{"id":199317,"date":"2025-10-03T10:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T10:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199317\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T10:58:09","slug":"ask-ira-is-andrew-wiggins-deserving-of-more-respect-as-a-key-heat-lineup-component","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199317\/","title":{"rendered":"ASK IRA: Is Andrew Wiggins deserving of more respect as a key Heat lineup component?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Why is it so hard to see Nikola Jovic at the three playing alongside Kel\u2019el Ware? Why push this thing him vs. Ware who starts? You don\u2019t want to hurt Andrew Wiggins\u2019 feelings? Or you don\u2019t think Jovic can play the three effectively next to Bam and Ware? \u2013 Swann.<\/p>\n<p>A: As long as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2025\/09\/13\/ira-winderman-wiggins-in-the-wind-no-reason-for-heat-to-set-sale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Andrew Wiggins is on this roster;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Andrew Wiggins is on this roster<\/a>, he is one of the Heat\u2019s five best players, based on his career body of work, and even his productivity at the end of last season with the Heat. The same is not as absolute with Nikola Jovic. Now, if you\u2019re saying this should be more about the future, then fine, trade Wiggins and move on. But lineups are as much a factor of roster composition as individual skill sets. And on this roster, starting both Nikola Jovic and Kel\u2019el Ware together does not maximize the mix. All of this is part of the Heat\u2019s lack of commitment to picking a lane. To a degree, this is a developmental roster. But this also is a team committed to chasing a playoff berth.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Related Articles<\/p>\n<p>Q: You seem to have locked in Kel\u2019el Ware as our future at center, but I am not convinced. He reminds me too much of Hassan Whiteside. Although he has a better offensive game than Hassan had, he exhibits the same lack of hustle. And where is Hassan now? I hope that Ware proves me wrong. \u2013 Irwin, Boynton Beach.<\/p>\n<p>A: First, Hassan is now retired at 36, after building a career that had him playing professionally as recently as this past season in Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, it is fascinating how polarizing Heat big men can be. Some insist Kel\u2019el Ware be locked into the starting lineup and the Heat move on from there. Some have Hassan Whiteside-like concerns. So here\u2019s a reality check: Players drafted at No. 15, as Kel\u2019el was in 2024 don\u2019t always go on to become NBA starters. In is a player list of No. 15s that includes Kobe Bufkin (2023), Mark Williams (2022), Corey Kispert (2021), Cole Anthony (2020) and on and on, through the likes of Sekou Doumboya, Troy Brown Jr., Justin Jackson and Juancho Hernangomez, a list dating through the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>Q: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2025\/10\/01\/spoelstra-on-sidelined-panthers-barkov-at-heat-practice-i-love-that-guy-i-love-everything-hes-about\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:They need Terry Rozier;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">They need Terry Rozier<\/a> to give Heat scoring off the bench. I predict a strong comeback for Rozier. \u2013 Dan.<\/p>\n<p>A: Comebacks rarely start with hamstring strains, so there already is that with Terry Rozier. But it will be curious, very curious, to see the approach when Terry gets back, whether Erik Spoelstra and the Heat would dare feature Terry during the regular season, and thereby complicate the decisions with their developmental pipeline in the backcourt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Why is it so hard to see Nikola Jovic at the three playing alongside Kel\u2019el Ware? Why&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[5553,72559,114982,114981,114979,5967,82140,56196,60528,98728,355,56242,99,39724,114980],"class_list":["post-199317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-cole-anthony","tag-corey-kispert","tag-developmental-roster","tag-hassan-whiteside","tag-heat","tag-juancho-hernangomez","tag-justin-jackson","tag-kelel-ware","tag-kobe-bufkin","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jovic","tag-sports","tag-terry-rozier","tag-the-heat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}