Where does Erik Spoelstra rank all-time as a head coach?

[hawkfan]

Where does Erik Spoelstra rank all-time as a head coach?

[L.Kizzle]

Behind Avery Johnson.

[zoom17]

Behind Avery Johnson.

:biggums:

[jzek]

Behind Phil Jackson. PJ won because he always had the best player in the game. Spo is following in his footsteps.

[zoom17]

Behind Phil Jackson. PJ won because he always had the best player in the game. Spo is following in his footsteps.

Tim tebow is garbage:roll: :roll: :roll:

[97 bulls]

Behind Phil Jackson. PJ won because he always had the best player in the game. Spo is following in his footsteps.
My god. Who didnt do that? Auerbach? Tomjanovich? Riley?

[zoom17]

My god. Who didnt do that? Auerbach? Tomjanovich? Riley?

Erik spoelstra made pop gamble in game 6 and pop paid the price:oldlol: :oldlol:

[97 bulls]

Erik spoelstra made pop gamble in game 6 and pop paid the price:oldlol: :oldlol:
Spoelstra is a great Coach.

[K Xerxes]

Terrible coach. Heat win in spite of his incompetence, not because of his genius.

All he does is rotate between Wade and LeBron isos and hope they do the business. Most of the post season they had no actual offensive schemes implemented, and it almost cost them.

[Collie]

Alongside other acclaimed championship coaches like Paul Westhead, Larry Costello and Dick Motta.

[Nash]

I think he's very good

[zoom17]

Spoelstra is a great Coach.

He gets underrated alot

[Sarcastic]

He's up there. LeBron has never won without him.

[SamuraiSWISH]

Terrible coach. Heat win in spite of his incompetence, not because of his genius.

All he does is rotate between Wade and LeBron isos and hope they do the business. Most of the post season they had no actual offensive schemes implemented, and it almost cost them.
Thank You ...

But apparently resident ISH cheerleader, PJR tells me he's great.

[jzek]

Btw, Spo really isn't a coach... he's a glorified cheerleader. A true coach is someone like Coach K.

[midatlantic09]

With Spoelstra as coach, the Heat were a slightly above .500 team before Lebron and Bosh got there.

[SourPatchKids]

Terrible coach. Heat win in spite of his incompetence, not because of his genius.

All he does is rotate between Wade and LeBron isos and hope they do the business. Most of the post season they had no actual offensive schemes implemented, and it almost cost them.

iimplying there are better options than lebron iso

[I<3NBA]

He's up there. LeBron has never won without him.
:lebronamazed:

[HomieWeMajor]

Most Skilled Head Coach Ever !

[MisterAmazing]

Eddie Franklin was a better coach :pimp:

[ILLsmak]

He's up there. LeBron has never won without him.

nice one lol

Honestly, he's pretty mediocre. There are plenty in the game better. All time, he's not even in the discussion.

-Smak

[HiphopRelated]

With Spoelstra as coach, the Heat were a slightly above .500 team before Lebron and Bosh got there.
With second best players varying between Beasley and a broken down Jermaine O'Neal.

A better Beasley iis struggling to stay in rotations of lottery teams.

Lol @ saying the Heat plays iso of Bron And Wade...some people don't watch the best offense in the league

[JimmyMcAdocious]

If the Miami Heat win just 120 games in next 2 seasons, Spo's regular season record moves to 68.1%. That would be good to tie for the third highest winning percentage in NBA history, minimum 500 games coached. Only Phil Jackson (70.4%) and Billy Cunningham (69.8%) would have higher percentages. Popovich is currently at 68.1%, and obviously that could move up or down depending on how he finishes up his final season(s).

And be real, the Heat are going to have a higher average than 60 wins between 2014 and 2015. Make it a 65 average (completely plausible) and that moves his percentage to tie Billy Cunningham at 69.8%. Make it a 67 average (still plausible) and he's #1 in NBA history at 70.6%.

[knickscity]

I actually like Spo, I dont think he is great by any stretch, but he is definitely serviceable.

[RRR3]

He's up there. LeBron has never won without him.
LeBron has never won without Joel Anthony either. Joel Anthony HOFer :bowdown:

[3LiftHeatCurse]

He's up there. LeBron has never won without him.

uh oh

I hereby mark this moment as the first time someone used that insult on lebron. if the heat end up winning 6+ rings during lebrons run.... this is going to come up again.

[Bigsmoke]

He ok.

He is an asain Mike Brown or Scott Skiles. He just have offensive talent to overshadow his limited offensive iq

[Donkey4trading]

uh oh

I hereby mark this moment as the first time someone used that insult on lebron. if the heat end up winning 6+ rings during lebrons run.... this is going to come up again.

