ASK IRA: Is Max Strus offering another example of Heat plotting gone wrong?

Q: Ira, refresh my memory. Who did we decide to keep when we let Max Strus walk away on a contract that looks like a steal now.  – Luis, Boca Raton.

A: It wasn’t as much a matter of “keeping” as it was of getting the team’s salary book in order. That was the offseason when, coming off the 2023 NBA Finals, the Heat allowed both Gabe Vincent and Max Strus to walk in free agency. While the Heat acknowledged a counteroffer to Vincent, the sense from the outset was Cleveland’s four-year, $63 million contract to Max was too rich for a team that already had Duncan Robinson on the books for $18.2 million in 2023-24 and then $19.4 million this past season. So, instead, the Heat worked out a reunion in free agency with Josh Richardson at the veteran minimum, with Thomas Bryant also added in free agency that 2023 offseason. Now, both Richardson and Bryant are gone, with Strus playing on at a reasonable (in NBA dollars) $15.2 million salary this season

Q: After watching Cleveland very successfully use the same strategy Friday night against Tyrese Haliburton that they used on Tyler Herro, is it time to give Cleveland a little more credit and Herro a little more slack? They held Indiana’s best scorer to four points, zero threes, zero free throws and only 25 percent shooting by face-guarding him the entire game, running him off the line and yet surrounding him in the paint. When a team plays like this, it is up to others to make them pay for having a defender who is not helping off of his assignment at all.  – Adam, Plantation.

A: Agree. That’s where a team has to be a team, with others to step up – if there are others capable of stepping up. With the Heat, that’s where Terry Rozier was needed, instead of being the no-show he was for months on end. Similarly, just as the Heat did not have a Plan B for Tyler Herro being taken out, the Pacers struggled in that aspect in Game 3 against the Cavaliers. Compare that, say, to teams such as the Knicks, who made sure to add scorers to complement Jalen Brunson. The playoffs are when roster flaws are most exposed.

Q: Let me translate Pat Riley’s statement: “I messed up by not re-signing Jimmy Butler. I know I messed up and everyone else knows I messed up. But there is nothing I can do about it now.”  – Bernardo, Fort Lauderdale.

A: I think your Google Translate might be a bit off. I took it more as, “We will not be bullied by a player who decided to be a no-show for games on end and then insisted on talking the talk of a player who was unable to get the ball across the goal line.” To me, it’s not about what Pat Riley said a year ago about Jimmy Butler, or even the contractual approach, but rather how he failed to get ahead of the curve to better keep his team afloat and maximize contract return.