Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is coming off arguably his worst coaching job of his career. (Mandatory Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has long been respected by his peers — especially executives. He nearly swept the field in last year’s annual GM survey, and almost did so again this week.
The NBA’s 24th annual general manager survey was released this week, posing 49 different questions about the league’s best teams, coaches and players heading into the new campaign.
To nobody’s surprise, Spoelstra was dubbed the league’s best coach for the sixth-straight survey — as well as the “best manager/motivator of people” for the third-straight year.
Spoelstra took home 52 percent of the vote, with reigning NBA champion head coach Mark Daigneault securing 34 percent of the vote and Los Angeles’ Tyronn Lue earning seven percent. Spoelstra, 54, earned 69 percent of the vote last year, 73 percent in 2023-24 and 52 percent in 2022-23.
Spoelstra finished T-3 (13 percent) for which head coach makes the best in-game adjustments and third (13 percent) which has the best defensive schemes.
Surprisingly enough, the 18th-year head coach also earned votes for which coach has the best offensive schemes. I’m not sure if that voter is aware that the Heat have had a bottom-third offense each of the last three seasons, but I digress.
Nevertheless, regardless of how you feel about Spoelstra, he’s consistently one of the best. I’d argue that hasn’t been the case each of the last two seasons. But I think he will be extra motivated off the worst coaching job of his career in 2025-26.
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