Yahoo Sports NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh and senior NBA writer Dan Devine take a look at the Heat’s salary structure and explain why the roster in South Beach isn’t finished yet. Check out the full conversation on “The Big Number” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Little number is 18.3 million.
so yeah, bi-big number all things considered, but in the c- in the context of where the, the s- this, the Heat are now, that’s roughly how many dollars they project to be underneath the first apron according to our pal Keith Smith over at Spotrac.
that is where the Heat are now hard-capped at the first apron after the Giannis deal, so they cannot exceed the first apron.
They have $18.3 million in space according to his projections, and they’ve got five open roster spots, after the trade.
One of those, as you mentioned, will go to Ryan Condell in all likelihood, second-round pick they’ve got.
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So yeah, shooting low-cost contract for a second-round rookie, that is, you know, that’s nice.
That goes in there.
they might also need to replace Norman Powell, as you mentioned.
Norm Powell is about to hit unrestricted free agency when the new league year turns over.
he just made the All-Star team.
He also just made more than $30 million a year, so I don’t think he’s particularly excited to take a pay cut.
and he’s reportedly drawing some interest on the market, including from the Detroit Pistons, who just opened up some more cap space with their trade to move off of Isaiah Stewart into He s- That sent him over to the Memphis Grizzlies.
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So now, like, there might be some teams out there that really, that have some money to spend and that look at, on a pretty un- you know, unappetizing guard market and free agency, look and say, like, “Norm’s the best option out there.
We gotta throw a bag at him.”
And if that happens, he’s probably not coming back to Miami.
So you’re f- you know, replacing him in the starting lineup, and you’re replacing the high volume, high, high efficiency shooting off the dribble or off the catch that he provided.
So you look at this and say there’s four or so roster spots that need to be filled up.
Minimum salaries for veterans are, like, you know, around $3 million.
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Like, there’s not a lot of space to be able to go to put this.
So like, but then you get to the, the, the playoffs, and you get to the, the deep parts of the playoffs, and rosters, you know, depth charts get slashed, right?
Rotations get cut to the bone, and it’s just really about how good are your top five, six, seven guys.
How big of a concern do you think that the depth is at this point, and, like, I guess where, the limited pathways of flexibility that they have to be able to round things out with what, again, might not be a particularly robust free agent class?
Yeah, I think what you’re gonna see, that $18.1 million number, it’ll get bigger once they bring back Andrew Wigi-Wiggins, if they do that.
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I mean, he has a player option for $30 million.
and they can re-sign him at, say, 18, 19, 20, a year, and then be able to pry open a little bit more space under that number.
so there are ways for the Miami Heat to bring back one of those two guys, whether it’s Andrew Wiggins or Norm Powell.
But bringing ’em back both, that would, that would take maybe another aspiration deal in order to make it happen.
I don’t, I don’t know how the Miami Heat would do that.
But they Look, this is, this is, on the free agency market, is a very thin free agency market, but part of that is because teams already have a lot of their cap space eaten up with extensions.
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And so when you’re looking at Norm Powell destinations, it’s not a lot of teams.
You mentioned Detroit.
there are not a lot of teams that are gonna be able to, afford Norm Powell at a $30 million number.
And so there, there is potential for the Miami Heat to get a guy on 30 cents on the dollar just because there just isn’t a lot of teams that have the cap space to get, bring, bring in and sign, a, a real key figure in free agency.
So they might benefit from that.
I do remember, you know, Shane Battier turned down a hu- a much more lucrative offer from Toronto and elsewhere just because he wanted to go and play with the Miami Heat, with LeBron James, and win a championship.
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He was willing to take a s- really steep discount.
That doesn’t always work.
We’ve seen that time and time again around the league is guys, veteran guys wanna win a championship, and they take a discount, and it still does not work out for them.
So we’ll see what the Miami Heat do.
But, again, I just, I, I feel, I feel bullish about the Heat’s opportunity here to add real key players, and especially because, you know, Sacramento Kings, they’ve got DeMar DeRozan on a non-guaranteed contract next season.
I don’t think he’s gonna save the spacing issues, but off the bench, if they can get DeMar DeRozan on a veteran deal, to play for them, if he is indeed waived by the Sacramento Kings or, or not retained by the Sacramento Kings, or a, a Zach LaVine if they decide to waive him, these are, these are things that we’ll probably find out in the next week or so.
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They’re not free agents right now, but they could potentially be free agents, so keep an eye on DeMar DeRozan, whether he would be open to joining the Miami Heat if he is indeed waived or not brought back by the Sacramento Kings.
