Miami Heat Hot Seat: Will Erik Spoelstra Finish the Season as Head Coach?
LeBron James brought his talents to South Beach.
Dwyane Wade stayed in Miami instead of going home to Chicago.
Chris Bosh came to the Heat to get out of the Toronto cold.
The stars have been assembled. A supporting cast has arrived. But does Miami have the bench leader, the head coach to take advantage of this unique opportunity to make basketball history?
The results of the 2010-11 season present some strong evidence that they do not.
Erik Spoelstra's rise to becoming the head coach of the Miami Heat is nothing short of a tale that could easily be turned into a Hollywood script.
Spoelstra grew up around the game because his father, Jon Spoelstra, was a long-time NBA executive who guided the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Buffalo Braves and New Jersey Nets.
Spoelstra was the four-year starting point guard for University of Portland, earning West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 1989.
After spending a couple years serving as a player/coach overseas, Spoelstra was hired by the Heat as their video coordinator. After two years, he was named assistant coach/video coordinator, then promoted to assistant coach/advance scout in 1999. He became the assistant coach/director of scouting in 2001.
He was a part of Pat Riley's coaching staff when the Heat won the 2005-2006 NBA championship.
When Riley stepped down from coaching and into the front office, Spoelstra was promoted to the head coaching position.
At the time of Spoelstra's hiring, Riley said:
"This game is now about younger coaches who are technologically skilled, innovative and bring fresh new ideas. That's what we feel we are getting with Erik Spoelstra. He's a man that was born to coach."
With the Heat's uneven performance this season, does Riley still feel the same? Is he confident that the 40-year-old "man in charge" is capable of harnessing and directing the talent and the ongoing hype that surrounds the Heatles?
Going into this season, Spoelstra's 90-74 record in two seasons at the Heat helm was respectable. And their current 43-18 mark for the 2010-11 season would be considered outstanding, if it were any other team with any other collection of players.
But this is the Miami Heat that, as constructed, was supposed to be the next dominating dynasty.
Their current run of losing three of their last four games, no doubt raises some serious concerns of whether or not Spoelstra can right the ship and utilize the abilities of LBJ, DWade and CBosh.
And it doesn't get any easier coming up.
The Heat's next stretch of games looks interesting:
- March 4 @ San Antonio
- March 6 Chicago
- March 8 Portland
- March 10 Los Angeles Lakers
- March 12 Memphis
- March 14 San Antonio
- March 16 Oklahoma City
Without knowing the feelings in the front office or the line-of-thinking in the locker room, it's hard to predict whether or not Spoelstra will finish out the season.
Does he have "Miami Thrice" on his side?
Could or would the five-time NBA Championship coach (Riley) return to the sidelines for another post-season run?
The smart money would say that if Riley was going to make this move, he would have already done so.
But if this current slide turns into an avalanche, can Riley just stand by?
It's hard to imagine that one of the most successful coaches in NBA history would remain behind the scenes and allow this season to disintegrate before our very eyes.
