LOS ANGELES — Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has spent a career collecting people, or at least picking their brains.
When Chip Kelly was reinventing college football with pace-and-space dynamic, Spoelstra visited with the Oregon coach during the 2011 offseason. A Heat championship followed months later.
Two years later, it was off to the Seattle Seahawks’ camp for lessons in NFL motivation from Pete Carroll, lessons that have provided the type of balance needed to endure over these 18 seasons coaching the Heat.
Along the way, it wasn’t solely about the biggest names playing under the brightest of lights. There also has been time spent in Davie with Division II championship coach Jim Crutchfield at Nova Southeastern, soaking in basketball at its most relentless.
The seeking has been ceaseless.
So there Saturday, at the far end of the gym at UCLA sat Noah LaRoche, Spoelstra’s latest seer, architect of the “chasing space” offense the Heat have implemented to unleash points at a heretofore unseen rate. After finishing last season 27th in the NBA in pace and 24th in scoring, at 110.6 points per game, the Heat entered Sunday first in the league in pace and second in scoring, at 125.4 points per game. In the Heat’s 38 seasons, they have never averaged more than 112 points.
While the former Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach technically is not on staff, his role as a consultant is such that he is with the Heat on this four-game trip that included Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“He’s been a good addition, a fun addition to the staff,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat’s trip continuing with a Monday night game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “He’s really an innovative coaching mind. I love to talk hoops. And I’ve really enjoyed, and our staff has really enjoyed, our discussions with him. He’s just been a fun addition to the staff.”
So who is Noah LaRoche? A basketball savant from humble playing roots with a bent for player development — and scheme development.
For weeks now, Heat players have emphasized how there are no plays, just constant movement by all five, as if on a collective string, or, as LaRoche has put it, “chasing space.”
While the Heat declined to make LaRoche available for comment, which is not unusual with the Heat long known for their single-voice philosophy, the owner of Integrity Hoops in the Boston area has publicly championed his philosophy for years.
In a February interview with the Slapping Glass Podcast, LaRoche opened a window into his philosophy, including:
— “Everything is about managing space: Chasing space when you have the ball, chase space when you’re off the ball, chase space. That encompasses all these other things that create great offense and create great defense.”
— “Elite players, they don’t think about the move they’re going to make. They find space and they get there and then from that the move actually emerges.”
During Amazon Prime’s Friday NBA coverage, the Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Norman Powell offered a studio demonstration of the approach on the set, going through some of the rudimentary movements with Prime analyst Steve Nash, Blake Griffin and former Heat captain Udonis Haslem.
.@Bam1of1 and @npowell2404 break down the Heat offense with the #NBAonPrime crew pic.twitter.com/yFPFdDgzu5
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) November 1, 2025
During the demonstration, the five showed that for every movement by one player, there was required movement by the other four. Constant cutting, passing, no two players occupying similar space.
With this Heat roster, one lacking a superstar but also one with numerous capable contributors, Spoelstra saw it as the right fit at the right time.
“It’s really, again, trying to come up with a plan that you think makes the most sense for the team you have,” he said. “And that’s all we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re not trying to do anything else other than maximize the players, the personnel we have. Give them something they can rally around. Hopefully give our fans something they can rally around, get excited about as well.”
Ultimately, it is another case of Spoelstra collecting people, just as he was captivated by the shooting philosophies of Rob Fodor, who was brought in as a shooting consultant and now is on Spoelstra’s developmental staff.
With LaRoche, the connection grew through the connection with former Heat guard Duncan Robinson, with Robinson and LaRoche sharing common basketball roots in New Hampshire.
“I got to know Noah a little bit through Duncan over the years,” Spoelstra said. “I just think he’s a very creative offensive mind, somebody I really enjoy talking shop with and coming up with different ways of doing things.”
In adding an additional voice, Spoelstra balanced it with respect he said is due his incumbent staff, including lead assistant Chris Quinn.
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“Quinny has been very instrumental in our offensive plans this year and previous years,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not just about the rankings of where we were years before. It’s about whether the offensive system makes sense for that iteration, that team, and does it bring out the best in guys? And I think you could say for sure it has. And Quinny has been a major part of that the last few years, and he’s been a big part of what we’re doing this year.
“But the collaboration and the ideas, all that stuff has been a lot of fun.”
Adebayo said it is laudable that a coach on a Hall of Fame track such as Spoelstra remains open to outside ideas, open to bringing in someone like LaRoche.
“That just shows the growth. That just shows he’s willing to have some success in a different type of way,” Adebayo said. “The game is evolving. Every year, we see somebody else win it and they play a different style of ball. So for us, it’s just forming our own style and our own system. That’s how we can compete.”
