Coaching isn’t everything in the NBA. Star players drive the league, but it's clear as day when a team is overseen by a coach who has the goods. There may be no better example of what good coaching can do for a team than when the Miami Heat toppled the Milwaukee Bucks in this strange season's NBA Playoffs. Hello there, Erik Spoelstra.
With that upset as their ally, the Miami Heat and head coach Spoelstra may have an advantage over everyone else left in the bubble.
On the Locked On Heat Podcast, host David Ramil explains why he thinks Erik Spoelstra is the best coach left in the NBA Playoffs.
David Ramil: Look, Spoelstra with two championships, four runs to the NBA Finals, who ranks up against what he's been able to accomplish and the way that he's been able to accomplish it? Are the other coaches still left in the bubble as great a communicator Spoelstra is?
Look, Spoelstra has his faults, every coach does. But when you look at Stevens; when you look at Nick Nurse — who's a great innovator and seems like a fun person to play for; when you look at Rivers, you know Doc as much as he's beloved he's also as disliked by some players around the league, he is not everybody's cup of tea. Mike D'Antoni (is) limited to some degree. Maybe a brilliant mind regarding his offense and the kind of freedom that he allows players to enjoy. Not as great a planner as everybody makes him out to be. Frank Vogel, a very good coach… he’s appeared at times over his head in Indiana and Orlando. I always liked him as a person. I think he's very personable and friendly. I don't know that that necessarily makes him a great coach; and Michael Malone, similarly.
I think they're all very good coaches. You don't get to this point without being a very good coach — well, maybe Jim Boylen notwithstanding — but these all these seven remaining coaches are all very, very good. I have to say that Erik Spoelstra is probably the best among them not just for his ability to communicate, but his ability to make the decisions to bond with high level players like LeBron and Dwayne and Chris Bosh, but also to reach out to players like Duncan Robinson that are just finding their footing here. And I think every coach has to do this to some degree. Some do it more than others. But Eric just does a very, very good job of being able to reach everybody communicate with everybody, get everybody on the same page, and that's just an extension of the heat culture and everything else.
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