ASK IRA: Could Omer Yurtseven’s relocation come back to bite the Heat?
Q: Erik Spoelstra cannot and does not want to coach a true center. It’s his Achilles heel as a coach, and it might be what prevents him from winning another championship. Each playoff there will be a team against whom small ball simply won’t work, and Spoelstra won’t have an answer. – Andrew, Coral Gables.
A: But you could have said that against Brook Lopez in this past season’s first round, and against Al Horford/Robert Williams in the East finals, and yet the Heat found a way. It’s not that Erik Spoelstra does not want to coach a true center, it’s that he has Bam Adebayo as his center and wants to coach Bam Adebayo as his center. The approach has yielded three appearances in the conference finals over the past four seasons, including two berths in the NBA Finals. And, to be fair, it’s not as if teams with true centers stopped Nikola Jokic on the way to his championship with the Nuggets. You build your best team by utilizing your best players. That does not mean you can’t also have size, but it has to be the right fit alongside Bam.
Q: So Omer Yurtseven finally signed with the Jazz and Pat Riley let this gem, diamond in the rough, get away because Erik Spoelstra was never able to build some chemistry with him? Look when I’m telling you, this young man is gonna be a star in this league. — Masoud, Tucson, Ariz.
A: If that truly was the outside perception with Omer Yurtseven, then he would not have lasted until the third week of free agency and would not have had to settle for a minimal, partially guaranteed contract. As it is, Omer sets up no better than Utah’s third-string center, if that. That doesn’t mean he won’t ultimately reemerge, just that the Heat weren’t the only team with doubts.
Q: If the Damian Lillard trade doesn’t happen, would the Heat still have to trade Tyler Herro? I have to imagine it will be awkward in the locker room if they bring him back. – Jeffrey, Miami.
A: Tyler Herro hardly is the lone NBA player to have been dangled in a bid for elite talent. It is part of the job, a job that will pay Tyler Herro $27 million this coming season for the inconvenience of uncomfortable messaging on social media this summer. It sounds cold, but NBA players essentially are treated as commodities on the stock market that is the NBA personnel whirlwind. For that cold reality they are compensated in a way that allows them to warm to such a reality.