ASK IRA: Will smaller ball beat down Heat through attrition?
Q: Maybe I am possibly overthinking this and it’s possible I am in the minority with this opinion, but I don’t think exclusively four wings and one semi-big can win a chip. Rebounding will inevitably come back to bite a unit like that, no matter how hard they box out. Has a team this small ever won the championship? And please the Golden State Warriors death lineup doesn’t count; it was only used In the fourth quarter and in key moments. In my opinion the death lineup changeup was part of their dangerous mystique, sort of like Erik Spoelstra’s zone change-up versus Boston in the bubble. I don’t think Steve Kerr would’ve ever started Andre Iguodala at the four for the whole game. It just doesn’t make sense big picture wise to play a natural small forward at power forward all game. Spo is a future Hall of Fame coach, but he’s wrong about this. I love Caleb Martin; he can obviously play the four position, but he’s a natural small forward. I was begging for a Jerami Grant move for years. He was cheap, too. – Swann.
A: As a coach, you deal with the hand you’re dealt by management. And it’s not as if you can identify a clear option as a true power forward on this roster. The reality is the Heat spent extensive time during training camp playing Omer Yurtseven alongside Bam Adebayo. They also played together during the preseason. But other than the Yurtseven option, this roster is not built with a means to start a true power forward. Nikola Jovic is too raw. Dewayne Dedmon is too limited. And Udonis Haslem doesn’t play (except when there is no one else to play).
Q: Why doesn’t the NBA have an injured reserve, like the NFL? Between that and allowing teams to carry only 14 players, instead of a full roster of 15, the Heat is constantly two or three men short. How is either rule (no injured reserve and allowing less than a full roster) good for teams, players, or fans? – Andrew, Coral Gables.
A: Because you only play five at a time. So when counting the two players allowed on two-way contracts, the NBA allows for the equivalent of at least three five-man units. The league actually used to have a rule where you would have to designate a set amount of players as injured in order to carry them on the roster beyond those allowed in uniform. With the Heat, it’s more of a case of being everything to everyone, including appeasing ownership by going one below the roster limit to stay under the luxury tax, appeasing Udonis Haslem with a 20th season, and appeasing the front office by carrying developmental players. Fortunately, the moment of roster crisis, in terms of available bodies, appears to have passed, with Thursday in Houston more about load management.
Q: Tyler Herro thought they were going to New Mexico? – Kev.
A: Um, yeah. But apparently he wasn’t alone, as my plane taxis into Albuquerque.
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