ASK IRA: Is riding the Jimmy Butler wave as simple as surf, sink or swim for the Heat?

Q: The entire Jimmy Butler Era has been wait and see. – Ben.

A: Jimmy Butler certainly keeps us on our toes. So now we wait and see how many games he chooses to play, how healthy he will be for the season’s most important games, how invested he is in securing his next contract or an extension. Jimmy has been a force of uncertain nature for more than a decade, so the only choice is to ride the wave while he still is under contract and on the roster. So surf, sink or swim.

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Q: If the Heat continue playing the way they have the last two seasons during the regular season, then yes, Cinderella playoff runs as a low seed are not sustainable. – Danny.

A: Or are they? Because until the postseason begins, only then will we know if Playoff Jimmy exists, whether, at 35, an ability to turn it on at playoff time still remains. Look, such has been the Heat’s MO since Jimmy Butler’s arrival, be it as a No. 5 seed making the NBA Finals in 2020 or as a No. 8 making it in 2023. And the reality is who knows what might have happened if Jimmy remained healthy in the play-in round against the 76ers last season and the Heat instead got the wobbly Knicks in the 2024 first round. So, yes, getting a higher seed and avoiding another play-in fate certainly would be preferable and optimal, but only once in Jimmy Butler’s five Heat seasons has the team failed to claim playoff success when Jimmy was healthy for the playoffs.

Q: Ira, I like hockey’s approach, with the Panthers’ rookie camp before training camp. – Ethan.

A: But you can’t require players to appear at summer league and then add another layer on top, of a pre-camp. As it is, almost all, if not all, of the Heat’s young players congregate at Kaseya Center well ahead of the formal start of training camp, which for the Heat this year is on Oct. 1. Plus, there is no way the NBA is going to do anything with the golden goose that is summer league, where the league somehow has conjured a sellable product that comes without the featured attractions actually being paid (brilliant!). For the Heat, the summer program that starts in June after the draft, basically runs for a full month, so that is plenty on the plate already for the younger players.