Q: Were the first nine Heat players to see action against the Hawks, the best nine players on the roster? \u2013 Chad, Coral Springs.<\/p>\n
A: Interesting, because as the game against the Hawks played out<\/a>, it came off as Erik Spoelstra attempting to balance veterans and youth. But save for Kasparas Jakucionis playing ahead of Dru Smith, you might be correct in citing the nine best as playing as the primary rotation. You certainly wouldn\u2019t have had Nikola Jovic ahead of any of the nine in the primary rotation in Atlanta, and for all he has contributed amid roster shortages, I\u2019m not sure you would have Simone Fontecchio in there, either. So, yes, it not only might have been the nine best in a true meritocracy, but also a nice balance<\/a> of mixing veterans such as Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins with neophytes such as Kasparas and Kel\u2019el Ware.<\/p>\n Q: It seemed to me like Tyler Herro gave his teammates confidence against the Hawks. I noticed that he seemed to especially energize Kel\u2019el Ware.\u00a0 I don\u2019t suppose he\u2019s going to play off the bench the rest of the season, but I really liked the look of that second unit with Tyler. \u2013 Eddie, South Bend, Ind.<\/p>\n A: I think after Tyler Herro came back after the toe injury and then went right out with the rib issue that Erik Spoelstra has bought ample time to slow play any move with Tyler Herro when it comes to the starting lineup. It also might come organically, with Davion Mitchell playing through fever on Friday night and therefore possibly needing time off, and with back-to-backs perhaps not optimal for Norman Powell at his age. Eventually, though, Tyler will be the one to determine whether he plays himself back into the starting lineup.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Is Bam Adebayo going to eventually get tired of being the only inside presence on the court ? Yes the guy is a pro but it has to be wearing on him. \u2013 David, Deerfield Beach.<\/p>\n A: Not if they keep winning. Now, if Joel Embiid is back for the 76ers in next week\u2019s meeting in Philadelphia, then I could see Bam Adebayo preferring something strong in support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Were the first nine Heat players to see action against the Hawks, the best nine players on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[3879,7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-615693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-ask-ira","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-heat","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-miami-heat-blog","15":"tag-miamiheat","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116108510050165187","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}