{"id":421187,"date":"2026-10-07T13:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421187\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:38:15","slug":"erik-spoelstra-miami-heat-again-seek-to-play-at-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421187\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat again seek to play at pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 For all the adjustments to Erik Spoelstra\u2019s Miami Heat staff this offseason \u2014 from adding former NBA big man Vin Baker as an assistant coach, to losing shooting coach Rob Fodor to the Dallas Mavericks, to bringing back G League coach Dan Bisaccio to his developmental staff \u2014 one of the most intriguing elements remains, albeit again somewhat in the shadows.<\/p>\n

No, you won\u2019t find Noah LaRoche listed anywhere on the Heat organizational chart in the team\u2019s preseason media guide. But there he was during last week\u2019s training camp at Florida Atlantic University, a routine presence on the sidelines in Boca Raton as Spoelstra again installed LaRoche\u2019s \u201cchasing space\u201d offense, the ball-movement, player-movement non-traditional approach that eschews pick-and-roll basketball and helped leapfrog the Heat to first in the NBA in place last season and second in scoring.<\/p>\n

It has been a delicate dance from the outset, one that has reduced pet plays for several players \u2014 including Tyler Herro last season and potentially Giannis Antetokounmpo this season \u2014 and one that Spoelstra has made sure gets credit beyond LaRoche\u2019s role as consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely going in the lab and Chris Quinn is our offensive coordinator,\u201d Spoelstra stressed of his lead assistant. \u201cNoah\u2019s back as a consultant.<\/a> So we\u2019ve had a lot of meetings, not only with Quinny and Noah, but the full staff. And once we understood what our roster was, we went to work on what we think makes the most sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sense from Saturday night\u2019s preseason opener<\/a> against the Toronto Raptors, a game the Heat won 129-105 and scored 76 points in the first half, is that LaRoche\u2019s precepts remain omnipresent, with newcomers Antetokounmpo and Tim Hardaway Jr. thriving in the system, and with newcomers Klay Thompson and Bobby Portis working their way through.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be some principles that we keep from last year,\u201d Spoelstra said, with the Heat moving on to Thursday night\u2019s preseason home opener against the New Orleans Pelicans. \u201cThere\u2019ll be things that we will incorporate that the guys that are coming in, obviously Giannis, Klay, Timmy, Bobby, that they\u2019re comfortable with. So we want to make them feel like they\u2019re playing to their strengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

That at the moment has half the Heat roster fully familiar (those who returned from last season) and other curiously contemplating (the newcomers).<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then ultimately,\u201d Spoelstra said, \u201cwe want to bring this group together and create something that\u2019s going to create something bigger and more offensively. That is the part that we\u2019ll have to see and make adjustments as we go.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the base part of it, we have a pretty good idea of what we want to start with.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview a year ago, before joining the Heat staff, with the Slapping Glass Podcast<\/a>, LaRoche opened a window into his philosophy, including:<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u201cEverything is about managing space: Chasing space when you have the ball, chase space when you\u2019re off the ball, chase space. That encompasses all these other things that create great offense and create great defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cElite players, they don\u2019t think about the move they\u2019re going to make. They find space and they get there and then from that the move actually emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was LaRoche\u2019s connection to former Heat guard Duncan Robinson that initially caught Spoelstra\u2019s attention. From there, as he is wont to do, Spoelstra began picking his brain, just as he has over the year for strategy, inspiration and motivation nuggets from football savants Chip Kelly and Pete Carroll, Division II championship coach Jim Crutchfield at Nova Southeastern, and others who had had success at the highest levels of their endeavors.<\/p>\n

A touchstone of a Spoelstra era as head coach that enters its 19th season is the ability and willingness to evolve.<\/p>\n

\"HeatHeat consultant Noah LaRoche (right) sits with Heat draft consultant Chet Kammerer during a practice session last season. (Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there should be some excitement about our offense,\u201d Spoelstra said, as the Heat move toward their Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves. \u201cThere are a lot of possibilities. We want to put up a lot of points on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s things that we did last year that make a lot of sense for Giannis, but also all the guys coming in. But we want them also to feel comfortable. We don\u2019t want to reinvent guys, we just want to add, so hopefully we can make guys better.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, no, Spoelstra said, it\u2019s not about the coaches, the consultant, or even the precise nuances. It\u2019s about the adaptation to an evolving roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust really accentuate what they already do and maximize that and put it all together where everybody\u2019s maximizing each other\u2019s strengths,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think the possibilities for us are exciting, not just for the staff \u2014 I mean, who cares about staff? \u2014 I think the players feel that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019ll put it together. Yeah, there\u2019ll be certainly some principles that we\u2019ll lean on from last year. In many ways, it\u2019s great that we\u2019re able to go through that. We learned a lot last year and we\u2019ll see how it all plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the doubters, Spoelstra merely asks what he asked ahead of last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it would probably make all of you a little bit more comfortable if we just played a little bit more conventional,\u201d he said during a media scrum in the bowels of Kaseya Center earlier this week. \u201cI think that would help your brains. That is not my mindset at all.\u00a0 We will find the balance of conventional versus what also can really put some pressure on defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 For all the adjustments to Erik Spoelstra\u2019s Miami Heat staff this offseason \u2014 from adding former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,125,2490,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-421187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}