Miami Heat: You're Fired! Pat Riley Must Take Reins from Erik Spoelstra
The Miami Heat experiment is going awry.
More and more the situation is becoming one that can't be fixed by the inexperienced apprentice, but rather the master himself. At this point, I'd consider Pat Riley as the professor of a chemistry lab and his student/mentor (Erik Spoelstra) conducting the championship experiment with three powerful chemicals (Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh).
We are 17 games into the Dream Team experiment, and Erik Spoelstra is in a deep mess. Sure, no one can blame him because he doesn't have the necessary materials (Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller) to finish the job, but that's no excuse for a 9-8 start.
Deep down, Pat Riley knows he wanted to coach this team. But he couldn't just pull another Van Gundy because of the great opportunity that presented itself. Riley would have preferred to have been the architect of the empire, not the worker trying to build it.
The Zen Master felt he knew what was going on and had this to say about the situation earlier in the week:
“The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene,” Jackson said Tuesday on a radio show after the Heat got off to a 8-6 start, “is that eventually these guys that were recruited [Bosh and James] by Pat Riley and Micky Arison, the owner, are going to come in and say, ‘We feel you [Riley] can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the hopes that this would work.’ And whatever, I don’t know. That’s kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don’t straighten out here soon, it could be the Van Gundy thing all over again.”
We are entering the stretch where history can repeat itself, five years later. This week, the Heat are facing the division rival Washington Wizards (5-10), Detroit Pistons (6-10), Cleveland Cavaliers (7-9) and Atlanta Hawks (10-7). (All records as of Sunday morning.)
By this time next Sunday, the Miami Heat will have played 21 games, the same amount of games Stan Van Gundy coached in 2005 before "resigning" as head coach.
You could call this week the most critical point in the Heat's season, in terms of how it ends up shaping them for the long run. Why? Well after a players-only meeting after a loss to the Dallas Mavericks, videos popping up of LeBron bumping Erik Spoelstra after a timeout and the ongoing media pressure, another losing streak by the Heat could cause an internal explosion that starts at the head-coaching seat.
The Heat are getting their fair share of "easy opponents" this week with Washington, Detroit and even Cleveland, but if the team were to lose any one of those games (especially LeBron's return to Cleveland), things could get a whole lot uglier.
Spoelstra can't ignore the rumors, and neither can Riley. They know what's going on, and it's looking like the foam from the experiment is caving them in. This "foam" is the media, fans, players and critics.
The bottom line in a worst-case scenario, depending on who you ask, is that I don't expect Erik Spoelstra to get fired by Riley. But if Riley returns to the sidelines, it'll be more a demotion for Spoelstra, who will simply have to stay with the Heat in a lower capacity.
Dissecting The Bad
At the end, many might say nobody, even Riley, can coach this team to success. But a closer look at this team shows that they are taking too many perimeter shots versus a handful of high-percentage shots in the paint.
Dwyane Wade should not be taking three-pointers (.255 percent, 12 for 47) and neither should LeBron James (.262, 16 for 61). If there is any reason why both are shooting the worst percentage of their careers, it's because they aren't taking it to the rim like we are used to seeing them.
Another ugly stat: Wade is shooting .705 percent from the charity stripe this season, a career low and a long way from the career 77 percent shooter he is when taking foul shots.
When glaring into the Heat's lack of an inside game, one shouldn't blame it on their lack of quality centers but that they haven't been coaching their stars to take smart shots.
All the three-point shots should be left to Carlos Arroyo (.619), Eddie House (.400), James Jones (.405) and Mike Miller when he returns, plain and simple.
The Sports World's Hottest Head-coaching Seats
The funny and depressing thing, if you're a Miami sports fan, is that there seems like there is no light on the horizon. In fact, all of South Florida's major sports teams (Florida Marlins, Miami Dolphins, Florida Panthers, Miami Heat and Miami Hurricanes) might very well be with a new head coach by this time next year.
The Florida Marlins have Edwin Rodriguez on a one-year leash right as they enter their new stadium in 2012 and have been rumored to be targeting Ozzie Guillen.
Miami Dolphins' head coach Tony Sparano has been recently placed on the hot seat and could be out if the team finishes the season poorly. Many big-name coaches could take over, such as Bill Cowher, Jon Gruden or Tony Dungy.
The Florida Panthers' Peter DeBoer is in his third season of coaching the hockey team but could also get canned if they finish outside of the playoffs yet again. The Florida Panthers are the NHL's version of the Pittsburgh Pirates, suffering a record playoff drought.
The Miami Hurricanes just fired Randy Shannon and are with an interim head coach who is almost certainly going to be replaced by another established head coach who can get the team to a BCS bowl game.
And of course, the Miami Heat, who if they finish without a title by season's end will almost certainly have a new head coach by this time next season. It may not be Pat Riley, but any head coach out on the market would love the challenge and prospects of coaching the Miami Thrice.
