Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
No postseason hardware
Spoelstra, Whiteside, McGruder fall short as NBA regular-season awards are given out
MIAMI — The second half of the season proved to be rewarding for the Miami Heat, the climb from 11-30 to 41-41. But, ultimately, just as there was no playoff berth, there also were no postseason awards.
With Erik Spoelstra, the lone finalist for the Heat at Monday’s NBA Awards Show in New York, coming up short to Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni in a bid to join Pat Riley as the only members of the franchise to be named Coach of the Year, the Heat exited the first-ever such production without any hardware.
Earlier in the day, Heat forward Rodney McGruder fell two votes shy of being named to one of the NBA’s All-Rookie teams, with center Hassan Whiteside falling short of a berth on the NBA’s All-Defensive teams, after finishing as a second-team selection
last season.
While the media balloting for all the awards were completed before the start of the playoffs, the result were not announced until Monday.
Spoelstra was one of three finalists for Coach of the Year, along with D’Antoni and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. The Heat’s lone winner of the award remains Riley, who was so honored in 1997. Spoelstra remains without the designation despite leading the Heat to championships in 2012 and ‘13.
Spoelstra last month did win a share of a coaching award when he shared with D’Antoni the Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award, finishing atop a tie in the balloting of the league’s 30 coaches.
Spoelstra, who guided the Heat to a 30-11 record over the second half of the season, received votes from nine NBA head coaches in that balloting, as did D’Antoni, whose team lost in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
During the awards show, a Whiteside blocked shot was among the finalists for NBA block of the year, with that fan-voted honor going to San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard. Shaquille O’Neal, who was among the hosts of the show, said he would have voted for Whiteside’s block-andcatch.
In the voting for the Sixth Man Award, Heat forward James Johnson placed fifth, with the award going to Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon. Heat forward Udonis Haslem finished third in the balloting for the Teammate of the Year award that went to Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki.
Prior to Monday’s awards ceremony, the NBA released for its All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams (the All-NBA teams were released last month, with no Heat players selected).
With Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert named first-team All Defensive and New Orleans Pelicans center Anthony Davis named to the second team, Whiteside wound up fourth among the centers in that weighted voting, also behind Los Angeles Clippers big man DeAndre Jordan.
Unlike during his breakout 2015-16 season, Whiteside was asked to play more positional defense this past season. The result was a blocked-shot total that declined from a leagueleading 269 in 2015-16 to 161, despite appearing in four more games.
By contrast, Whiteside upgraded his rebounding, leading the league with a 15.6 average.
Whiteside was the lone Heat player to receive votes in this season’s All-Defensive balloting.
The Heat have had six All-Defensive selections over their 29 seasons, with LeBron James (three times) and Alonzo Mourning (twice) named first team, and Dwyane Wade (three times), P.J. Brown (twice), Bruce Bowen, James and Whiteside named second team.
As for McGruder, while he earned enough respect from Spoelstra to start 65 games, what he didn’t earn was sufficient respect from the media electorate to merit a spot on the two NBA All-Rookie teams.
McGruder, who went undrafted out of Kansas State in 2013 and bided his team overseas and in the development league until last season, received seven first-team votes but came up two points shy in the weighted balloting from a berth on the second team, losing out on that final spot to Dallas Mavericks point guard Yogi Ferrell.
The only Heat players to start more games than McGruder last season were Whiteside and point guard Goran Dragic. McGruder’s 65 starts were the third most by a rookie in the Heat’s 29 seasons.
The only other rookie on the Heat’s season-ending roster was undrafted Florida State forward Okaro White.
The Heat have had have 11 AllRookie selections.
Named first team were Sherman Douglas (1990), Steve Smith (1992), Caron Butler (2003), Dwyane Wade (2004) and Michael Beasley (2009), with Wade the franchise’s lone unanimous decision.