Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra Earned an Extension, Not a Pink Slip

The "Fire Spo" crowd does not understand the masterful job Miami HEAT head coach Erik Spoelstra performed last season, during both the regular season and the playoffs.

Results of a poll at the Sun-Sentinel Miami HEAT blog show that the majority of respondents think Erik Spoelstra should be fired. The headline for the blog post with the poll was, “Why not greater inspection of Spo’s failings?” The simple answer is there cannot be a great inspection of little failure.

The paragraphs below recap Spo analysis from articles published during the playoffs and regular season.

2011 Regular Season:

According to a post by Arturo Galletti from the Wages of Wins Journal, Spo was the fourth-best coach in the NBA last season when it came to correlation between players’ minutes per game and their wins produced per 48 minutes. Doug Collins, Tom Thibodeau and Gregg Popovich ranked higher than Spo in the regular season.

Eastern Conference, First Round: 

Spo gave 76 percent of available minutes to the top six HEAT players, while Collins only gave 68 percent of available minutes to the top six 76ers. Advantage goes to Spo.

Eastern Conference Semifinals: 

Spo gave 84 percent of available minutes to the top six HEAT players. Doc Rivers gave 80 percent of available minutes to the top six Celtics. Advantage goes to Spo.

Eastern Conference Finals: 

Spo gave 76 percent of available minutes to the top six HEAT players and Thibs only gave 64 percent of available minutes to the top six Bulls. Advantage goes to Spo.

NBA Finals: 

Spo gave 81 percent of available minutes to the top six HEAT players and Rick Carlisle gave 84 percent of available minutes to the top six Mavericks. Advantage goes to Carlisle.

The numbers say Spo was a strong coach until the very end. Does it really make sense for the HEAT to lose a good coach just because the Dallas Mavericks' coaches told Brian Cardinal to play like a hockey goon?