Q: If Victor Oladipo’s progress continues, the Heat will have at least him, Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin to harass Kyrie Irving if their teams meet in the playoffs. Those seems like decent odds to me. — Ed, Miami.

A: And you can add Jimmy Butler to that list, Plus, with Bam Adebayo and P.J. Tucker willing to jump in while defending the pick and roll, there certainly will be ample defensive options to throw at virtually anyone. And that’s where this return by Victor Oladipo can take this all to another level, Erik Spoelstra able to feature five-man lineups that have no defensive liabilities.

Q: I suspect Erik Spoelstra and front office wisely don’t want to reveal all their cards before the playoffs. Strategically, holding out key players or not using certain schemes during the regular season is part of pre-playoff planning. — Leonard, Cornelius, N.C.

A: Absolutely. This is a coach who has made habit of changing his starting lineups for the playoffs. But this season also is a bit different, with players such as Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris entering the mix so late. As much as a Plan B might lurk somewhere on Erik Spoelstra’s hard drive or somewhere in the cloud, he also has to test out the best possible schemes for Victor and Markieff. So not all can be done surreptitiously

Q: Does Tyler Herro get a max extension when eligible? If yes, who will have to be let go? Are we then into the luxury tax? — Bob, Davie.

A: The good news is that a rookie-scale extension for Tyler Herro, even if agreed upon this coming offseason, will not go into effect until the 2023-24 season. So for next season, he will remain on the payroll at $5.7 million. And when a Herro extension would kick in, in 2023-24, it will be the final season on Kyle Lowry’s three-year contract. So the Heat are in decent position when it comes to staggering their staggering contracts. But, yes, there well could be a year or two in there in the tax. That is the cost of doing business as an elite team. And, yes, based on the way the Heat treated Bam Adebayo once he became eligible for his rookie-scale extension, I would expect a similar approach with Tyler.

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