ASK IRA: Are Heat at a crossroads with Max Strus and his struggling stroke?

Q: How long of a leash do we give Max Strus before we bench him until he finds his confidence/shooting stroke again? – Scott.

A: First, you don’t build confidence by benching someone. But there also will be somewhat of a natural readjustment when the Heat again are whole and able to return Max Strus to the bench role that he was supposed to hold this season. As Bam Adebayo has pointed out, players who had been relied upon off the bench have instead been thrown into the starting lineup on a moment’s notice. Max has basically started at power forward, small forward and shooting guard in a season when he was supposed to play as sixth man. Let him get back to that role and then see how it plays out from there. As it is, his role has been as erratic as his shot.

Q: The Heat just need to add scoring punch via trade. The offense bogs down for unnecessarily long stretches, coupled with poor shot selection. – Jason.

A: Or the scoring punch comes with Jimmy Butler back in the lineup for an extended stretch and Kyle Lowry pushing his offensive game to a higher level over the second half of the season. The Heat (with all due respect to Caleb Martin) have four proven scorers in their starting lineup in Butler, Lowry, Bam Adebayo and Herro. What they need off their bench is reliable shooting, something that has been lacking this season. And I’m not sure you can rely on Victor Oladipo at this point when it comes to shooting.

Q: How much longer do we have to endure these Dewayne Dedmon minutes? – Jon.

A: First, Dewayne Dedmon is never going to win with style points. That’s just not his game. But he also is as close to the Heat have when it comes to the big-muscle game. It still is possible that his contract was set up more as a trade chip. We will see. But until/iuf Omer Yurtseven makes it back, it’s still as good as it gets behind Bam Adebayo.

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