MIAMI — On Monday, in an innocuous moment during his pregame media session in Atlanta, Erik Spoelstra was asked about his enduring coaching tenure, with a reference made to previous thoughts by Larry Bird that a coach’s voice tends to lose its impact after three seasons.
“You trying to get me fired?” Spoelstra responded with a smile.
Then, three days later, Gregg Popovich issued a statement confirming that he would not return this season to the San Antonio Spurs as he recovers from his early-season stroke.
If that, indeed, did portend the end of Popovich’s coaching career, then the longest-tenured coach in the NBA becomes … Erik Spoelstra in Year 17 with the Heat, and with an eight-year extension signed last season.
So, back to that question about Bird’s thoughts, Spoelstra first offered, “I think it’s much different, too, than when Larry played in the league. There’s so much more turnover with rosters. The Celtics had their core players for over a decade. That’s not even realistic anymore.”
Except Bird offered his comments on coaching tenure not as a Celtics player, but rather during a three-year tenure as Pacers coach that ran from 1997 to 2000.
That’s when Spoelstra offered a reference similar to one Bulls coach Billy Donovan offered earlier this season before his team played the Heat, with Donovan, seventh in NBA coaching tenure with his current team, noting how NBA coaching has become more like college coaching due to ever-changing rosters.
So, no, Spoelstra said he does not believe that Bird’s limited-tenure thoughts still hold true.
“That’s not the way it is now,” he said. “Rosters are turning over more. Player transactions are happening way more frequently. So in some way it’s a little bit more a college team that you’re building, that’s going to change year to year.”
At the moment, for example, the Heat have nine players under contract who were not with the team last season.
So same coach, different roster.
And yet the two who have endured longest alongside Spoelstra arguably also stand as two of Spoelstra’s ultimate coaching success stories — the development of Bam Adebayo into the ultimate multidimensional defender and this season’s recalibration of Tyler Herro that has the guard as a first-time All-Star.
“That’s why I treasure these relationships and coaching relationships that I’ve had with Bam and Tyler, that are really unique in this league,” Spoelstra said.
“I’ve worked with Bam now for eight years, and then a summer with the USA team. We have a different relationship than just coach to player. It’s much deeper than that. And unfortunately you don’t get a lot of that in this league.
“I’m already starting to develop that with Tyler now. That just happens over time.”
The other aspect of the equation with the enduring tenure of Spoelstra is creating a blueprint of what it expected, definitive precepts already in place for newcomers.
“You can’t fast-track that sometimes, even though you try to,” Spoelstra continued of the relationships with Adebayo and Herro. “That’s what we’re trying to do right now. We’ve got three new players. We’re going to fast-track this. But I’m appreciative of those longstanding relationships.”
That had Spoelstra then reflecting on building out previous such relationships with Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, his franchise cornerstones prior to Adebayo and Herro.
“We had so many different chapters that we can smile and when we get together for a glass of wine we laugh about the different times where we weren’t talking to each other, or it’s great,” he said of Wade and Haslem. “And it’s all part of the journey.
“But that’s what deepens the relationship, is when you go through all of them.”
No, this has not been the best of rides for either Spoelstra or the Heat.
But there is the enduring commitment to build it back, with neither coach nor franchise looking to move on to the next thing.
Erik Spoelstra can be unrelentingly stubborn at times.
But stale? Not with the fight he showed in pushing through the ugliest of times this season in the ugliest of moments with Jimmy Butler.
Now the Butler era of the Spoelstra tenure is over, with the former having wanted nothing more than to exit stage left.
Spoelstra? Not going anywhere, except, apparently, to the top of the list of those who continue to endure.
IN THE LANE
DURANT, AGAIN: When reflecting on the Heat’s contretemps with Jimmy Butler, the debate often centers on whether the Heat acted too late, that a better deal assuredly could have been on the table last summer. Now that question shifts to the Phoenix Suns’ approach with Kevin Durant, who seems all but gone this summer. No, the Heat were not willing to offer the house at last month’s NBA trading deadline. But the cost could be significantly lower on a buyer’s market this offseason. Among the Heat’s potential options: Kel’el Ware, the first-rounder acquired from the Warriors (and perhaps the Heat’s own) and then matching salary (Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier). Too rich or the right all-in-now move? Draft capital beyond that and too much future would be sacrificed. For his part, Durant offered all the hint needed on Draymond Green‘s podcast, “I want my career to end on my terms. That’s the only thing I’m worried about. ‘Cause I see a lot of dudes that don’t get that opportunity, so I want to keep putting in that work to make that choice on my own.”
HOLDING ON: Even with the Cleveland Cavaliers making a movie for De’Andre Hunter at the trading deadline, former Heat forward Max Strus continues to stake his claim as a starter. “I think this is the role Max is comfortable in,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said according to Cleveland.com. “I think it’s helped him find his rhythm. He wants responsibility. He wants defensive responsibility. He wants big minutes. It’s what you love about him. It’s kind of worked out that way lately and I think it’s helped him find that rhythm and find his rhythm with that starting group that he’s played well with lately.” The Heat face the Cavaliers on Wednesday night in Cleveland.
UNIVERSAL DONOR: In so many ways Kelly Olynyk has proven to be a universal donor during an NBA career extended by his ability to go with the flow at each stop. That again appears to be the case for the former Heat forward with his trading-deadline move to the New Orleans Pelicans. “He reads the game really well,” Pelicans leading man Zion Williamson told New Orleans’ Advocate. “When you have someone like that with a high IQ for the game, he’s looking to make that pass. I feel like with him, it’s not going to take long at all for the chemistry to be there.”
THE HEAT EXAMPLE: As all else is going south for the Philadelphia 76ers, guard Tyrese Maxey finds himself latching on to the hope created by the Heat ascension from the 2023 play-in round to the NBA Finals. “We’ve seen some crazy things happen with the play-in, right?” Maxey said according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I think Miami went all the way from the play-in to the championship. They got hot at the right time. They meshed at the right time. Jimmy Butler went on a run. They had a guy who at that time was playing like a top-five player. So who knows. The biggest thing is we have to compete.”
NUMBER
2. Heat players to record at least 200 3-pointers in a season in multiple seasons, with Tyler Herro this past week reaching that total after also doing it in 2022-23. Duncan Robinson has three such seasons with the Heat. The only other Heat players with at least 200 3-pointers in a season were Tim Hardaway (1996-97), Damon Jones (2004-05) and Wayne Ellington (2017-18).
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