Champion coaches also have rank differences! It only took Spoelstra one summer to rebuild his system, and he could still manage without superstars.

The Clippers lost again. Their four-game losing streak left Coach Lu sitting in the crater, facing the bombardment of public opinion while also facing the "heartache" of his former disciple.

Norman Powell scored 22 points and 3 assists to help the Heat beat the Trail Blazers. After the game, he compared the different feelings of playing in the Heat and Clippers. He said frankly: "The Clippers play fixed tactics every time. The current system pays more attention to letting nature take its course and relying on teamwork." and running without the ball, we no longer implement fixed tactics that can be predicted by the opponent every time."

Powell's original intention was not to ridicule Lu's guidance who believes in "giving the ball to the two James". He tried to praise Heat coach Spoelstra in a contrasting way. Because Spoelstra only used one summer to reshape the system and almost completely overturned his previous coaching philosophy.

The Heat's new play has attracted the attention of the entire league. This style of play may not allow the Heat to compete for the championship, but in an era of serious homogeneity, Spoelstra brought out the characteristics of a team without superstars and turned it into a bright spot. He proved through coaching that there is also a rank gap between championship coaches.

Spoelstra's pursuit of change began with an unforgettable defeat. Last season, the Heat were eliminated by the Cavaliers in an almost humiliating manner, losing 122 points in four games, setting a record for the largest net loss in a single round series.

"The season ended in a hurry at the end of April. It was a painful and embarrassing first-round trip," Spoelstra said. "We won two consecutive playoff games on the road to finally get tickets for the playoffs, but the result was so embarrassing."

After the Heat were eliminated, Spoelstra, Adebayo, and president Pat Riley got together to discuss the future direction of the team. Where should the blade of change be? Spoelstra soon made the decision to reconstruct the tactical system and reshape Heat basketball.

Not long ago, Adebayor and Powell went to Amazon Studio to demonstrate the underlying logic of the Heat's new system with Nash, Griffin, and Haslem on the spot. The five-out position opens up the space. When one person moves, the four move with him as if drawing a circle, constantly cutting in and passing the ball. Adebayo defines it as "random play."

If you have an impression, you should remember that at almost the same time last year, there was a team in the NBA that used almost the same concept to attract attention. This team was the Grizzlies. It is widely joked that the Grizzlies play a "circle tactic". The core of this style of play is to speed up like crazy, reduce pick-and-rolls as much as possible, and use repeated breakthroughs in the entire space to penetrate the defense to complete the fatal blow. This style of play may seem simple, but it will put everyone on the court to a huge test on their dribbling and passing skills, shooting ability, basketball IQ, and spirit of sacrificing the ball.

The source of inspiration for Spoelstra's radical reform came from former Grizzlies assistant coach LaRoche.

There were many misunderstandings about the battle over the Grizzlies' internal tactical concepts last season. Although Isalo was the winner in the end, judging from the significant increase in the proportion of pick-and-rolls after he became the head coach, the coach who asked to reduce pick-and-rolls, screens, and hand-offs was LaRoche. In LaRoche's own words: "It's all about space management." The "future basketball" mentioned by basketball commentator Su Qun actually has nothing to do with Isalo and Split. What LaRoche and Spoelstra play is the most authentic.

Former Heat forward Duncan Robinson and LaRoche are fellow townspeople and friends. Spoelstra met LaRoche through Robinson. He once praised LaRoche as "having a very offensively creative brain, and I like to talk tactics with him." This season, Laroche became an informal consultant to the Heat at the invitation of Spoelstra.

There are many NBA champion coaches, but there are not many coaches who can follow the trend of the times and lineup iterations to constantly change their coaching concepts and even subvert themselves. Spoelstra is one of them. Lakers coach Redick sincerely praised Spoelstra for being "always willing to learn and adjust" and "worthy of being one of the greatest coaches in history."

In the era of the Heat's Big Three, Spoelstra drew on the tactics of the University of Oregon football team and used a "high-speed distributed offense" to lead the Heat to the championship. In recent years, Spoelstra has led a team with limited talent to fight hard on defense, and his move of zone defense has inspired many teams to follow suit.

In the past three seasons, the Heat's offensive efficiency ranked in the bottom 10. For the past six seasons, the Heat have been one of the slowest teams in the league. But in the 2025-26 season, the Heat transformed into the fastest-paced and freest-flowing team in the league.

So far this season, the Heat have played 106.28 rounds every 48 minutes, surpassing the Trail Blazers to become the fastest team. Ranked 16th in the league in scoring 115.4 points per 100 possessions, and ranked second in the league in averaging 124.1 points per game.

With Adebayor significantly increasing his three-point shots, the Heat have become the team with the fewest pick-and-rolls and hand-offs in the league. However, their number of breakthroughs has soared to 58.1, ranking fourth in the league. Their average points in the penalty area reached 58.4 points per game, 30.4 assists per game, and 36.8 points using fixed-point shooting and breakthroughs. These three statistics rank second in the league.

Under this multi-point ball-holding style, everyone in the Heat is a beneficiary. The statistics of players such as Hux, Davion Mitchell, Powell, and Adebayor have all improved, and Larsson and Jovic have many bright spots.

"We now use fewer screens, pick-and-rolls, more five-out positions, and share the ball more," Adebayor said. "In my opinion, this is the most beautiful look of basketball."

After studying the Heat's video, Redick also noticed the changes in the Heat: "They played well. Extremely fast, and then keep moving, breaking through and attacking the basket until an advantage is created."

For example, 5 minutes before the end of the game against the Trail Blazers, the Heat positioned themselves on the outside, and Harks broke through in the first wave. Powell followed up with the second wave, and finally hit a floater to lead the score. Powell danced a shoulder-shaking dance to celebrate.

Of course, the world will never lack voices of doubt.. Like the Grizzlies last year, the Heat's egalitarian style of play has been questioned as "the lower limit is guaranteed but the upper limit is not high." It's no wonder that for a team lacking top talent, the upper limit seems within reach. But the Heat don't care about doubts. In their view, team basketball that pursues sharing the ball, selflessness, and sacrifice is the true meaning of this sport. This is the style of play that suits them best.

"We are trying to develop a plan that makes the most sense for the existing team. This is all we are trying to do, rather than reinventing something. We are just maximizing the potential of the existing players and bringing them together." Spoelstra explained.

In addition, the Heat also face another question: this season, the Heat's team averaged only 6.7 pick-and-roll ball attacks per game, while Hiero himself averaged 7.3 times per game last season. When Herro returns, will the Heat have the conflict of playing styles between the Grizzlies coaching staff and Morant last season?

Spoelstra is not worried at all.

On the one hand, the Heat's new style of play and the pick-and-roll are not incompatible. At the critical moment of the battle with the Trail Blazers, Wiggins' corner three-pointer came from the pick-and-roll. A reasonable and efficient pick-and-roll offense can complement the system. On the other hand, Hiero's ability to shoot suddenly and off the ball is obviously more suitable for this style of play than Morant.

The farce of the Grizzlies changing coaches midway and overturning the previous style of play will not happen to the Heat. The Heat plan to stick to this change for a long time under the leadership of Spoelstra.

"Yes, this is a new era of Heat basketball." Adebayor said.