{"id":92325,"date":"2025-12-22T11:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/92325\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T11:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:41:13","slug":"have-the-true-miami-heat-stepped-forward-yet-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/92325\/","title":{"rendered":"Have the true Miami Heat stepped forward yet this season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: I thought they competed. The Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson late-shot-clock 3s hurt big time. I think when you lose you take your licks and move on, but Kel\u2019el Ware\u2019s 28-19 has to be and should be recognized even in this loss. A lot of good coming from him on both sides of the ball lately. \u2013 Douglas.<\/p>\n

A: You know what Sunday night showed<\/a>? That the Heat are not as good as the Knicks, just as the NBA Cup loss in Orlando showed that the Heat are not as good as the Magic. They just aren\u2019t, at least not now. That is something you grow into. The problem is that if you lose at home to Sacramento and Toronto, then you find yourself in a less-than-optimal position when you go up against better competition. The Heat are very much mid-pack at the moment. That means this week winning at home against Toronto and Indiana and competing in Atlanta. Because if you don\u2019t, then the following week you\u2019re up against the Nuggets, Pistons and Timberwolves. As for Kel\u2019el Ware, big numbers and big performances get overshadowed in losses. They just do. At least on teams that prioritize winning.<\/p>\n

Q: Kel\u2019el Ware puts up 28 points and 19 rebounds in just his second year and it gets dismissed as it must be collective? Why is Erik Spoelstra being this way towards that young man? He nitpicks everything the kid does but says nothing about how his favorite in Bam Adebayo has been underachieving. To make matters worse, he also allows Jaime Jacquez Jr. Simone Fontecchio, and Norman Powell to take his touches away. A talented player shouldn\u2019t be torn down like this in favor of mediocrity.\u00a0 \u2013 Trevor, Pinecrest.<\/p>\n

A: Well, that\u2019s a lot. So, as stated above, you are not going to get a coach to gush about a player\u2019s numbers when the coach is speaking in the immediate wake of a loss. What Erik Spoelstra wants is to see numbers in wins, to challenge Kel\u2019el Ware to also be a winning player. As for Bam Adebayo, he admitted two nights earlier he has been lousy lately<\/a>, so it\u2019s not as if his coach needs to further amplify. And maybe you saw something different, but Jaime Jaquez Jr. was very good Sunday and Norman Powell did his part at times, as well.<\/p>\n

Q: Hi Ira, I got a question about the extension between Norman Powell and Tyler Herro, with the way Norman Powell is playing this season (which is at an All Star level) and Tyler Herro being sidelined with multiple injuries, Can we say that we as fans should expect the Heat front office to prioritize in giving Powell the contract extension before Herro? Or are there going to be other plans? \u2013 Harsha, Oakleigh East, Vic, Australia.<\/p>\n

A: Based on the way the Heat have been playing recently, I don\u2019t think extensions in any way are a current priority. At the moment, there are too many directions in the way this can go, from going big (Kel\u2019el Ware and Bam Adebayo as starting fixtures) to moving another piece by the trading deadline (Andrew Wiggins?). It seemed the speed game was the future, and then the great slowdown began. For now, much is in limbo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: I thought they competed. The Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson late-shot-clock 3s hurt big time. I think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17325,114,123,125,2490,16151,124,2295,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-92325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-ask-ira","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-headlines","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-miami-news","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}