The Miami Heat are one of the better teams in the league and they should be, as they have some pretty good talent in their main group, while they also have one of the better reserve units around.
While the notion that “talent wins out” is true, there may be a little something else to winning at as high a level as the Miami Heat have, Erik Spoelstra has, and as they all hope to do again this season.
When you look at teams like the Splash Brothers Golden State Warriors or the Kevin Durant version, a lot of people will say that Steve Kerr was a figurehead, meaning anyone could have coached them to victory. That just isn’t true though.
The same thing is often echoed about Erik Spoelstra. When the Big 3 reigned supreme upon the NBA, many had the feeling that it had little to do with Spo.
The notion then was that with three of the top-20 guys in the league and three all-timers, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, they should have won as much as they did—perhaps, even more.
While that could all have some sort of truth to it, the fact of the matter is this.
Talent is a must in the NBA and does have a big impact on a team’s ability to win or lose games, however, coaching or proper coaching is absolutely essential as well.
Take the final play from the Miami Heat’s last game against the Chicago Bulls. Coming down the stretch, the Miami Heat had gone up by about eight points on the back of their “talent”.
Jimmy Butler, who had dinged up his hip/tailbone area earlier in the contest, saved all the dexterity he could muscle up in his thigh area to close the game for the Miami Heat. He made two huge plays, one a play made for someone else to score and one made for a floater of his own.
The Bulls didn’t go away though, coming back down to sink another shot or two.
Things got tense for a second. With the Bulls making a couple of shots in the final moments to close the gap, Miami Heat faithful had to be thinking the worst.
It was not to be for the Bulls though. Here is why.
When the Miami Heat absolutely needed to get a bucket in the waning moments of that game and as the Bulls tried to steal it away—it was Spo who answered the call.
A coach's moment.@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/1qGUcDpXPz
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) November 28, 2021
This is the play that put the game away for the Miami Heat. They got a wide-open layup attempt off of an inbounds play drawn up by Coach Spoelstra.
This would put the Heat up by five points with less than 30 seconds to play. To echo a famous Spoism, it was “enough”.
This is why Coaching still matters. In and at this crucial moment in the game, the coach saw something that he knew could help them.
He went to that weakness and attacked it, resulting in an easy lay-in for the Miami Heat’s point guard, and what would amount to a game-sealing shot. It’s really that simple.
So, yes, talent does matter and typically wins out. However, to say that coaching doesn’t matter is silly and these are the reasons why.