ASK IRA: Are Heat bonds being broken in NBA free agency?

Q: Ira, last year Jimmy Butler was telling Goran Dragic to re-sign or he would (I think) kill him. Now he’s signing off on this trade? — Edward.

A: First, Jimmy Butler has input but hardly final say on any Heat trade, including what apparently will be a swap of Goran Dragic for Kyle Lowry (although things do tend to change in free agency at a moment’s notice). And, yes, Jimmy has been particularly fond of Goran, and I would expect that to continue. But this also is about winning and a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mindset. When Jimmy pushed Goran to return last offseason, it was in the wake of the Heat closing within two victories of the 2020 NBA title, and of Goran helping push Jimmy for the first time into the NBA Finals. This time around the Heat are coming off the humiliation of being swept out of the first round by the Bucks. It is similar to Jimmy’s playfulness with Tyler Herro during the 2019-20 season and how that grew more muted amid the Heat’s uneven 2020-21 season. Jimmy is a man of many things, but patience is not particularly high on that list.

Q: Can a team participate in more than one sign-and-trade in one season? Curious with all the sign-and-trade talk with Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn. — Chadwick, Lake Worth.

A: Yes, you can send out multiple players in sign-and-trade deals. So that does remain an option for the Heat. You also can bring in multiple players via sign-and-trades. So that also remains an option for the Heat. The bottom line to it all is once you are hard capped, you stay hard capped, no matter any other moves, as would be the case with the Heat with Kyle Lowry.

Q: Ira, it was fun to get a better look at Precious Achiuwa, KZ Okpala and Gabe Vincent at the Olympics. But did the Heat learn anything? — Norris.

A: I believe the more you see any player in highly competitive situations the more you learn. So there’s that. I’m just not sure the results were particularly eye-opening. Yes, Precious Achiuwa had some intriguing moments when he took the ball end to end, similar to the bust-out play of Bam Adebayo. So there’s that. But he continues to appear undersized in a power role when it comes to getting the ball to the rim. Plenty of polishing remains to round out a package that mostly is athleticism at the moment. As for KZ Okpala, he again displayed defensive tenacity, with a disruptive presence on that side of the ball. But there practically is no offensive game. With Gabe Vincent, it simply is a matter of whether there can be NBA-level consistency with the outside stroke. As it is, we first have to define Precious’ landing spot amid the start of the NBA personnel period.