Mazzulla plays a flavor of D'Antoni ball. I'd say the fan base here knows the strengths and weaknesses of that style very intimately. Great for reg season, mixed bag when 3's don't fall. In this game BOS probably wanted to get more 3pt attempts up, but couldn't. Porzingis getting cold/figured out. Possibly stamina advantage going to the MIA team. Some non MDA things like don't play drop defense on Herro especially when he's getting hot.
When I heard they got embarrassed I'm like that's Moreyball for you. Cute in the reg but ugly in the playoffs.
Udoka wants to win a championship. He’s is so good, I can see him asking for a trade to a championship contender.
I don’t know about all that. Haven’t really seen Ime get creative offensively like Spo. Ime definitely has a great defensive mind and that will get us far with creative offensive players which we have
Yeah, this is what I came here to say. The offensive creativity hasn't been top notch here and it wasn't in Boston either which is one of the reasons why they struggled in the Finals. The counters don't come to him as easily on the offensive end as it does on the defensive end although I'll give him credit for attempting to change the offense mid season a few different times. Sengun has had 3 different offensive frameworks they have put him in this year so Ime is clearly trying and I think the decision to put Amen in the dunker's spot took balls and paid off. A conventional coach would still be off trying to make it work with Amen playing out at the 3pt line where no one is interested in guarding him. Regardless I'll take a guy like Ime who is maybe a bit less refined on the offensive side of the ball BUT is willing to tinker and experiment over a guy like D'Antoni(Silas too) who has a "system" that isn't flexible to the talent on the roster or to defensive counters teams make over a series. That's the problem with system guys and THAT is what make guys like Pops and Spo so good because they find ways to respond to what's happening on the court rather than look to the GM to find personnel that fits "the system" or worse yet trying to make players conform to the system even if they are a poor fit(see the Jalen Green as PG experiment Silas rode with for WAY too long).
D'Antoni won 60 games with two entirely different rosters over a decade apart with an entirely different offensive system. Those lack of adjustments probably still beat the Warriors had Paul not gone down with a season ending injury, and had Harden and Company not wiffed on a ton of open 3s. Three point shooting is a fact of life in the NBA, It's a make-or-miss league and the Rockets simply missed. I'm sure if they went to bricking contested mid-range shots instead we'd be hearing about how "The Rockets panicked and threw the playbook that got them this far in the trash can!". The Heat simply have a magical ability to transform from a 30% 3 point shooting team in the regular season to a 40% 3 point shooting team in the playoffs, while having unstoppable open 3 point defense. The magic tends to run out once June comes around, as seen last year and in 2020. I've never seen anything like it.
The fact Miami has been a legit contender despite being a fairly unimpressive regular season team is all you need to know about Spo - there is no magic there - Spo finds ways to put his teams in positions of advantage when he has the opportunity to dial into a 7 game series and exploit team weaknesses. You could say the opposite of D'Antoni who has rolled out monster regular season teams with his system, but has a long history of underwhelming results in the playoffs for teams with the regular season win margins they have had. Agree Houston had GS on the ropes in the Paul injury year but that's not proof of the system so much as proof of the power of a system if you have all the right pieces in it. That's something we aspired to, but the reality is we had that perfect roster synergy to "system" for exactly one season. THAT is why systems are a tough ask because it's soooo hard to get all the chips lined up in roster management with salary cap constraints and probably even harder now that the cap has inched closer to a hard cap because luxury cap teams are going to start having punitive action taken against them in the form of competitive disadvantages with losing picks if they remain over the cap.
Nobody has ever won a title without "the right pieces" in a system. For all of the recent Heat accompishments, when the ring was on the line, both series were total mismatches, and utterly non-competitive. That roster can only "compete" for a title if getting swept or losing 4-1 to any of the top 4 in the west is your idea of competing. That is not a "legit" contender, and I am aware that by saying this, there were many years in the league where there was only one contender.
Yes. They are both coaches, and Udoka is the coach of the Rockets. In that sense, Udoka is our Spoelstra.
The Heat have made it at least to the Eastern Conference Finals 4 years in the last decade...that's a legit title contender even if they have no rings to show for it. The idea that you can be the last of 4 teams standing and not be "legit" because you get blown out is an absurd argument in a league with 30 teams. Be serious, don't argue for the sake of arguing.
If you do not have a shot at winning the title, you are not a "legit" contender. Being an also-ran, even if you get out of the conference, is not enough to seriously compete for a title (barring catastrophic injury). Had the Heat at least taken more than one game off the eventual title winners, I'd be far more sympathetic to your point. They're a "Contender" like the early 2000s Pacers, Nets, and Sixers were. Also-rans that got mowed down when facing a real team.
Stone has nothing on Udoka…. Ime is far better looking, charming, is Stone’s de facto boss and fearless. If Felicia prefers potato shaped and looking Stone - then she just really loves him.
“I think is Udoka didn’t go around smashing upper management wives, he would have already won a title last year.” - Fixed it for you Screamin Steph
I'll be blunt - you are making a very dumb argument. The reality is there is a limited pool of great players so talent is always going to be of imbalance. The reality is you have better competitive odds of winning a title if you have peak Lebron, Curry, Jordan, Shaq, etc but even those generational type of guys don't win every title because "also rans" have a shot when injuries and luck come into play. There was even a year when peak Curry was probably going to lose to a better Houston team.....until CP3 pulled up with hamstring injury. Toronto won a title with Kawhi after the Warriors fell apart with injuries...and got a little luck when Kawhi hit that shot that bounced all over the rim over the better team in Philly. The Bucks won a title a few years back despite having only won 46 games in the East....and don't even get me started on when refs decide series like the Suns/Spurs series with Nash or when the Kings got hosed by the Lakers. The only difference between the team that actually won the title for those teams and the Miami Heat is Miami ran out of luck and those other teams ran into it for a variety of reasons that tilted the odds back in their favor. The point is, you put together the best team you can and you hope to catch the right seeding to get an opportunity to win a title...or you hope for the right ping pong balls in the lotto to net you a Wemby or Lebron. Being in a position to potentially be a twisted ankle or a few hot shooting nights away from being in advantage in a series IS a contending team - it's usually just not the team with the a generational player(which Miami hasn't had since Bron left).
