Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Haslem’s sideline intellect
Spoelstra says he welcomes input from veteran
SALT LAKE CITY — Udonis Haslem hasn’t gone as far as a clipboard. It probably would clash with the uniform, anyway. But player/assistant coach wouldn’t be a stretch at this stage for the Miami Heat power forward.
So there was Haslem, during the thick of HeatBoston Celtics on Monday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, strolling up Erik Spoelstra on the sideline amid the action, offering the type of tips usually passed on by those in sports coat and tie.
“I just try to pick my times, pick my spots,” Haslem said, with the Heat turning their attention to Thursday night’s game against the Utah Jazz at Vivant Smart Home Arena, the second stop on this three-game trip. “I know it’s a lot of things going through his head, and he’s got great assistant coaches offering him different options and
different points of view. So I just pick my spots and wait until a point where he is calm and everything is calm, and I just walked up to him and recommended something I saw, with our pickand-roll offense.”
Not all coaches would be as accommodating. When Pat Riley was coaching, all suggestions would have to go through his lead assistant coach.
Spoelstra said his approach is a bit different, especially when it comes to Haslem.
“U.D. and I have such a close relationship now. I think it’s a beautiful thing,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve worked together for so long. He has such deep, corporate knowledge of what the Miami Heat culture is, what we expect.”
Spoelstra stressed it is not merely lip service toward the team captain.
“I think one of the most underrated things about U.D. was his I.Q. and his intelligence for the game, for being such a physical, grueling, effort, energy player,” Spoelstra said. “He has great intellect for the game. So he see things.”
When David Fizdale was with the team as the lead assistant coach, Haslem more often would go to Fizdale with the suggestions. Now, with Fizdale having moved on to become coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, Haslem picks his moments to go directly to Spoelstra.
“I still do it some with Juwan,” he said of assistant coach and former Heat teammate Juwan Howard. “But, you know, I continue to take one step further, get 1 percent better. And I feel comfortable stepping in with [Spoelstra]. But like I said, I know he’s got a lot going on. He’s got a lot of different points of views coming from the coaches throughout the game. Plus, he has his own point of view and things that he sees, so I never want to add clutter to the process.
“So I just try to be efficient with the suggestions that I make.”
Spoelstra said he is open to any and all suggestions, which is why you also see Howard and fellow assistants Chris Quinn and Dan Craig picking their spots in a two-man coaching game.
There no longer is the Riley-like insistence on a flowchart and hierarchy.
“That’s totally different with us,” Spoelstra said, even with Fizdale handling most of the previous consultation with Haslem. “It wasn’t necessarily because I’ve said it to be that way. It’s just because they had a good relationship.”
Fizdale-Haslem has now morphed into SpoelstraHaslem. It is, Spoelstra said, a collaboration that is welcomed and works.
“When he says something or sees something,” Spoelstra said. “I treat it as if one of the assistant coaches told me.”