In the first game of the Eastern finals, when Cainiao coach Ma Zula was still struggling with whether to use the twin towers or to swing five, plus confrontation or plus shooter, spoolstra took out a complete set of offensive and defensive strategies and rotation routines, beat the Celtics 123-116 away with the Heat to win the opening ceremony and home court advantage in the Eastern finals.
In this round of series, Celtics have the upper hand in height, depth and talent. One of the great advantages of the heat is that their manager has stronger coaching ability.
Taylor-Croal can’t play Victor-Oladipo. There are actually so many cards that spoolstra can use. He can only start with details if he wants to change. Spoolstra did it. In the first game, the tactics and execution at both ends of the heat attack and defense crushed the Celtics.
2023 was a good year for famous managers. Devin-Cayce, Budenholzer, Monty-Williams, nasus and Doug Rivers have all finished class. They have all won the best manager of the year. Against the background of peers, the light of spoolstra was more dazzling. Ironically, spoolslat has not won the best manager award so far.
As Riley gradually downplayed his influence on the heat, the soul of the heat culture has gradually become spoolestra. Perhaps the next godfather of the heat is him.
What exactly is “heat culture”? Even members who once worked for overheating fire have different understandings. But through hard work to challenge the limit, this one is the key to the Heat culture.
Old Mai Lowry, Vincent, Strous and coreb Martin, who were born in the talent show, each scored 15 points in the first game of the Eastern finals. With Lowry’s age and Strous’s background, there is no secret for them to come to this position. It is nothing more than to practice hard and break through the limit with a professional attitude beyond ordinary people.
The death turn-back training in the Riley era made countless players feel scared. Quentin Richardson joined the first training class of heat and was vomited. The story of being asked to wear knee pads before training may seem incredible to other teams, but it is common in heat. In the words of former Heat assistant Greamfizz Dell, training is a battle, and the training intensity must exceed the actual combat competition, so as to play well.
Spoolstra inherited Riley’s severity. Last month, former Heat player Josh Richardson shared a story eight years ago. It was a day off. At that time, Richardson, who was still a rookie, came to the stadium to practice casually. Just right, spoolstra was also there. He arranged a training for Richardson: he shot 100 three-pointer shots at 10 points and must hit at least 70.
Sounds simple? Richardson only entered 57 in the first training, but did not meet the standards. In exchange, he returned 5 times. Richardson thought to himself, “XX! This is a rest day. What is he thinking?”
After running the turn-back run, Richardson did shooting training again, and this time he entered 63 or 64. Spoolstra said, “run again and turn back.” After Richardson ran out with resentment, spoolstra cursed and threw the ball to Richardson. In the third shooting training, Richardson entered 69, which was very close to the standard. Richardson thought it was OK. Spoolestra shook his finger. At that moment, Richardson was mad, but he could only continue to turn back and run.
In the fourth shooting training, Richardson finally reached the standard. Spolestra was satisfied and said, “You did it! You have to remember that you can’t come to the training hall to throw the ball casually. You have to challenge yourself. You have to do this every day.”
The most important thing for spoolstra is tactical innovation. In the early days, spoolstra was just a staff member on the ground floor of the hot fire. He wanted to help the coaches take clothes and walk the dogs. His office was a storeroom without windows, and everyone called that room “dungeon”. Spolslat edited countless video analysis in this room and promoted from the bottom staff to video analyst and teaching assistant step by step.
In 2007, the heat was swept out by the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs. At that time, Riley, who was the Heat coach, was exhausted. He told spolslat that he was “ready (to take over)” and spolslat thought Riley was just joking. In the 2007-08 season, the Heat only won 15. After the season, General Riley was handed over to spoolestra.
Spoolstra did a good job. After the Heat ushered in the formation of the three giants, Lebrom James and Chris Bosh, spoolstra encountered the first major crisis in his coaching career in the 2010-11 season. His handsome position once faced challenges, the Heat defeated the finals and pushed him to the forefront.
After the Heat lost the sixth game at home, spoolstra didn’t go home that night. He blamed himself for failing to maximize the role of the three giants and failing to come up with strategies to deal with the counterattack of the Lone Ranger, the next morning when Greamfizz Dale came to the stadium, he saw Spolestra with red and swollen eyes and a gaunt face.
After crying, spoolstra was not immersed in pain all the time. He didn’t want to experience failure any more. The two hid in the office on the first day after the failure in the finals to study the adjustment of offensive and defensive tactics. In just a few hours, they completely revised the original tactical book of the heat.
During the off-season, spoolslat also went to the University of Oregon to study football team training. After learning from Chip Kelly, spoolslat brought back the concept of “high-speed decentralized attack” to Miami. After that, it was history. The heat was two consecutive championships.
Spoolstra has proved that he can bring not only super teams but also civilian teams. Even at the stage when Riley was full of tricks, spoolstra could keep the heat competitive. In the last four seasons, the heat has never won the top talent players, but the Heat still entered the division finals three times. Compared with Spolestra, rivers, Budenholzer and Monty did not know how much luck they were, but their luck did not translate into results.
In the interviews and programs after the end of the season, Cole and Raymond Green all mentioned the influence of green boxing Poole incident on Warriors. From the conflict between Green and Durant to the conflict between Green and Poole this season, Warriors always tried to cover up such incidents, which was also criticized by Green and Durant. But the heat is different. Spoolstra neither avoids nor escapes. He is willing to solve the problem clearly whether it is the contradiction between players or the disagreement between generals.
Therefore, the differences between spoolstra and James and Wade in the era of the three giants, the disputes between spoolstra and Adebayor and Butler in recent years, and the conflicts between Haslem and Butler have all been exposed to the world.
“His idea is that if you want to achieve your goal, you must cross the flames and spread out the problems on the table.” Greamfizz Dell said.
Another former Heat assistant, Rotstein, also said, “This is like marriage. When problems arise, you will make them fester, which will only make the situation worse. Face the problem, maybe you still have a chance to correct it.”
In Hasham’s words, the members of the heat had no overnight hatred. After quarrelling with Butler, he would still drink and play cards the next day.
Spoolstra has never played in NBA, but the “player coaches” hold the heart and spoolstra will. After receiving an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated in 2014, spoolstra pushed off numerous interview applications. He didn’t want the spotlight to focus too much on himself and steal the limelight of his disciples.
In the eyes of the Heat player, he is the most human coach. When he removes Martin’s starting position, he will send a text message to explain and appease Martin. Lowry has no complaints about changing the substitute this season.
In 2019, spolslat invited the mother of the rookie Chris Silva to Miami to watch the ball. At that time, Silva had not seen her mother for three years. That scene really touched countless people.
In 2022, Oladipo’s daughter was born. Spoolslat prepared a bunch of children’s clothes and sent them to Oladipo’s home. Oladipo lamented that Spolestra not only regarded them as disciples, but also taught them to live.
The heat understood that at present, they only won the 1st game of the Eastern finals. Last year, they also won the 1st game but lost the seventh game to the Celtics. The Who will win the prize of the series is still unknown. Now it is not the time to celebrate. However, the most important thing for the heat is confidence. And a large part of this confidence is due to the Spolestra bottom.
“We know that the outside world thinks we have no chance, but in our own eyes, we can compete for the championship,” Martin said, “as long as we are with Spolestra, we always believe that we have a chance.”