The Miami Heat have had a few bright moments this season, but their bad ones have been extremely disturbing and difficult to ignore. At 3-6, it's gotten to the point where something clearly isn't working for the Heat, and Erik Spoelstra desperately needs to make some (or different) adjustments.
The unfortunate part about it is that the tweaks that Spoelstra has tried to make just haven't worked. In fairness, Spoelstra hasn't sat on his hands throughout all of the Heat's struggles. He's tried things, to no avail.
He's integrated more pick-and-rolls into the offense. He's shortened his rotation; he's brought up Ryan Conwell; he's sat Nikola Jovic and Tim Hardaway Jr. He's staggered Bam Adebayo's and Giannis Antetokounmpo's minutes. The positive results have been extremely minimal.
Erik Spoelstra needs to bit the bullet and make some difficult changes
It's at the point that the only remaining adjustments to make may be the ones Spoelstra notoriously has been slow to make, if at all.
Based on the simple eye test, it's becoming quite clear that the starting lineup needs a spark. Andrew Wiggins doesn't fit next to Giannis, and even individually, he's been really bad on both ends of the floor this season. That's not ideal when he was largely expected to emerge as the third-best player for this team.
That alone throws a really big wrench in the Heat's plans and expectations.
However, that's not the only "simple" move that Spoelstra can make to help spark this team. The evidence around benching Tim Hardaway Jr. is also becoming impossible to ignore. He's just not playable right now.
It'd be one thing if the Heat were asking Hardaway Jr. to be a back-end rotation player, but he was brought in to compete for the sixth man spot. He just hasn't held up his end of the bargain, and Spoelstra needs to stop rewarding him based on past merit or his last name.
I'm not sure if both Wiggins and Hardaway Jr., specifically, need to be benched, but Spoelstra needs to reward effort and production. There's an argument to be made that effort, especially on the defensive end of the floor, is one of the Heat's biggest problems.
Erik Spoelstra may need to remove Andrew Wiggins, Tim Hardaway Jr. from the rotation
Especially if Spoelstra is going to continue to say, "the system is the system," then maybe it's time to get other players who are bought into the system to play it. Because, right now, it doesn't seem as if Wiggins and Hardaway Jr. are bought in defensively. And if either player isn't giving the Heat anything offensively, and they're that bad on defense, why are they on the floor again?
It does make you think.
Notoriously, these aren't necessarily moves that Spoelstra would quickly make. Spoelstra generally likes to give his veterans a chance to play through their struggles. And if history holds, nine games into the season, they're probably not happening. However, the argument for them is becoming stronger with each passing day and with every uninspiring performance.
It may be time for Spoelstra to send a strong message in hopes of sparking his team. Benching Wiggins and Hardaway Jr. certainly has to be one of those possibilities. It has to.
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