Speaking on his “Mind the Game” podcast, former Heat superstar LeBron James got real on what made the 2011-2012 Heat so much better than they were the season prior. According to James, the secret was Erik Spoelstra and his incorporation of the spread offense from famed football coach Chip Kelly.
“[Erik Spoelstra] is the reason we were a better team after my first year. After we lost to Dallas that summer, he went to Oregon and learned the spread offense from Chip Kelly. And tried to figure out how to translate that to basketball,” said LeBron. “I don’t know the super conversations him and chip had, but I know when he came back to us, he knew in order for us to reach out potential, one, I had to be 10x better than I was in the previous June. But Chris Bosh had to go to the five. He had to start working on his corner three, faithfully — every day after practice. In order to bring the Tyson Chandler’s out of the paint, you got to at least be a threat.”
The start of the 2011-2012 season marked the first time that Chris Bosh was moved to center full-time, and it changed almost everything about Miami’s offense. In the playoffs that previous season, we saw James struggle to work in an overcrowded interior. But with Chris at the five and hitting shots on the perimeter, it forced the rim protectors out of the paint and opened up a whole new world for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to have their way.
Whether you love or hate the strategy, the results speak for themselves. That season, LeBron, Wade, and Bosh would go on to win their first of two championships together, and they are still widely recognized as one of the greatest teams ever assembled. While they were always likely to win at least one title together, credit must go to Erik Spoelstra for maximizing the talent and finding a system to bring out the most in the “big three.”
Unfortunately, while the Heat did make history together from 2010 to 2014, LeBron would leave after just four seasons, and many believe that he probably left some rings on the table during the process. Some have even gone so far as to say he underachieved during his stint with the franchise.
Paul Pierce Says LeBron’s Heat Underachieved
LeBron James was a beast with the Cavaliers, but he was at his peak in Miami, and his athleticism was a marvel for all who bore witness. When he joined forces with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, most believed there wasn’t a team in the league that stood a chance, and they were a pain to play on most nights.
Looking back, it’s hard to call that period a failure, given that it resulted in two championships and four straight trips to the NBA Finals, but there is a growing movement of people who are saying that it should have resulted in more.
As the most recent example, Celtics legend Paul Pierce claimed that James underachieved with the franchise and that only winning two championships was a disappointment considering the talent advantage they had at the time.
Arguably, the biggest blemish of that entire run is the 2011 Finals, in which James himself admitted that he performed horribly. Fortunately, Erik Spoelstra was able to learn the spread offense that summer and it didn’t take him long to figure out the best method to achieve victory in the modern NBA. Apparently, the Heat are among the earliest pioneers of modern-day stretch bigs, and it’s little wonder why they took the league by storm during the height of their run.
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