Mavs coach Rick Carlisle sees Erik Spoelstra as Miami’s All-Star

It’s no secret that the Miami Heat don’t have an All-Star on their roster. However, if Rick Carlisle is to be believed, the Heat do have an All-Star, but he sits on the sidelines. Carlisle elaborated before Monday’s win against his Mavs squad:

“Spoelstra should be on the All-Star team,” “I mean he always does a great job and he’s even raised the bar higher. What he’s done with this roster and developing guys.”

“They’ve got a good thing going there,” “And, again, Erik’s the guy that’s the leader of the whole thing. Not to diminish the players that they have -- they have good players -- but the job he’s doing this year is just phenomenal.”

Carlisle also got specific, explaining who he thinks have taken a jump under Coach Spo.

“I mean, what Wayne Ellington’s doing, I mean that’s great coaching vision, finding a niche like that and developing him into the kind of guy that’s 100 mile-and-hour sprint into 3-point shots,” “I mean, not many people saw that coming. So I give Erik a lot of credit for that one.

”And, all these guys, you know. [Josh] Richardson has really emerged as a terrific crunch-time player. Tyler Johnson’s undrafted. They’ve done a great job with [Goran] Dragic. [Hassan] Whiteside’s a guy that was a second-round pick or something like that and now he’s a max player. I mean, Erik’s done an amazing job with this group.”

Carlisle is right. Where Pat Riley is often credited as the godfather behind Miami’s success, Coach Spo and his staff make all the pieces fit together. What they’ve done the last two seasons is incredible. His ability to help his team find success, especially in crunch time is so unique. When a plan comes together, we get plays like this:

Obviously being well coached isn’t everything. It’s the players who ultimately get the job done on the floor. But still, Coach Spo is an incredible influence if just a talk with Hassan can deliver a huge performance, there’s no telling where the Heat go from here Erik Spoelstra at the helm.