ASK IRA: Will Cavaliers’ coaching change lead to a Heat change in view of potential Donovan Mitchell availability?
Q: It’s happening, Ira. Cleveland fired its coach, and now Donovan Mitchell is going to ask out. It’s Damian Lillard all over again. – Matthew.
A: Actually, in many ways it is the opposite of what we saw last summer with Damian Lillard. With Lillard, the Trail Blazers were committed to a rebuild, seemingly gave no thought on moving off of Chauncey Billups as coach. With the Cavaliers’ dismissal of J.B. Bickerstaff, they sent a signal that they are committed to winning more than they did this past season. If anything, the move was done to appease Donovan Mitchell, not as any sort of signal of an impending rebuild. Now the question is to what degree the Cavaliers attempt to placate Donovan with their coaching hire and whether he takes initiative to become involved. We have seen plenty of teams attempt to appease, only to find some of those attempts to be misguided (for example, see: 2014 Heat and the additions of Shabazz Napier, Danny Granger and Josh McRobery in a bid to appease LeBron James). Yes, all eyes now are on the Cavaliers and their leading man. But this hardly is apples to apples when it comes to Donovan Mitchell 2024 compared to Damian Lillard 2023.
Q: Investing in this young duo of Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic now will save us years of stress from our annual free-agency disappointment. – Noah.
A: Based on where the Heat stand against the cap, tax and aprons, free agency is well down on the list of avenues for roster reconstruction. As it is, the Heat might not even have exception money this summer in free agency. So what investing in youngsters does is not only develop talent but also develop trade chips. Tyler Herro has had to deal with that reality after his early-career breakout, and now Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic likely will have to deal with it, as well.The next big Heat move will be a trade. It almost has to be.
Q: Ira, instead of the Heat wishing the Panthers luck in the playoffs, I’d like to see them work together on their schedules so they’re not always playing on the same night. – Bob.
A: I agree that it is disheartening when the NHL and NBA schedules are released every year to see how many common dates there are on the teams’ schedule, particularly home games. But the latter reason contributes to the former. When it comes to Toronto, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, and next season, Utah, those NHL and NBA teams can’t be scheduled at home at the same time because they play in the same buildings (yes, there are some day/night doubleheaders, but at least those are not direct conflicts). It certainly would be nice for the Heat and Panthers to be able to create more complementary schedules. But teams also prefer as many home weekend dates as possible.