What about.. Lebrons never won w/o a former FMVP

OR

Lebrons never won without an 8x all star big man

Or

Lebrons never won w/o 2 all stars.

Or

Lebrons never won w/o a FMVP & 8 x all star big man on the same team

[Johnny Jones]

Most Skilled Head Coach Ever !
:applause:

Spo>>>>>>>>>>>>P- Jax............. Its Not Even Close

-Spo Is An Excellent Defensive Coach
-His Offense Is Incredible
- He Motivates Lebron And The Rest Of The Heat Team Very Well



Its Time To Apperciate The Greatness That Is Spo... :bowdown: :applause: :rockon: :banana: :pimp: :confusedshrug: :no: :eek:

[Johnny Jones]

He ok.

He is an asain Mike Brown or Scott Skiles. He just have offensive talent to overshadow his limited offensive iq
:no:

No Other Coach In NBA History Comes Close to Spo (Regarding his Skills)

[iamgine]

Where does Erik Spoelstra rank all-time as a head coach?
The same as Phil Jackson in 1992

[Collie]

If the Miami Heat win just 120 games in next 2 seasons, Spo's regular season record moves to 68.1%. That would be good to tie for the third highest winning percentage in NBA history, minimum 500 games coached. Only Phil Jackson (70.4%) and Billy Cunningham (69.8%) would have higher percentages. Popovich is currently at 68.1%, and obviously that could move up or down depending on how he finishes up his final season(s).

And be real, the Heat are going to have a higher average than 60 wins between 2014 and 2015. Make it a 65 average (completely plausible) and that moves his percentage to tie Billy Cunningham at 69.8%. Make it a 67 average (still plausible) and he's #1 in NBA history at 70.6%.

Mike Brown also had a ludicrous percentage prior to joining the Lakers. Shit, even now, he's at 65% winning percentage.

[CarlosBoozer]

Good coach, though sometimes he is slow to adjust.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

Mike Brown also had a ludicrous percentage prior to joining the Lakers. Shit, even now, he's at 65% winning percentage.

Ultimately coaches are defined by wins, losses, and championships. Say he does hit that 67 win average in the next two seasons and takes the sole spot on top of the regular win percentage list. Give Miami 1 more ring in that span, which I think is fair considering they just won back-to-back and the conjectural two seasons implies there is no drop off.

Spo's resume would look like: 394-164, .706 regular season. I'm too lazy to do the postseason numbers, but 3 NBA championships (maybe a 3-peat), and 4 or 5 NBA Finals appearances. Remember, this is in 7 total seasons as a head coach.

The fact is that there wouldn't many coaches with a better resume in the history of the game.

And I don't think he's a great basketball mind. Hell, I'm not even sure he's a good coach. But what else are you going to judge him by? Just because he was lucky enough to land in a great situation doesn't take away his (hypothetical) accomplishments. You could make a compelling argument to me that Larry Brown is a better coach than Phil Jackson and I might agree. I'm still not going to rank Brown above Jackson on my all-time list.

[rzp]

top 3 all time of the last 2 years for sure

[Flash31]

Mike Brown also had a ludicrous percentage prior to joining the Lakers. Shit, even now, he's at 65% winning percentage.

Mike Brown is agood defensive coach
absolutely atrocious offense though

and on the Lakerd besides Dwight and Artest
the team was beyond dreadful in defense

Spo is a great defensive coach average-above average offensive coach

He got Wade,Haslem and old washed ups and nobodies along with having Beasley to 45,47 wins and even top ten d once

The 1st year the big 3 were together they were playing my turn,your turn
as we see now Spo changed that completely
as well as improving the defensive philosophy and style

and 67% win in 7 yrs
come on
3 Finals Runs

If Spoelstra isnt a good coach
then neither is Phil Jackson
and Phil Jackson was lesshans on and involved than Spoelstra is

Jordan,Pippen,Rodman,Grant,Shaq,Kobe,Gasol
,Bynum
Thats surely some goat talent and good players there

[iamgine]

Ultimately coaches are defined by wins, losses, and championships. Say he does hit that 67 win average in the next two seasons and takes the sole spot on top of the regular win percentage list. Give Miami 1 more ring in that span, which I think is fair considering they just won back-to-back and the conjectural two seasons implies there is no drop off.

Spo's resume would look like: 394-164, .706 regular season. I'm too lazy to do the postseason numbers, but 3 NBA championships (maybe a 3-peat), and 4 or 5 NBA Finals appearances. Remember, this is in 7 total seasons as a head coach.

The fact is that there wouldn't many coaches with a better resume in the history of the game.

