Pat Riley (or the front office) has put Erik Spoelstra in an impossible position to succeed with the way the Miami Heat's roster has been built. Despite his greatness as a signal caller, the Heat's patchwork of a roster is beginning to cost Spo his reputation across the league.
It's gotten to the point where it's become commonplace to question Spo on a night-to-night basis, something that would've been unfathomable just a couple of years ago.
The biggest problem that the front office has run into is the fact that it's incredibly tough to build a roster without picking one distinct direction. The Heat continue to try to balance developing the young core while also trying to compete for a playoff spot. It doesn't work.
Miami's roster can't figure out what it wants to do or be, and it does feel like that constantly changes on any given night. The Heat have two timelines on one roster. And it's led to more questions than answers this season.
Simply put, this philosophy just hasn't been very successful in the modern NBA, and it's evident that Spo is struggling mightily to keep the Heat's head afloat with this tactic.
While Spo is the one calling out the rotations, it's not fair to him. In a vacuum, Spo's job is to win games. That's what he's paid to do, and that's under his job description. But it's hard to do that when the front office isn't entirely walking in lockstep with that approach.
The Heat's front office will be under fire this offseason
At some point, the levee breaks. That might be exactly what we're seeing in real-time from the Heat. Frustrations from the veterans are hitting a fever pitch, and the young core isn't getting the experience that they probably should be in a "gap" year.
Eventually, something has to give. You'd assume (and the fans would hope) that it's going to come this summer.
Even beyond their Giannis Antetokounmpo pipe dream, the Heat desperately needs to figure out what the future is going to hold. Because if (or when) the Heat misses out on Giannis again, there needs to be a clear plan B (or C, D, and E) in place.
Miami can't keep floating around mediocrity until a superstar comes and saves the day. It may have worked in the past, but the game has changed, and it doesn't appear as if the Heat's front office has changed much with it.
Spo is going to go down as one of the best head coaches in NBA history. However, it's hard to tell that right now. And, at least in part, that is because Miami's front office has failed to put him in a position to succeed.
As unintentional as it may be, Riley may have quietly set up Spo for failure this season.