Erik Spoelstra says Heat assistants deserve consideration for NBA coaching vacancies

With the NBA’s coaching carousel in full motion, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra isn’t exactly pushing his assistants out the door amid the NBA Finals.

But the fact that Dan Craig and Chris Quinn have been linked to vacancies around the league is a reality that Spoelstra said should make any head coach proud,

“I think on our staff we have several future head coaches,” Spoelstra said. “I don’t want them to just be assistant coaches their whole career. I want them to be able to grow and have opportunities to be head coaches at some point.”

Spoelstra previously has lost lead assistant David Fizdale to the Memphis Grizzlies, when he took over as coach there in 2008, with Fizdale subsequently coaching the New York Knicks. In addition, former assistant Juwan Howard took over as coach at Michigan last season.

To Spoelstra, it is part of further growing the coaching tree initiated by Heat President Pat Riley.

“I think it’s just the whole Heat program, and that started with Pat,” Spoelstra said. "I think he’s taught us all how to become basketball coaches, at all levels, where you have to learn scouting, offense, defense, tendencies in the league, learning how to coach on the floor and teach.

"That was all demanded from Pat. And then growing, that culture of growing you. "

The Heat have had limited coaching turnover since Riley joined the franchise in September 1995, with Riley, Stan Van Gundy and Spoelstra the team’s only coaches since.

Spoelstra, who took over as coach in 2008-09 after time as a Heat assistant and video coordinator, signed a four-year extension in the 2019 offseason.

“There’s a lot of consistency here,” Spoelstra said. "So hopefully, if the change doesn’t happen here, that means they’re going to have to get that opportunity somewhere else.

“And if we can help with that, that’s why we’re in this business, is to help each other, have these relationships, but know guys are going to grow and really improve and be ready for a bigger opportunity at some point.”

In addition to Craig and Quinn, Spoelstra’s coaching staff is rounded out by former Heat players Malik Allen and Anthony Carter, as well as Octavio De La Grana. Allen joined the team in the wake of Howard’s departure to Michigan.

Praise offered

To ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy, the former New York Knicks and Houston Rockets coach, the Heat already are ahead of the game, considering where they stood as a lottery team a year ago.

“When they looked stuck, just 14 months ago, they looked stuck, and they extricated themselves from some questionable contracts,” he said, with the Heat having moved on from the contracts of Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Tyler Johnson. "They got better players. Internally they kept getting better, and then they had the free agent signing in [Jimmy] Butler.

"That’s how quickly it can change, and it can change from bad to good and good to bad.

It’s constant; you’ve never arrived. They need to do what they’re doing, just put themselves in position, like they have this year, and keep trying to upgrade as you go along. But it never stops."

Kobe tribute

The last time the Lakers were in the NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant was the series' Most Valuable Player. Friday night, the Lakers opted to play Game 2 of the Finals in their Bryant tribute jerseys.

“Well, that’s what you think about when you think about Kobe Bryant,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of the significance of the moment, with the iconic Lakers guard killed in January in a helicopter crash. "Obviously, he makes big shots throughout every regular season and whatnot, but when you think about Kobe Bryant, you think about championships, and you think about the NBA Finals and all the big moments that he had in the Finals.

“While we wanted to embody what he stood for and represent his memory all throughout the year, we want to do that more so now than ever.”

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