And I don't think he's a great basketball mind. Hell, I'm not even sure he's a good coach. But what else are you going to judge him by? Just because he was lucky enough to land in a great situation doesn't take away his (hypothetical) accomplishments. You could make a compelling argument to me that Larry Brown is a better coach than Phil Jackson and I might agree. I'm still not going to rank Brown above Jackson on my all-time list.
I don't know about that. At some point the way you perceive his coaching should factor into the equation.

Some people perceive Phil as the ultimate managing ego guy and motivator with a great triangle system in place. Therefore a great coach. Some view Spoelstra as a defensive coach with nice strategies but below average on coaching offense and not a good motivator. Therefore an okay coach. It would be like comparing Magic Johnson and Steve Kerr. Same number of ring but different perceived ability.

[I<3NBA]

people think talent will trump bad coaching.

lol. it takes less to fk up an all-time great team than to not fk it up.

[Flash31]

Ultimately coaches are defined by wins, losses, and championships. Say he does hit that 67 win average in the next two seasons and takes the sole spot on top of the regular win percentage list. Give Miami 1 more ring in that span, which I think is fair considering they just won back-to-back and the conjectural two seasons implies there is no drop off.

Spo's resume would look like: 394-164, .706 regular season. I'm too lazy to do the postseason numbers, but 3 NBA championships (maybe a 3-peat), and 4 or 5 NBA Finals appearances. Remember, this is in 7 total seasons as a head coach.

The fact is that there wouldn't many coaches with a better resume in the history of the game.

And I don't think he's a great basketball mind. Hell, I'm not even sure he's a good coach. But what else are you going to judge him by? Just because he was lucky enough to land in a great situation doesn't take away his (hypothetical) accomplishments. You could make a compelling argument to me that Larry Brown is a better coach than Phil Jackson and I might agree. I'm still not going to rank Brown above Jackson on my all-time list.



Larry Brown was a great coach
Those Pistons were great
and it wasnt like there was an elite superstar there
their d shut teams down

but
as is seen
Phil Jackson is higher than Gregg Popovich
11>4
winning trumps all
same way like
Dirk can be seen better than Barkley

[Flash31]

I don't know about that. At some point the way you perceive his coaching should factor into the equation.

Some people perceive Phil as the ultimate managing ego guy and motivator with a great triangle system in place. Therefore a great coach. Some view Spoelstra as a defensive coach with nice strategies but below average on coaching offense and not a good motivator. Therefore an okay coach. It would be like comparing Magic Johnson and Steve Kerr. Same number of ring but different perceived ability.


more like Magic and Rodman
5 rings

one motivates a team,gets them to play a system
fixed
the other went hard at d with whatever they had at the time
and used athleticism,smarts,talent to form the offense

[Flash31]

give phil jackson wade and 07-09 heat cast
seehow far he goes

Lakers got swept Phils last season
and lost in 2nd before that

[RRR3]

What about.. Lebrons never won w/o a former FMVP

OR

Lebrons never won without an 8x all star big man

Or

Lebrons never won w/o 2 all stars.

Or

Lebrons never won w/o a FMVP & 8 x all star big man on the same team
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=296152

It's so f'ing dumb when trolls completely change their shtick as if people can't find their old posts.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

I don't know about that. At some point the way you perceive his coaching should factor into the equation.

Some people perceive Phil as the ultimate managing ego guy and motivator with a great triangle system in place. Therefore a great coach. Some view Spoelstra as a defensive coach with nice strategies but below average on coaching offense and not a good motivator. Therefore an okay coach. It would be like comparing Magic Johnson and Steve Kerr. Same number of ring but different perceived ability.

Keeping my scenario for consistency sake, an okay coach doesn't win 4 championships in 7 seasons. This would not be Magic to Kerr, this would be Magic to Rodman. While, seemingly, one is clearly greater than the other, they are still both in the HOF.

Anyway, I'm not even arguing that Spo would rank as the greatest ever. All I'm say is that he should be considered as one if this scenario materialized. If coaches like Don Nelson, George Karl, and Jerry Sloan get pegged down because they haven't won the big one, why shouldn't Spo be risen for consistently winning it? Again I ask, what else would you judge him by? You can say he's not this, or is that, and that's fine. However, your assessment on what a great coach should be wouldn't disprove the numbers saying he's winning at an unprecedented rate, over what's growing to large sample size.


Heh, I didn't even read the other posts and Flash31 stole my Rodman line. By the way, your posting style is atrocious. Gives me a headache.

