Erik Spoelstra joins Popovich and Sloan as the only coaches with 800+ wins for one franchise
Erik Spoelstra just picked up career win No. 800 tonight.
He’s now:
Erik Spoelstra in my (biased) opinion is the runaway COTY this year.
Yes, teams like the Pistons and Raptors are overperforming their pre season expectations, thanks to coaching no doubt. But Erik Spoelstra is running the most unique offense in the 2020s, completely abandoning PnR and Screen actions in favor of fast pace ISO kick and drives until the team gets a good look. And it’s working — the Miami Heat have the #1 pace offense while also being a top 3 defensive team still.
The Heat might be a top 2-3 seed without a single top 20 player on the roster, all thanks to Spos Democratic spread-the-ball ISO offense he’s running.
Additionally, nearly every single player on the Heat are overperforming with this new scheme.
Norman Powell is averaging 25ppg as the 2nd most efficient scorer in the league, behind Jokic. Bam Adebayo has been runaway the best ISO defender in the NBA, allowing just 0.7 points per possession. Tyler Herro — although only 2 games played — continues to improve and is averaging 26/6/4. He has statistically the best floater in the NBA since 2024 and likely to benefit under this new system. K’elel Ware is starting to run away as potentially the best player in the 2024 draft (competing with Sarr), averaging a double double and being top 10 in NBA total rebounds despite only 25MPG JJJ is the betting favorite to win 6MOTY, largely thanks to the fast pace system fitting his play style. Additionally, roleplayers like Davion Mitchell, Dru Smith, Fontechhio, and Andrew Wiggins have resurrected their careers with impressive averages so far.
Norman Powell is averaging 25ppg as the 2nd most efficient scorer in the league, behind Jokic.
Bam Adebayo has been runaway the best ISO defender in the NBA, allowing just 0.7 points per possession.
Tyler Herro — although only 2 games played — continues to improve and is averaging 26/6/4. He has statistically the best floater in the NBA since 2024 and likely to benefit under this new system.
K’elel Ware is starting to run away as potentially the best player in the 2024 draft (competing with Sarr), averaging a double double and being top 10 in NBA total rebounds despite only 25MPG
JJJ is the betting favorite to win 6MOTY, largely thanks to the fast pace system fitting his play style.
Additionally, roleplayers like Davion Mitchell, Dru Smith, Fontechhio, and Andrew Wiggins have resurrected their careers with impressive averages so far.
Spo is a genius.
Not to take away anything from Spo, he is great at implementing strategies and innovations that will enhance roster performance just like Pop was, but LaRoche who is responsible of this offense type should be credited and I feel like he is overlooked by NBA fans. Again, I can’t deny the work from Spo getting him as a consultant , adjusting his playbook for the roster in hand and furthering the strategy. And he will be my choice for the COTY too at this point at least. Still, I couldn’t just pass by without mentioning LaRoche as the inventor. I am sure Heat fans are well aware of him but I am not sure the others are.
he deserves it 100% i don’t think anyone bad the heat to play this way or to be this good offensively before the season started
Today is the day where your bias and the correct answer are one in the same
And hes doing it after his house burned down
Bro installed an entirely new scheme this season and got it to work right away. If that isn’t COTY material idk what is.
For reference, age when crossing 800 with one team:
Erik Spoelstra - 55 years, 25 days (18 seasons)
Jerry Sloan - 55 years, 274 days (13 seasons)
Gregg Popovich - 57 years, 33 days (10 seasons)
To be fair, Pop benefited from having Tim Duncan and 3 top 75 players for 70% of his career lol (though Spo of course coached the big 3 for 4 years)
The crazy part is this is only 9 years into Duncan’s career. But yeah, Popovich got all of Timmy’s career and Sloan got essentially the entirety of Stockton and Malone. Spo doesn’t have that singular star that he’s associated with yet because even Wade only had a few years left in him.
Spo doesn’t have that singular star that he’s associated with yet because even Wade only had a few years left in him.
LOL
Wade played for 8 years under Spo. Well, actually 10 years.
But that is because he had a second stint of 2 years with the Heat at the end of his career.
He was an All-Star for the full 8 years, so I have no idea what you are talking about.
Wade was past his prime like 3 years into Spo being coach.
Wade was not in his prime for most of that. That’s the point I was making.
Phil got prime Jordan, prime Shaq, prime Kobe. Pop got prime Duncan, prime Manu, prime Parker. Sloan got prime Malone and prime Stockton. They went through a ton of playoff battles as that group of guys. Spoelstra got good years out of Wade, obviously, but the best years he got were the couple years where it wasn’t Wade’s team.
Your point was “Wade only had a few years left in him”, when it was actually 8 years of superstar play.
I mean, we can change the goalposts now, so lets discuss that one then:
That is a horrible point because nobody is in their prime for 10 years.
Hence why Phil Jackson also got rookie Kobe, Pop got rookie Duncan, old Robinson, both rookie and old man Manu and Parker.
And this isn’t some luck based thing with the Heat and Spo. Their whole attitude is that nobody is above the team, so they will trade their cornerstone if they think it is best for the team. The only type of cornerstone that can survive his entire career on the Heat is guys like Udonis Haslem which is the exception that proves the rule, because he was basically a part of the coaching staff and not a player.
The strategy works but it is a fallacy to then try to paint it was if he is unlucky he didn’t get one cornerstone star to be on his team for years. Yeah, he traded them away when he thought their play dipped too much but they still commanded the superstar team presence which meant more minutes to appease them.
Wade was like in his 5⁄6 year when spo was head coach?
The Lebron James of coaches
to think his career might’ve ended early after Lebron wanted Spo fired in 2010
Makes me wonder about Nash and the absolute bullshit he went through.
He’s gonna be the GOAT
SPOAT
Bro was also married to a cheerleader. I don’t remember Pop or Sloan slinging dick like that.
Undisputed GOAT
LMAO
He’ll never be better than PJax or Pop, but I think 3-5 will definitely be debatable.
I mean never say never. Dude still has a solid 15-20 seasons of coaching if he wants to. Lots of things can happen
Spo becoming the Phil Jackson to Wemby’s Jordan would be a sight to behold
Top 7 coach of all time
I was surprised Red Auerbach wasn’t on the list. He retired at age 48 with 795 wins for the Celtics (938 overall).
Kerr can’t be too far. Especially if we’re counting playoffs.
He’s at 577
kerr u bum