ASK IRA: Would the Heat have been better off to wait out Lonnie Walker IV in free agency?

Q: Ira, we’re all guilty, myself included, in free agency when we want everything done right away. But look at the Heat. If they waited, they could have gotten Lonnie Walker IV for the minimum.

Instead, they rushed out to sign Alec Burks. – Anderson. A: Except all is not so simple.

Because you also can play the waiting game and wind up without any of your options. Plus, just because Lonnie Walker IV took a non-guaranteed minimum deal from the defending NBA champions doesn’t necessarily mean he would have taken the same to return to his collegiate town to play for a team that has been in the play-in round the past two seasons. That said, there were a bunch of curious Heat early signings, from the Burks agreement to the seeming wink-wink with Thomas Bryant.

And if even one of those wasn’t done, they could have been an opportunity to better address point guard with Dennis Smith Jr. But also understand that the Heat are privy to discussions with agents that we are not, including the mindset of players and the initial contract demands. Yes, the Heat have benefited by waiting over the years, with Gary Payton a prime example of a late-offseason signing back in the day.

But these also are different times, where payrolls can get rapidly frozen, almost in a hard-cap sense. In that regard, it’s as if an entire league is readjusting to the new workplace rules under this latest CBA. Related Articles Q: The Celtics have a great chance of going back-to-back.

Why would Miami pass t.