How much blame does Erik Spolestra deserve for the Finals loss?

[Kidbasketball20]

I' say 65%

Despite making 4 finals appearances:

He could not make the proper changes to not get blown out in the last 3 games. Pop thoroughly outcoached him.


You can tell LeBron isn't thrilled with him as a coach.

[SpecialQue]

None. He coached them to four finals appearance and two wins. What the fvck can he do when two of his stars randomly start playing like ass and no one else that he puts on the floor bothers to deliver?

[LogicalFan]

None. He coached them to four finals appearance and two wins. What the fvck can he do when two of his stars randomly start playing like ass and no one else that he puts on the floor bothers to deliver?

A lot of things. I'm no coach, but he didn't change his defensive gameplan in order to adjust to the Spurs offense. They could've switched to a zone to try and negate the effect of their ball movement (they kept trapping, and you can't trap a team that keeps swinging the ball). I know that's their defensive scheme, but at a certain point you have to adjust. Manu on NBA TV last night attributed the Mavs defensive adjustments throughout the series to the reason that series went 7 games.

He could've stopped camping Bosh at the 3 pt line.

If I were him, I would've put Haslem on Diaw instead of Duncan. He's a pretty mobile guy and could help get on him.

[hawksdogsbraves]

Pop coached circles around him, that's not saying much though.

He's not a good coach, average at absolute best. Wade's body failed him, yes. But he did nothing to get Bosh involved, didn't have his team playing with any competitive fire, and couldn't figure out any semblance of a rotation.

Why did he stop playing Beasley completely after the first part of the season, (when Beasley played really well?).

He's not a good X's and O's coach, he's obviously not a good motivator, (seriously, do you think anyone on this team respects him?) so what's left? He's coasted to 2 championships on LeBron's back, without the Decision he'd already be out of the league.

[Goldrush25]

None. He coached them to four finals appearance and two wins. What the fvck can he do when two of his stars randomly start playing like ass and no one else that he puts on the floor bothers to deliver?

Coach them?:confusedshrug:

Part of a coach's job is managing egos.

[Rose'sACL]

he should have run more plays for bosh instead of wade. He also should have had beasly in game whenever heat were struggling to score. a guy like Pop would have made wade come off the bench and forced him to practice a lot of threes given that his body can't take the pounding of driving to the basket for most of his points

[DJ Leon Smith]

A lot of things. I'm no coach, but he didn't change his defensive gameplan in order to adjust to the Spurs offense. They could've switched to a zone to try and negate the effect of their ball movement (they kept trapping, and you can't trap a team that keeps swinging the ball). I know that's their defensive scheme, but at a certain point you have to adjust. Manu on NBA TV last night attributed the Mavs defensive adjustments throughout the series to the reason that series went 7 games.

He could've stopped camping Bosh at the 3 pt line.

If I were him, I would've put Haslem on Diaw instead of Duncan. He's a pretty mobile guy and could help get on him.

You can't just switch to a zone and expect it to work if you've never really used it much before - plus you can't play a pure zone in the NBA with the defensive three second rule anyway. If you thought the Heat's D got shredded now, they would have got obliterated if Spo asked them to play a form of defense they'd never (or rarely) practiced or used before.

[tomtucker]

alot......wade and chalmers were fat and slow, still got lots of playing time..................and where the fukk was oden and beasley, no way they could be any worse then birdman,wade,chalmers etc.

[Xoush]

he should have run more plays for bosh instead of wade. He also should have had beasly in game whenever heat were struggling to score. a guy like Pop would have made wade come off the bench and forced him to practice a lot of threes given that his body can't take the pounding of driving to the basket for most of his points

Ye but that wont happen.

[ProfessorMurder]

:oldlol: at that dude saying they should've played zone.

Spurs shot 47% from three against good contests, and he wants to sag off of them and open up more.

[Rubio2Gasol]

Alot.

He needs to light a fire under Lebron's ass.

[jayfan]

He should have gone to Beasley earlier in the series.

[Inactive]

alot......wade and chalmers were fat and slow, still got lots of playing time..................and where the fukk was oden and beasley, no way they could be any worse then birdman,wade,chalmers etc.Wtf would Oden do in that series? He's too slow to switch, or trap p&r, he's too slow to close out on shooters, and he's not athletic enough at this point to recover and block shots against a good interior passing team. The only thing he's potentially good for is defending low post scorers who are too big for Andersen and Haslem. Duncan and Splitter can't back down Andersen, so Oden's strength wouldn't matter.

Beasley doesn't shoot well enough to fit into their offense, and he's constantly getting lost on defense. The only reason to play him is to get back into the game when you're down big, and Lebron is on the bench.

[Goldrush25]

he should have run more plays for bosh instead of wade. He also should have had beasly in game whenever heat were struggling to score. a guy like Pop would have made wade come off the bench and forced him to practice a lot of threes given that his body can't take the pounding of driving to the basket for most of his points

He wouldn't do any of that because he's scared of Wade. He doesn't have the rep to pull any of that off.

[LogicalFan]

You can't just switch to a zone and expect it to work if you've never really used it much before - plus you can't play a pure zone in the NBA with the defensive three second rule anyway. If you thought the Heat's D got shredded now, they would have got obliterated if Spo asked them to play a form of defense they'd never (or rarely) practiced or used before.

If they've never practiced anything except one scheme, then that's a big fail. I've seen plenty of teams switch up looks during the course of a game, but only saw one approach from Miami. You practice different looks throughout the season. The heat just blitz over and over and over, hoping their speed and athleticism (from 3 years ago) would prevail.

[jayfan]

Wtf would Oden do in that series? He's too slow to switch, or trap p&r, he's too slow to close out on shooters, and he's not athletic enough at this point to recover and block shots against a good interior passing team. The only thing he's potentially good for is defending low post scorers who are too big for Andersen and Haslem. Duncan and Splitter can't back down Andersen, so Oden's strength wouldn't matter.

Beasley doesn't shoot well enough to fit into their offense, and he's constantly getting lost on defense. The only reason to play him is to get back into the game when you're down big, and Lebron is on the bench.

Beasley would have at least changed their look offensively by putting someone in the post/on the block who can score.

[tmacattack33]

Very much.

LOL at him randomly inserting Beasley into an NBA Finals close out game after not giving him any minutes all year. And He kinda did the same with Battier.

Also lol at him starting Ray Allen and playing him for so many minutes, and running so many plays for him. Miami waiting for Ray Allen to run around and get open (and failing almost every time) killed about ten seconds off the clock on about 25 of their possessions yesterday. No joke.

[Jailblazers7]

I would have been less aggressive hedging and doubling on pick and rolls. They were just hitting Splitter and Diaw on the roll every time and the result was either an insanely difficult rotation or a wide open skip pass for 3. I would have been a lot more ok with going under on the screens or a light hedge against the screens and trying to make them shoot off the dribble.

[Meticode]

:oldlol: at that dude saying they should've played zone.

Spurs shot 47% from three against good contests, and he wants to sag off of them and open up more.
In any case he could've at least tried to see what effect it had on the ball movement. Totally discrediting it thinking it wouldn't work is premature thinking.

The fact is that Spo didn't make any major changes until game 4 finally putting Haslem in, but that was towards the end of the game. Chalmers played like absolutely ass every single game and he didn't take him out of the rotation until the elimination game. The Spurs were fine and Coach Pop made changes before Spo did who were on their heels (by putting Diaw into the starting lineup)

[ripthekik]

None. Not really his fault.