents to a low score due to our D. It takes time, we have only played 30 odd games together.

Oh and the Phil Jackson analogy is wrong. Phil took over a team on the brink of a Championship run. Our team is literally on the brink of being blown-up to accomodate one or two FAs. Not even close.

[Flash3]

^Agreed on your last point, adding a Jackson or Riley will make a minimal difference, neither one of them is going to make us title contenders as the team is currently. We are lacking the players and the quality of players more so than anything right now, and it's showing.

[Miami's Finest]

In addition to the last rant I just posted, I just wanna say it's not a matter of wins or losses right now as to why we should fire Spo. Wade is almost good enough on his own to beat teams like the Knicks, Pacers, and Wizards and the Heat just aren't good enough to beat teams like the Spurs or Mavs.

The problems I see are when: 1) your star player comes out flat and is arguably having the worst season of his CAREER, after the best season of his career, 2) ALL of our young players are regressing in their development, 3) the environment is becoming cancerous, and 4) your team shows horrible inconsistency.

Beasley said it best when he talked about this team either getting too high or getting too low. Spo needs to change that. I'm not expecting the guy to work miracles here, all I'm asking is that 1) he keeps the environment professional, 2) he gets the same performance night in and out of his players, and 3) at least one of the players we plan on keeping past this season develop into a core component of our team, in particular Beasley.

If we lose a few more games because of Beasley's mistakes oh well. But right now what I see from Spo is that he has no control of the team and Wade has no idea how to win with the players of our future. That does no bode well for the future of this franchise.

I agree with all of your points, especially #2 every guy looks worse under him. It's not about wins and losses but Spo has done nothing to show he's capable of being an NBA coach.

Up 19 against a 1-14 road team and we lose by 10. Once Larry Brown made his adjustments, we had no answer. And nobody can tell me we don't have enough talent to beat Charlotte.

[dflash3]

^Good points. I know the Heat aren't going to improve by much even if a coach of Riley's caliber is added, but Spo hasn't shown any ability to make adjustments. I overlooked the way he managed his rotation since last season, but he hasn't improved at all since then. At this point his most redeeming quality is that he is supposed to have learned everything he knows from Riley.

[BFO]

We aren't exactly a great "home" team either.

You can't tell me Beasley isn't a better player than last year.

Chalmers; well, have we ever been convinced he is more than a serviceable back-up?

Cook; as Ira pointed out today, perhaps his hot streak last season was the abberation, not the current slump he is in currently.

Wright; finally not injured, jury has always been out on him. Probably will only ever be a handy back-up.

Not sure what everyone expected of them. Did I expect Cook to go on with it, sure. But he is a shooter, he is getting open looks, he just isn't knocking them down. Spo even runs plays for him to get him going. Not sure what else you want Spo to do.
Beasley is much more assured this year and seems really confident understanding the defensive rotations, even though he is far from perfect. To me that is a great sign, and will translate throughout his career.

Spo has done nothing? So arguably one of the top GMs and all-time greatest coaches of our time promotes someone who is crap? Seriously, give Riley some respect.

[Wade2k6]

^Agreed on your last point, adding a Jackson or Riley will make a minimal difference, neither one of them is going to make us title contenders as the team is currently. We are lacking the players and the quality of players more so than anything right now, and it's showing.

Adding a Jackson or Riley would make a minimal difference? Is that a joke? First off, both of them are some of the greatest coaches to ever coach this game, and two of the best basketball minds of the last few decades. They would instantly improve this team because they would both demand effort and respect from every single one of the players night in and night out (not the half- ass ball that Wade is playing, and wouldn't allow constant bickering between teammates like we've been seeing lately when they go through a rough stretch).

Yes i agree we are lacking players, but so is a team like the Houston Rockets, but you don't see them coming out inconsistently every other game. They have a very good coach there and he's getting the most of his players, something both Riley and Jackson would do (and Spo can't). I'd say if we had Jackson or Riley for the entire season thus far we'd have another 3-5 wins and wouldn't come out nearly as flat some games. They wouldn't turn the Heat into contenders, but I think both of them would get the most out of the players that are on the team, something Spo isn't doing.

And plus, having a great coach here would certainly make it more enticing for the big name players come the 2010 off-season (mainly LeBron, Bosh, and Amare). Who in their right mind would rather play for Spo then Riley or Jackson?

[DWadeno3]

This team goes where Wade goes, we all knew that before the season. Wade has decided to be a diva and not give it a 100% this season because his supporting cast has not improved that much. He's our team and the reason why we're in mediocrity again is because he's not playing at his highest level. The supporting cast improved a little bit and with a Wade playing at his best we might have a chance to win some more games but that's about it. A new coach won't change too much about it. The only thing a new veteran coach could bring is to wake him up and probably try to involve Beasley better. Next year is the year when we need a very good coach so I hope Riley has a plan because otherwise we have a problem, no matter how good the team will be.

[Iputsomepantson]

Byron Scott? Are you kidding me? He has been run out of town at every stop. He'd be lucky to last a year or two in my humble opinion.

A player of the caliber we need will not sign with us if we don't already have a good coach behind us. Byron Scott may not be great, but I think he's better than Spo and gives us a better shot at high caliber players. You obviously disagree.

Anyways, there's no need to try to make everyone look stupid with your "are you kidding me" and "your idea is wrong" stuff, just express your ideas. We all coo.

[Heat_team02]

Byron Scott would be a start along with making assistants out of Jamal Mashburn (can coach post moves & footwork) & Mitch Richmond (can coach shooters on getting open & offensive flow) if they were up for it.

[Iputsomepantson]

Spo has done nothing?

The problem with Spo and our young player development is effort in particular. In fact, effort is lacking from the whole team, not just our young players. Maybe Chalmers, Cook, Beasley, and even Wright are right where they should be given their talent, but this whole season I've noticed the team in general has been lacking effort.

For example, today the reason why we lost was not because of talent, but because we were outcoached and outhustled.

Few outcoach Larry Brown though, so I'm not gonna rag on Spo for that. But if you disagree that we weren't hustling today, all you gotta do is look at the stats. They shot 15 more FT's than us, they shot over 50% while we didn't, and most importantly, we shot 24 3 pointers.

****************************** IPSPO Breaking Fact Report *******************************
Why are 3 pointers most important? Teams in general take 3 pointers when they want an easy basket and are not hustling. The average amount of 3 pointers attempted by a team in a game this year is about 17. In games we shot 17 or less 3 pointers we are 13-6. In games we shot 18 or more 3 pointers we are 3-9 (2 of those 3 wins came while shooting significantly less threes than the opposition and the 3rd win was a 1 point miracle win against the Nets).
******************************************************************************************************************************

If you think Spo couldn't demand more out of our players today, you would be mistaken.