*Updated: All of the below is true except for two tiny details. Erik Spoelstra was not the genius of the game. He didn't coach. He missed it for the NBA's COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Assistant Chris Quinn coached the team last night. And PJ Tucker was out. So basically the entire post is wrong in attributing the agency of the bricoleur to anyone, but clearly to Spoelstra. The lineup and rotations appear to be by force of necessity with no genius insight.
4/4, 10:32 a.m.
The Miami "Heat" introduced a new alternative uniform this season, one that took font styles and design elements from different of the team's eras and pasted them together. They call the uniform the "Mashup" and it works.
Erik Spoelstra did something last night that I had never seen him do previously. Missing Jimmy Butler and PJ Tucker from the new standard starting five Spoelstra didn't just pick two replacement spare parts, he played pick up sticks, threw all the pieces on the floor, picked up five and mashed them together to form an entirely new team. Markieff Morris and Caleb Martin were made starters and Victor Oladipo, who had become as little used as U.D., was a key reserve. The Mashup roster worked. Spoelstra had a sense that this lineup would mesh effectively but Toronto had no clue, and no way to prepare for the Miami Mashup team. What film is there of a Morris, Martin, Lowry, Adebayo and Strus starting five? How to prepare for Oladipo playing 27'? Neither had ever been tried before.
Surprise, and the concept of "15 strong"--faith in the whole roster, which goes back to the 2006 championship team--are part of Miami "Heat" Culture too. Guys picked from other team's scrap heaps, plucked from G-League rosters or not playing at all--Hassan Whiteside, James Johnson, Dion Waiters, Meyers Leonard, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent--are given cameo roles and opponents are caught unprepared. In the best case, Robinson, the new guy shows himself so lethal that he becomes a marquee as a starter. Opponents have to learn about him on the fly. In the worst case, Robinson too, opponents do learn the newbie's game and team play becomes too predictable. But when it is fresh and shiny, unseen and untested the hidden gem glitters.
The Miami Mashup was a new look, a different look, and like the uniforms it looked good last night. In my view it was Erik Spoelstra's finest coaching performance.
