No blow or black|6 finals, 2 championships, 0 best coaches? Spoh's good NBA can't be seen
When the Heat made it all the way to the Finals, they were facing the Nuggets, who were already waiting for them at the top. Compared to their Eastern Conference rivals, the Nuggets appear stronger and more inexplicable. If the Heat have a chance to beat the Nuggets, it's Spoelstra.
Since becoming a Heat coach in 2008-09, this is the sixth Finals trip of Spoo's coaching career, and Spall has won two championships in the first five times, and coincidentally, all five Finals trips are related to James.
Despite winning six Eastern Conference championships, Spoh has never won even one Coach of the Year in his coaching career. He was never welcomed in the vote because of stereotypes that existed since the days of the Big Three.
When Spall became head coach, he faced an almost heavenly start. He became the head coach of James, Wade and Bosh in his third year, and with such a lineup, four Finals appearances and two championships seemed a matter of course.
But these people never know how hard it is to put a superstar together on a team, and Nash should now be able to appreciate the difficulties that Spall faced back then. The difference is that Nash failed and Spall succeeded.
Coaching more than one superstar, you have to "force" them to do the role player's job. Basketball is not a game where you do one round and I do one round to win, and as a rookie coach, Spoe has to challenge the authority of a superstar, which is never an easy job.
When James and Spall reunited in the Finals in 2020, James gave Spall a very high rating: "Unfortunately, he doesn't get the respect he deserves. Some people always say, 'Well, you've got LeBron, you've got Wade, you've got Bosh, any coach can do that,'"
"No, no team coach can do it. If any coach can do that, then this league will have more championships and there will be more successful coaches. ”
Although James and Spall have had conflicts after being exaggerated by the media, in a sense, Spoh is the one who makes James better. He forced James out of his comfort zone to try things that would take him to the next level, and then he had Thanos Jen in the 3.0 period.
In the latter Big Three, Spall became the absolute backbone of the Heat, and in 2016 he reached the Eastern Conference semifinals with the Heat. Before Butler's arrival, the Heat had always been a force to be reckoned with in the East.
Wade retired in 2019, and Spall brought the Heat to the Finals a year later; He was just one win away from the finals last season, and then this year he led his team from the play-offs to the finals. Of course, fans talk more about how tough Butler is than how good Spall is.
Most fans focus on the individual performance of the stars, and will not notice how uncomfortable the Heat's joint defense strategy makes the Celtics, nor will they notice that Spall dared to send Shanghai Smith, a lost draft, and broke Tatum not long after playing.
One of the characteristics of Spoh's coaching is his strong on-the-spot command ability and the courage to use new people. The reason why the Heat's undrafted draft can play is of course inseparable from their own efforts, but it is also thanks to Spoo's knowledgeable and good use.
Spoh now has 108 playoff wins, fifth all-time, and four more wins to surpass Rivers (111), with Phil Jackson (229), Pat Riley (171) and Popovich (170).
Given Popovich's age and Kerr's full start, I think Spoh is the best manager in the league at the moment. Spoh's origins are not simple, his grandfather is president of the Baseball Writers Association, and his father spent many years as an executive in the NBA.
But Spo's NBA coaching career began as a video analyst for the Heat, cutting films and analyzing players on the computer every day. He went all the way from editor to scout, from scout to assistant coach, and finally to Riley.
This year marks Spoh's 15th year as head coach and he has been underestimated along the way, proving his ability along the way. When Spall finally inducts himself into the Hall of Fame, he will surely receive a much higher rating than he does now.
In the locker room after seven games, Spall contributed what was arguably the best chicken soup of this year's playoffs, saying: "When things don't go the way you want, don't give up and keep going, you're going to suffer and suffer until you get everything you want." ”