Q: I guess if you can get a top-five player, you just do it. But do you really think a Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo pairing is going anywhere? This ain’t the Olympics. – John, Ocala.
A: Considering Erik Spoelstra found the right game with the Dwyane Wade-Shaquille O’Neal pairing, deciphered the Heat’s Big Three after that first season, and somehow got a core with Dion Waiters and James Johnson to go 30-11 over the second half of a season, I’m not sure anyone should doubt the ability to find a game that would work. Unique problems call for unique solutions. But it would be an awfully good problem to have.
Q: Ira, do you think Giannis Antetokounmpo would want to come to a play-in team? Especially since the players are not much better here than what he would be leaving behind in Milwaukee. Unless he wants the usually warm weather in South Florida. – Rich, Plantation.
A: He would have a better coach than he’s ever had and he would have one of the game’s best complementary players in Bam Adebayo. And the Heat’s supporting players at the moment are far better than the flotsam and jetsam that currently are with the Bucks.
Q: Ira, will Milwaukee run the Giannis clock down till the last minute of the trade deadline so the Heat miss out on bidding for Ja Morant? – Joe, Hernando Beach.
A: Typically situations such as that with Giannis Antetokounmpo do go to the wire, which in this case is Thursday’s 3 p.m. NBA trading deadline (and that’s if he is traded at all). To their credit, the Heat are quite good at pivoting and have proven adept at handling a ticking clock. In that regard, considering how many times the Jimmy Butler trade was rewritten last February, with at one point a P.J. Tucker reunion seemingly in the works. If the Heat want Ja Morant and believe such a deal can get done in the void of a Giannis deal, they’ll have their cards ready to put into play at the requisite moment. But, of course, on their terms, if there even is such interest.