Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. In this special online edition, Luke says the Miami Heat will start winning again when Chris Bosh starts getting the ball in the paint.
The Miami Heat is in crisis, which doesn't surprise me since I told everybody Erik Spoelstra is way over his head. I really don't understand the coaching philosophy of these professional sports teams in Miami. From the Dolphins to the Heat to the Marlins, the motherfuckers in charge want do-boys. The owners and the management don't want coaches with their own personalities.
The Dolphins let Bill Parcells bring in his do boys, General Manager Jeff Ireland and Head Coach Tony Sparano. It is the same case with the Heat. Pat Riley made the video tape man coach even though he has Bob McAdoo and Keith Askins, two guys with way more playing and coaching experience than Spoelstra.
Riley knows he made a mistake giving the keys to the Bugatti to the video man, but since he is not going to fire Spoelstra, then he needs to get this team back to playing Miami Heat basketball, which consists of giving the big man the ball in the paint.
Bosh came from Toronto averaging 24 points a game on a team where he was the only player drawing double teams every night. Yet, in Miami he is only getting seven to ten buckets a game on a team where he is the third option. That has to change. Riley's Heat teams have always been about getting the ball down low to the big man and then kicking it out to players open on the wing. That is how the team played when Alonzo Mourning was in the middle and when the Heat won the championship in 2006 with Shaquille O'Neal at center.
Riley needs to get Spoelstra to do that. Bosh is much more athletic than Zo was, which is why the offense should go through him. Right now, Bosh doesn't know which way to go. Spoelstra has turned him into a jump-shooting center when he is more than capable of taking the ball in the post. A big man like Bosh cannot be treated the way he is being treated in Miami.
In the loss against Portland, we got a glimpse of what the Heat plans to do in the play-offs, which is essentially to have LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Bosh play 40-plus minutes a game. The problem is that there is no scheme and no continuity with the Heat. There is no flow to the rotation. How is it that the All-Star Game's three-point champion is riding the bench? When is Spoelstra going to give James Jones minutes so he can find his groove? The coach has to come up with plays to get all his players in a rhythm.
I am sure when Riley sold Miami on Bosh, he told Chris that he knows what it takes to win with a big man. I am sure he sold him on making him as great as Zo and Patrick Ewing. Even when Riley had his fast break Lakers teams he still went through Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the paint. The biggest mistake the Heat can make right now is believe all the bullshit from the fans and the press that Bosh is not good enough.
He is the key to this shit. Run the offense through Bosh. If Riley refuses to can Spoelstra, then he needs the Heat coach to change his schemes and draw up plays for the big man. Instead everyone in the organization is in panic mode, running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Riley better do something soon because I can't stand all these New Yorkers abusing me over this shit.
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