The Miami Heat has been on fire lately, with a 10-game winning streak. This was how things were supposed to go when the team put together its holy WadeBoshJames trinity, but the season didn’t start out so well. What’s happened since? One change: a new incentive system instituted by coach Erik Spoelstra. Players are rewarded for defensive plays with offensive freedom: “If Dwyane Wade grabs a defensive rebound, he has the green light to do whatever he wants offensively. If LeBron James makes a defensive stop, he controls his own game on the other end of the court.” Spoelstra, it should be said, reads books. (HT: Onyeka Obiocha) [%comments]
The Miami Heat’s New Incentives
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Or it could be they played mostly bad teams during the streak.
Your Defense is writing checks your Offense can’t cash.
This free entrepreneur offense is showboating and selfish. The Best Defense players in the league specialize in Defense, and are impotent on Offense.
Basketball is a team sport. A well coached team acting as one unit, will prevail over a team of individualists.
Seems like Coach Spoelstra does not have the coaching skills or strategy to handle his talent…He just unleashes them. And this is not Plan B or C but Plan Z, from a disastorous start. A circus clown can outcoach him. I predict he will be a short termer–maybe he can be a Chicago School Economist. Talent will not last in the NBA Finals without really smart coaching.
Now give me the Rock!
couldnt this be correlation not causation? There is no evidence to show that this freedom has resulted in increased aggressiveness on the defensive end and better offense on the other end.
@ Cash (#2),
I guess we’ll have to see what happens. If they end up winning the championship, who are you to say they were wrong? If they don’t make it into the playoffs, then you got a pretty strong case.
@ chris (#3),
Pretty tough to find hard evidence of “increased aggressiveness” that is objective. Certainly an incentive structure like this in place has at least some small effect on behavior right? More so than not having it at all? Maybe at least for guys who like to control the offense at least?
I take it back. This is good coaching. He realizes the egos on his team will not let traditional coaching/teamwork tactics be successful.
I wonder how long this will last, and if opposing teams will respond accordingly. That is, if Lebron makes a defensive stop, then the other team will know that he’ll be running the offense the next possession. So I wonder if other teams catch on and are smart about it, if this incentive scheme will take an element of strategy/stealth away from the Heat if the defense knows what’s coming.
Point differential. It matters (in pretty much every sport). The Heat actually started the season off fairly well and were unlucky – better predictors of how a team play (better in that they better predict future W-L than actual W-L does) indicated they were playing well early in the season despite their poor record. They’re playing better now, but it really wasn’t that unexpected. A lot of the turnaround can be explained by doing a better job of measuring performance than simple W-L. If you want to objectively evaluate them, it helps to know that…
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