While the Miami Heat were sitting home from the playoffs, it turns out their head Coach, Erik Spoelstra might still be able to bring some more hardware to the franchise. That's because the coaching job Spoelstra did in the 2016-17 season might have been the best coaching job he's done since joining the NBA. Despite the fact that he's won a couple of championships and made the playoffs multiple times, it was taking a team that started out 11-30 and making them competitive that already caught the eye of Spoelstra's colleagues and may nab him his second coach of the year award this season.
Erik Spoelstra's best accomplishment
Despite the fact that Spoelstra has won two straight NBA titles in his career, the Heat head coach had a team that was on the ropes most of the first part of the season. After making the playoffs a year ago, it looked as though their head coach might actually be in jeopardy of losing his job. Then the second half of the season rolled around and the man who has two rings likely did his best coaching job.
Spoelstra managed to get his team to listen to him and believe in themselves once gain. While the Heat didn’t manage to get all the way back to the playoffs he did manage to get them to go an impressive 30-11 in the second half of the season. That allowed Miami to become the first team in the history of the NBA to finish with a .500 record after getting off to such a ridiculously bad start.
The comeback from such a poor start means more than simply having the league recognize the accomplishment. Entering the 2016-17 season the Heat head man had posted a single losing record. Had Miami lost one more game it would have been the second time the team lost more than it won. Even still, this is the second time in the last three years his team has missed the playoffs.
More hardware could be coming for Erik Spoelstra
The Heat coach has already gotten some recognition as doing one of the best jobs the league saw this year. The NBA Coaches Assocation handed their coach of the year award to both he and Houston’s Mike Dantoni. The pair are clearly sharing the award for very different reasons. The Rockets actually made the playoffs while the Heat came close after being left for dead.
The media members that cover the NBA have named Spoelstra one of three finalists for their coach of the year award. He’s competing with Dantoni yet again, as well as Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. There will be a decent amount of waiting before we find out who the final winner is as the award won’t be officially announced until June 26.
