5 Reasons Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra Should Not Be Fired

With the Miami Heat ending the season in disappointing fashion, the media and the fans are looking for someone to point the finger.  Unwilling to rest the blame on their superstar idols, most have begun to point to head coach Erik Spoelstra as the reason for their championship series breakdown.  But here are five reasons that letting go of Spoelstra would be wrong and unwarranted.

1. He is a Kid

At age 40, Spoelstra is one of the youngest coaches in the NBA, but had expectations that were lofty even for an established head like Phil Jackson.  He is only in his third year as head coach, and for the first time, is in charge of a team that had potential to make some noise.  His first two season in charge saw him turn the Heat around and get them to the playoffs after some of the worst years in franchise history.  Many mistakes that he made have been under pressure in situations he is unfamiliar with and ones he will learn from for the future.

The very fact that he was able to improve the team by by 28 wins in his first season shows that he has the ability to be a great coach.  I'm not ready to deem him the next Red Auerbach, but his pedigree and training gives him the potential to amount to new level.  He is a prodigy of Pat Riley and must be something special if a coach of that stature hand picks him as his replacement.

Even the way he got to this spot proves his worth.  Beginning as a video coordinator with the franchise in 1995, he has steadily worked his way up the chain, earning the respect of the heads of the organization.  His ability to adapt and persevere gives him a unique advantage you don't see in many coaches.  There is no reason to suggest he won't adapt and persevere as a head coach.

2. It's not his fault

With all the ups and downs this Heat team has had throughout the year, in the end, they got further than most expected or wanted.  Some (if not most) of that is because they have three of the 15 best players in the league on their roster, but Spoelstra was still at the helm commanding the vessel.  And even though they suffered a meltdowns in Games 2 and 4 of the NBA finals, Spoelstra is not the one to take all the blame. 

It is not his fault LeBron James still cannot live up to his potential.  It is not his fault that Dwyane Wade lost the handle on an inbound pass in game four which would have been for a game winning three point shot.  It is not his fault Dirk Nowitzki had the series of his career.  It is not his fault that he was on the wrong end of one of the best three point shooting teams in NBA finals history.

 Had a few of those examples been reversed, we may be talking about one the great coaches on the rise.  We may be comparing him to his mentor Pat Riley.

3. The team?

Going into the NBA finals, it was hard to pick against the Heat.  They were on such a roll and cruising to victory in every series they played.  they had finally gotten over the hump and beat the Celtics and Bulls with relative ease.  But the Dallas Mavericks were different.  While the Celtics are full of aging stars and the Bulls a roster of young unrefined talent, the Mavs have a perfect mixture of both veteran leadership and youthful talent wishing to learn.

If you place the rosters of the Heat and Mavs next to each other, the Mavs always will come out on top.  Beyond the big three, the Heat are nothing.  Had it not been for the timely return of Udonis Haslem, they probably would not have made it as far as they did.  Rick Carlisle turned to his bench and saw 20 plus points in Jason Terry, an explosive point guard in J.J. Barea and a reliable back up center in Ian Mahinmi.  Spoelstra looked to his bench and saw nothing.  As much as the team may hate to admit it, they are not there yet.  They still lack a key component that any team needs to win a championship: depth.

Rick Carlisle exploited this by wearing them down. It is no coincidence that the Mavs won the fourth quarter in their four wins. Carlisle pointed out that the Heat's defense was reliant on getting out to the point quickly. They crashed on the ball almost as quickly as it got there.  But over the course of the game, they began to slow and the three point shots opened up.  Even machines like James and Wade can't run like that for a full 48 minutes.  They needed a rest, but Spoelstra had no one to go to.

4. Who's at the point?

This goes along with the idea that this is not quite a complete team yet, but is the one spot Spoelstra needs to address more than any. 

Their starting point guard Mike Bibby is 33 years old.  He has always been an okay player, but never anything special.  With his age catching up to him, he is beginning to be irrelevant.  The second choice PG is Mario Chalmers.  His youth and energy can stay with the pace of play better, but he does not have an eye for the game required of a champion PG, and his shooting is streaky at best.

In comparison to Jason Kidd, the numbers of the Heat's point guards do not even come close.  When you're the point guard on a team with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, you should be oozing with assists.  But instead, Bibby and Chalmers combined for an average of 5.8 APG for the season and 4.5 for the finals.  That pales in comparison to Kidd, who averaged 8.2 APG for the season and 6.3 for the finals.

Erik Spoelstra has the difficult task of designing plays without a point guard.  What made the Heat such a threat going into the season is the idea that there was no way to effectively guard all three at once.  But without a true point guard, one of them always has the ball, taking him out of the play as an away the ball threat and usually means he will start the play double teamed.

5. It's not easy winning Championships

On the Mike Lupica radio show the other day, Charles Barkley discussed how difficult it is to win a championship.  The hard reality is that Barkley is right.  John Stockton, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Reggie Miller, Pete Maravich and Barkley himself is a short list of some of the all time greats who don't have a single ring.  Just because this team was constructed to win doesn't mean they are going to.

It is equally hard to coach in a final as it is to win them.  Don Nelson, Jerry Sloan and George Karl are all hall of fame coaches, but won't be wearing any rings at their induction.  Spoelstra can be a successful coach statistically without ever winning it all.  It's more a question of how long the fans and media will allow him to go before that ring is required.  At any rate, he should not be penalized for not getting it in his first year he had a realistic chance.