Erik Spoelstra Cautions Not to Read Too Much Into His Rotations
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has been under heavy watch from Heat fans because of his roster rotations during their exhibition match against the Orlando Magic, which they lost 108-101 in overtime. Spoelstra stressed however that it is too early in the preseason to criticize how he is utilizing his rotation.
The Heat would have to fully utilize their point guards differently compared to its previous four seasons, especially that LeBron James – who lead their offense in those mentioned seasons – is now playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Spoelstra put out Norris Cole as point guard instead of Mario Chalmers during their matchup against the Pelicans. Rotation started when Chalmers entered as power forward for Shawne Williams and then shifted to point guard when Shannon Brown was put in.
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"I'm looking at a lot of different things. I wouldn't look too much into that. But he's had a good week. I wanted to look into that combinatation," Spoelstra said of Cole's start in Saturday's match. "I wouldn't look too much into it because 'Rio is a big, big piece of what we're trying to do."
Players stated that they were ready for anything that Spoelstra was going to do.
"He said he was going to mix it up, different lineups and he did. I was ready," Cole said.
Chalmers said of the matter, "He just wanted to do something different with the starting lineup. I've just got to be ready for anything."
Spoelstra has warned not to read into his rotations too much early on at this stage of the eight-game preseason.
"I'm going to try to loook at a lot of different things right now. For the next probably at least two or three games, I'll look at as many different rotations. I wouldn't look into that too much right now," he says.