[iamgine]

more like Magic and Rodman
5 rings

one motivates a team,gets them to play a system
fixed
the other went hard at d with whatever they had at the time
and used athleticism,smarts,talent to form the offense
If you perceive Spo's ability that highly (or lowly?) then by all means.

[97 bulls]

give phil jackson wade and 07-09 heat cast
seehow far he goes

Lakers got swept Phils last season
and lost in 2nd before that
He had basically that in 95. Before Jordan came back

[JellyBean]

Behind Phil Jackson. PJ won because he always had the best player in the game. Spo is following in his footsteps.

:rolleyes: Oh my goodness. Anyway back to the topic. I would rank Erik Spoelstra somewhere between KC Jones and Red, not that Red!! Red Holzman that great Knicks coach who lead the Knicks to two NBA titles.

[NoGunzJustSkillz]

side by side with doc rivers.

[To4]

he is an ok coach.. but when sometimes when times is rough.. he will just throw

up Gang signs.. and hope for the best..:lol

[secund2nun]

Not a big fan of spo. He is average. He is a great defensive coach, but his game adjustments are severely lacking and he lacks on the offensive end. Also he does not discipline his stars and let's them play however they want.

But then again he has no actual big man, so I can cut him some slack.

[BoutPractice]

Right now he wouldn't get any consideration whatsoever at all as one of the all-time greats... but instinct tells me he might when it's all said and done.

After getting badly outwitted by Carlisle in 2011, he really grew into the job the last two years, which makes you think he's going to continue to improve. He started as a video guy, had no real coaching experience. Then he became a great defensive coach - the first thing you ask of a coach, as history shows it's much easier for a defensive-minded coach to come up with a working offense (as Popovich eventually did) than it is for an offensive-minded coach to turn into a defensive genius. Then he became, arguably, above average on the offensive end (granted, the "average" NBA offense in 2013 is nothing to be proud of).

His gameplan against the Thunder worked to perfection, but more impressive is how he battled Popovich, arguably a top 3 coach of all-time, to a strategic tie, such that the eventual outcome was entirely decided by luck and individual play (well, some will even say that the defining factor was an uncharacteristic mistake by Pop, so it wouldn't be blasphemy to say that Spo won the matchup). 2013 displayed a real pattern of adjustments and counter-adjustments, and Spoelstra showed good reactivity from one game to the other. It exemplified what I like about him: he's flexible. He adapts to the team he's coaching and to his opponent. The only thing he lacks is presence and charisma, but he commands more respect now that he's had so much success. Contrary to what some think, it's NOT easy to win with a bunch of stars. You can easily screw it up - just ask Mike D'Antoni. Not everyone could have done it, but he did, and the more they win, the more he's going to get praised.

[SpanishACB]

very hard to rank a coah on a league run by players

[Beatlezz]

Slightly above Magic Johnson.

[NoGunzJustSkillz]

Slightly above Magic Johnson.
:lol

[Spaulding]

Right now he wouldn't get any consideration whatsoever at all as one of the all-time greats... but instinct tells me he might when it's all said and done.

After getting badly outwitted by Carlisle in 2011, he really grew into the job the last two years, which makes you think he's going to continue to improve. He started as a video guy, had no real coaching experience. Then he became a great defensive coach - the first thing you ask of a coach, as history shows it's much easier for a defensive-minded coach to come up with a working offense (as Popovich eventually did) than it is for an offensive-minded coach to turn into a defensive genius. Then he became, arguably, above average on the offensive end (granted, the "average" NBA offense in 2013 is nothing to be proud of).

His gameplan against the Thunder worked to perfection, but more impressive is how he battled Popovich, arguably a top 3 coach of all-time, to a strategic tie, such that the eventual outcome was entirely decided by luck and individual play (well, some will even say that the defining factor was an uncharacteristic mistake by Pop, so it wouldn't be blasphemy to say that Spo won the matchup). 2013 displayed a real pattern of adjustments and counter-adjustments, and Spoelstra showed good reactivity from one game to the other. It exemplified what I like about him: he's flexible. He adapts to the team he's coaching and to his opponent. The only thing he lacks is presence and charisma, but he commands more respect now that he's had so much success. Contrary to what some think, it's NOT easy to win with a bunch of stars. You can easily screw it up - just ask Mike D'Antoni. Not everyone could have done it, but he did, and the more they win, the more he's going to get praised.

Nice post man.

Spo is a good coach and will get the respect he deserves when he wins multiple rings. At that point it would be silly to say the players carry him.

[bdreason]

I made a thread a couple years ago about how it's going to be weird ranking Spoelstra when it's all said and done because of the attention/hate that was focused on how the Heat came together.

