ASK IRA: Is Miami Heat’s loss the Orlando Magic’s Jamal Cain gain?

A: I would not overstate winning the NBA All-Star Weekend dunk contest, considering Matt McClung has won the dunk contest three times and has yet to gain an NBA foothold. That said, at the veteran minimum, a team could do far worse than Keshad Johnson as a 13th, 14th or 15th man. The presumption is the Heat bypass a qualifying offer, moving him from restricted to unrestricted free agent, and then offer to bring him back at the veteran minimum. If he can get more elsewhere, then the Heat can look at it as helping foster that career of yet another undrafted developmental project.

Q: A lot of people seem to think an overhaul is just a switch you flip, as if anyone can just “overhaul” their team and make it better. But they seem to forget that you’d need other teams to play along. Flipping your players for high first-round picks isn’t just something you can do when you decide to. Perhaps we fans need to understand that there’s not always a move out there that makes your team better. – Aram, Raleigh, N.C.

A: This is why there is such a debate about the lottery, because it is the lone makeover mechanism you totally can control, unlike needing a trade partner or cap space or player interest in free agency. And it’s also a matter of, as you cite, what is available for a potential makeover. In the Heat’s case, there apparently were not first-round picks available for Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell at the trade deadline. So at some point, the return is so minimal as to not even be makeover productive.