"...we'll have to endure another season...of the defense will take care of the offense so we don’t need to run or practice elite NBA offensive schemes, another season where the Xs & Os don’t matter much because all we need is player effort. And all because Erik Spoelstra... can do no wrong."-- Javier, Doral.
[Thank you, Javier from Doral for your excellent points. They don't practice different offensive schemes? Ira, is that true?]
"Practically this entire roster is built on Erik Spoelstra's concepts [of position-less basketball], that these players work for this team because they work in Spoelstra's system. Take away Spoelstra's approach...and you suddenly have a roster that largely would leave you asking how any of this fits. Beyond that, it is difficult to envision this franchise moving toward anyone who isn't a Pat Riley acolyte as long as Riley is around. So, to me, coaching change (not that I am in any way suggesting such) would most logically come at the point when you are ready to blow up the roster and move on from the Riley tenets of Heat Culture and Heat Nation and all the other dogma that has defined the operation for these past 20-plus years. That would have to come from the Arison level. And that doesn't seem any time soon. That is why I've steered from such speculation, for the same reasons why I don't address questions of the Heat trading for James Harden, Steph Curry or Anthony Davis. I just don't see the point or need."
[Thank you, Javier from Doral for your excellent points. They don't practice different offensive schemes? Ira, is that true?]
"Practically this entire roster is built on Erik Spoelstra's concepts [of position-less basketball], that these players work for this team because they work in Spoelstra's system. Take away Spoelstra's approach...and you suddenly have a roster that largely would leave you asking how any of this fits. Beyond that, it is difficult to envision this franchise moving toward anyone who isn't a Pat Riley acolyte as long as Riley is around. So, to me, coaching change (not that I am in any way suggesting such) would most logically come at the point when you are ready to blow up the roster and move on from the Riley tenets of Heat Culture and Heat Nation and all the other dogma that has defined the operation for these past 20-plus years. That would have to come from the Arison level. And that doesn't seem any time soon. That is why I've steered from such speculation, for the same reasons why I don't address questions of the Heat trading for James Harden, Steph Curry or Anthony Davis. I just don't see the point or need."
Am I reading this correctly that Harden, Curry, or Davis would not "fit" the "Heat Culture," Spoelstra's "concepts"?
I'm not giving up on Hassan Whiteside, even though he really doesn't fit into Erik Spoelstra's offense. Hopefully Spoelstra won't be so stubborn, but rather play to Whiteside’s strength. -- Joel.
I'm not giving up on Hassan Whiteside, even though he really doesn't fit into Erik Spoelstra's offense. Hopefully Spoelstra won't be so stubborn, but rather play to Whiteside’s strength. -- Joel.
To me, as we wait for the "intervention" that is never going to happen (or the trade that might happen), this is the simplest of all Heat offseason decisions. Pat Riley asks (if he hasn't already) Erik Spoelstra if he intends to play Hassan the 30 minutes a game that Riley said he would prefer. If Spoelstra, and this is where candor is essential, says no, then at least the front office knows where it stands with player and coach and can move forward accordingly.
Oh. Riley is not going to do the intervention between Spo and Hassan that he said he was going to do in his end of season presser? Riles eats punkins? His underpants are in flames?
