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ASK IRA: Should Heat have acted before Kings signed Ben Simmons?
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- ASK IRA: Should Heat have acted before Kings signed Ben Simmons?
Q: Ira, you gave your reasons about the Heat not signing Victor Oladipo, but did they miss on Ben Simmons? He had been down here with his fishing team and they could have worked him out. – Ellis.
A: At a certain point, a team in win-now mode has to draw a valuation line between players who can be developed/reclaimed and those needed to be able to contribute in the moment, without questions of whether they are healthy enough or still skilled enough. In the development bucket, the Heat have Ryan Conwell, Myron Gardner, Tre Donaldson and even, still, Nikola Jovic and Pelle Larsson. So adding an unknown quantity would have meant going without, say, a Nick Richards or Klay Thompson or Tim Hardaway Jr. The Kings make all the sense for Ben Simmons and he makes all the sense for them. There is no pressure to produce in Sacramento, but rather begin a potential climb back to relevance. And if Ben can make it back to something close to the best of his healthy, contributing self, there will be further more to consider down the road.
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Q: Ira, is there a rule to allow NBA owners to force an owner to sell the team owned? Micky Arison was elected unanimously by his fellow NBA governors to be their next chair. He should do within his power to force Steve Ballmer to sell the Clippers . – Ben, Plantation.
A: Or he can, and will, stand by the league's commissioner and allow Adam Silver's ruling to stand as sufficient justice. Owners directly policing other owners is a dangerous game when all are chasing a similar goal that only can be attained by one. If anything, the NBA Board of Governors should finally be able to exhale, knowing that the right man can make the right ruling, and that certain rules are steadfast.
Q: Ira, down two, 15 seconds, who will be the guy? – Husky, Taipei.
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A: Giannis Antetokounmpo. but that is not the question. The question is down two with five seconds to go, no timeouts, inbounding at the opposite baseline: Who can get the ball into a scoring sweet spot? That's where the lack of a shot-creating ballhandler stands as the issue. It's not as if you want Giannis dribbling into a long jumper. The Heat's best end-to-end guy at the moment likely remains Davion Mitchell, and we all know how that ended at the end of overtime in the play-in loss to the Hornets.
