During his tenure with the Heat, Spoelstra has had the opportunity to coach some elite NBA players such as LeBron James<\/a>, Dwyane Wade<\/a>, and Jimmy Butler<\/a>.<\/p>\n While coach Spo won two NBA Championships during the Heatles era<\/a>, he once had a difference of opinion with franchise legend D-Wade.<\/p>\n Prior to the Big 3 era, Wade was the team\u2019s cornerstone superstar. He had already led the team to an NBA title in 2006 as the No. 1 scoring option<\/a>.<\/p>\n Evidently, the legendary guard was habitual of playing extended minutes and getting as many touches as he wanted on the court. However, in the 2011-12 NBA season, Wade\u2019s minutes were cut short.<\/p>\n The Heat legend recently shed some light on it and how coach Spo was responsible for that decision.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to play like 38-40 minutes then it got to a point where Spo had to cut my minutes a little bit. Spo took me down to like 34 minutes,\u201d Wade said, via Time Out podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hot because I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Oh, you f______ with my numbers, my touches.\u2019 Obviously, my ability to put my imprint on the game, till he showed me film,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n For context, Wade averaged 37.6 minutes per game from 2003-04 to 2010-11 NBA seasons. While Wade was a terrific player and scorer during this stretch, he also battled through numerous injuries.<\/p>\n Erik Spoelstra had to show D-Wade proof<\/p>\n Being the face of the franchise, Wade\u2019s initial reaction was full of anger. However, coach Spo calmly handled the situation<\/a> by showing him the true reason behind his decision.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was like, \u2018You\u2019re resting for four minutes, on the court! That\u2019s why your plus-minus looks [terrible].\u2019 But he took me out and played me for about four less minutes because I was finding moments on the court to rest.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 He took me out. He took my minutes down and I became even more efficient. My numbers didn\u2019t really drop that much at all. Because I had more energy to do things I needed to do,\u201d Wade stated.<\/p>\n Prior to getting his minutes cut, Wade had averaged 25.4 points per game while shooting 48.5% from the floor. But over the next four years, Wade averaged 21.0 points per game, and his shooting went up to 50.6% from the field.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-108913101-940x627.jpg\")
Photo by Ronald Martinez\/Getty ImagesDwyane Wade was \u2018hot\u2019 with Erik Spoelstra\u2019s 2011 decision<\/p>\n