Q: Hel­lo, Ira. As of right now, how many first-round draft picks bet­ter is Dono­van Mitchell over Tyler Her­ro? Offen­sive­ly, Mitchell is cur­rent­ly the more pol­ished play­er, but defen­sive­ly he’s not an upgrade over Tyler. Tyler Her­ro is 6 feet 5, where­as Mitchell is only 6–1. As Her­ro con­tin­ues to mature his game and body, I think Her­ro is the play­er that offers more upside in the long run. What are your thoughts? – Car­los, West Park.

A: This to me is the crux of any Tyler Her­ro trade dis­cus­sion, exact­ly how much sweet­en­er, if any, should be includ­ed. We know the Jazz want draft picks, with it like­ly that Tyler could be flipped for at least two (with pro­tec­tions). But when it comes to send­ing Tyler and mul­ti­ple picks, that’s where risk/reward enters the equa­tion. And then even more so if the Jazz also seek sweet­en­ers along the lines of a Max Strus of Omer Yurt­sev­en. Dono­van Mitchell is uni­ver­sal­ly con­sid­ered bet­ter than Tyler at the moment; that is the NBA’s assess­ment. But how much bet­ter has to be con­sid­ered when con­sid­er­ing poten­tial trade sweet­en­ers. As it is, Utah appears to be over­reach­ing at the moment, just as the Nets did with Kevin Durant.

Q: The Heat fin­ish around four or fifth in the reg­u­lar sea­son, lucky if they have home court in the first round. – Mor­gan, New Orleans.

A: And you cer­tain­ly could be cor­rect, con­sid­er­ing the Heat fin­ished last sea­son two games ahead of the Bucks, Celtics and 76ers, who all tied for sec­ond. So once you add in the Nets and their renewed Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irv­ing hope, there could be a par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing Nos. 4–5 series ahead. But the East also was deep last sea­son, and the Heat found a way to avoid such a test. So basi­cal­ly put your doubts on hold at the moment, con­sid­er­ing the Heat tend to find a way.

Q: Hel­lo Ira, I remem­ber Pat Riley say­ing that Micky Ari­son expressed his will­ing­ness to go into the tax, so long as the Mia­mi Heat are legit­i­mate con­tenders for a NBA title. Since Jim­my Butler’s arrival we have indeed been con­tenders, so why do you think the reluc­tance to spend now while we have this win­dow with But­ler and Kyle Lowry? – Car­los, West Park.

A: Because it has to be for the right play­er, espe­cial­ly when it comes to trig­ger­ing the clock on the repeater tax. For Kevin Durant, the tax con­cerns assured­ly would have been put aside. Per­haps for Dono­van Mitchell, as well. For now, the Heat have found a way to make it work with the max­i­mum (or near max­i­mum) salaries of Jim­my But­ler, Bam Ade­bayo and Kyle Lowry. For now, it would be a 15th man that would put the Heat into the tax.

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