Even if Spoelstra ends up with 4+ titles, I don't think people will ever give him the respect he probably deserves. It will always be, "well he just won titles because LeBron, Wade, and Bosh teamed up".

[bdreason]

His gameplan against the Thunder worked to perfection, but more impressive is how he battled Popovich, arguably a top 3 coach of all-time, to a strategic tie, such that the eventual outcome was entirely decided by luck and individual play (well, some will even say that the defining factor was an uncharacteristic mistake by Pop, so it wouldn't be blasphemy to say that Spo won the matchup).


I thought Spoelstra got thoroughly out-coached. Pop essentially tricked Spo and LeBron into not taking wide open midrange jumpers all series, until game 7. Listening to Spo post game 7 was borderline embarrassing; "LeBron is the best midrange jump shooter in the NBA, but those are the shots they wanted us to take, so we didn't want to take them".


huh? :oldlol:

[KyleKong]

Spo is treated like such shit on these forums and the media in general.

He was a great coach before the big 3 era and the fact that he is able to manage all those egos and still be a 2 time champion coach says a lot about his abilities.

[BoutPractice]

I thought Spoelstra got thoroughly out-coached. Pop essentially tricked Spo and LeBron into not taking wide open midrange jumpers all series, until game 7. Listening to Spo post game 7 was borderline embarrassing; "LeBron is the best midrange jump shooter in the NBA, but those are the shots they wanted us to take, so we didn't want to take them".


huh? :oldlol:
But the thing is, LeBron was not making those jumpers until Game 7, and he certainly was not comfortable taking them. That's on LeBron, not the coach. It's not like the Heat would have easily won had Spo just told LeBron to shoot every open midrange jumper... in fact it could've turned into a disaster of epic proportions. The two teams tried a lot of different things, enough to make it clear that they were evenly matched. To say that it was actually a lopsided series Spo somehow almost managed to lose would be revisionism.

[plowking]

Honestly, hes a good coach. I guess I'll have to break it down a bit more than that...
Great defensive coach. And by that I mean that he can use the pieces of a team and make them a great defensive team, no matter what players he has at his disposal. Even without any great rim protectors he made us one of the better defensive teams in the league prior to the big 3.
On offense, average. Contrary to popular belief, he is actually great at drawing up single plays out of a timeout. Just running an offense that works throughout the course of the game is his problem. I think he gives his players poor direction as far as offense goes. This might be due to not having the respect of all the players on the team, as Wade and Lebron at times are full of themsevles, and I'm sure this can rub off on the team.

All in all, a good coach, who keeps getting better.

[Kiddlovesnets]

He's the worst head coach to ever win a title, and there are also head coaches like Sloan, Adelman way better than him too. I'd say he's not a top 50 head coach.

[I<3NBA]

He's the worst head coach to ever win a title, and there are also head coaches like Sloan, Adelman way better than him too. I'd say he's not a top 50 head coach.
duh! RINGZZ!!!! he's already way better than the ringless guys.

[gts]

He's a solid coach, blessed with talent.
He's still learning his craft, it will be interesting to see what he can do when he doesn't have the same tools to work with

[boozehound]

Where does Erik Spoelstra rank all-time as a head coach?
last?

[hawkfan]

last?

Last?
His biggest mistake was when they played Dallas and he kept putting Bibby out there, when Bibby couldn't defend anyone at that point. He should have played Chalmers, but then again he was probably forced to because both he and Riley were concerned about David Falk (Bibby's agent).

[G-train]

Last?
His biggest mistake was when they played Dallas and he kept putting Bibby out there, when Bibby couldn't defend anyone at that point. He should have played Chalmers, but then again he was probably forced to because both he and Riley were concerned about David Falk (Bibby's agent).

Chalmers played more than Bibby, and at that point Chalmers was a very questionable performer.
The David Falk comment is absurd.

[G-train]

As I have maintained on this site for years, Spo is a good coach.
Firstly he is an insanely hard worker.
Secondly he is a great defensive coach.
Thirdly he has more pressure on him than any coach ever, and I don't say that lightly. Lesser men would have succumbed to the pressure.
Fourthly he has to adjust his strategies to Pat's roster philosophy.
Fifthly how can you call a coach poor offensively when he has 2 ball dominant mega stars and shooters? It's a players league, he has to loosen the leash a fair bit. Yet I would say their offence has been pretty successful.

[joshwake]

He ranks probably 1st as the luckiest rookie coach, basically handed a championship team his first year.

Honestly he is pretty average as a coach.

[I<3NBA]

He ranks probably 1st as the luckiest rookie coach, basically handed a championship team his first year.

Honestly he is pretty average as a coach.
his first year, he was handed a rebuilding team.