It has been quite the season for Dr. FrankenSpoelstra.
Known for, in his words, “getting into the lab,” during the offseason, Erik Spoelstra’s creations this season have helped fuel the Miami Heat’s climb to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Gabe Vincent a combo guard mostly with scoring inclinations? Now a combo guard with a playmaking bent.
Caleb Martin as offensive pulse? Now the heart of the Heat’s second wave of defense.
P.J. Tucker solely as spot-up corner shooter? Now draining floaters and at times orchestrating the offense.
And even earlier in the season, Markieff Morris was transformed from 3-point shooter back into the mid-range scoring role he had thrived in earlier in his career.
No, the approach is not as brazen as the proclamation of Mary Shelley’s character, “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”
But what Spoelstra and his coaching staff have created very much has infused life into the Heat, even as the team deals with the exhaustion and disappointment of Saturday night’s triple-overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors at FTX Arena.
“I think everybody right now just wants one formula, and there’s not, with all of these examples,” Spoelstra said of the aforementioned reanimation of players previously considered limited in scope and somewhat one dimensional.
“A lot of times it’s based on need. Sometimes it’s based on potential of a player, if they can grow and do some more things. Sometimes it’s a skill set that they’ve already had. And sometimes you just learn more about a player, as they’re in your building and with you on a day-by-day basis.”
The results at times have been electric.
“We just try to be open to all the possibilities and maximize as much as we can,” said Spoelstra, whose team opens a six-game trip Monday night against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden.
The Heat have recreated before, with Rony Seikaly voted NBA Most Improved Player in 1990 and Isaac Austin selected for that honor in 1997.
While Spoelstra said there is a science to the process, he stressed it is not formulaic.
“There’s a lot to it,” he said. “It’s not necessarily analytics. I’m not really a math guy, so sometimes that can, confuses me. It’s usually just pretty tailored, planned. And it’s starting fresh. It’s not cookie-cutter.
“It’s not what we’ve done for one player is automatically what we’re going to do with another player. It’s being open to the possibilities, having a discussion with the player, having a discussion with the staff.”
This season, the pride of the process, the one who has produced the “It’s alive!’ moment, arguably has been Vincent, from collegiate and G League scoring shooting guard to Heat defense pest and playmaking perpetrator at point guard, but a player with the guile to also hit a pair of 3-pointers during Saturday’s overtimes.
That credit, Spoelstra said, belongs to developmental assistant coach Eric Glass, who previously coached the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
“With Gabe, that was really EG driving that,” Spoelstra said. “And I remember the meeting, vividly, with EG. And he was really selling me on that, that he could become a defensive combo guard because of his mind for the game, his commitment to player development. And he coached him.
“And I thought, ‘Wow, this is pretty ambitious, let’s do it, let’s go. Put together a program and let’s go for it.’ "
But Spoelstra stressed that it is science that also depends on a willing subject.
“It also takes the right kind of student,” Spoelstra said. “Gabe was very willing to get uncomfortable and going through that process of getting out of what he knew.”
The Heat have done similar work with others on the practice court. But what turns it all from trial to triumph is the transformation coming when the lights are on and stakes at their highest.
“And then,” Spoelstra said, “when you’re pressed to get playing time, all of us are the same, we go back to our instincts. [Vincent] fought a lot of that and just worked through that process.”
