Miami Heat: Is Erik Spoelstra the Right Coach for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade?

Erik Spoelstra is 100 percent the right man to be the head coach of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.

It's not because he's an incredible motivator or has an impressive basketball mind.

It's not because he has years of experience coaching superstars to NBA championships or dealing with players who have big egos like LeBron and Wade.

The reason why Spoelstra is the right man to coach the Miami Heat is because he has no idea what he's doing.  

In all reality, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade don't need a head coach who tries to impose his will on them, like Phil Jackson did first with Michael Jordan and secondly with Kobe Bryant.

LeBron and Wade just need a figurehead who is willing to take a fall for them when they fail and move out of the spotlight when they succeed.

Erik Spoelstra is that guy.

Sure, the Heat could be a better team if they had an NBA guru like Phil Jackson or Jerry Sloan leading the way, but they don't need a coach like that to excel.

In all honesty, LeBron and Wade make Spoelstra look like a much more competent coach than he actually is.

In clutch-time situations or even coming out of a timeout, Spoelstra never has a complex play drawn up.  He always ends up deferring to an isolation situation for either LeBron or Wade.  While that certainly works for the Heat half of the time, it makes you wonder if he actually is capable of developing offensive sets that work for the talent he has.

Spoelstra isn't the kind of coach who is going to set his team on fire during a timeout or in the locker room with a riveting speech or a motivational story.  That's not an issue for the Heat, though, because LeBron and Wade have assumed that role on the team.

It's clear that the Heat aren't Spoelstra's team.

The Heat are property of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and as long as that results in an NBA title at the end of the season, then it won't matter that Spoelstra isn't exactly the most confident and qualified coach in the NBA.

If the Heat's 2011-12 season ends via an early exit in the NBA Finals like it did last season, then it will be a different story in Miami this offseason when it comes to Spoelstra's future as the Heat's head coach.

Right now, Spoelstra is the right coach for LeBron and Wade, but that doesn't mean he's a competent coach.  It just means that LeBron and Wade are at the level where they don't need a coach telling them what to do.