As top of East strengthens, Heat's cap crunch proving to be limiting at start of free agency

The defending NBA champion Boston Celtics haven’t made any big moves, but they are running it back with a roster widely considered to be the best in the league. On Monday, the Celtics reached an agreement with Derrick White on a four-year maximum extension.

As for the Heat, there remains uncertainty surrounding how it will fill its roster amid its salary-cap crunch with little to offer outside free agents and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement imposing new restrictions that will make it hard to pull off a trade. Miami also doesn’t have much draft capital available to include in a deal.

With Love returning and Wright departing, that leaves seven players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who remain free agents: Thomas Bryant (unrestricted free agent), Jamal Cain (unrestricted free agent), Haywood Highsmith (unrestricted free agent), Caleb Martin (unrestricted free agent), Patty Mills (unrestricted free agent), Cole Swider (restricted free agent) and Alondes Williams (restricted free agent).

Martin and Highsmith are the Heat’s two free agents who are expected to receive the most interest around the league.

Martin is exploring other options after bypassing the $7.1 million player option in his contract with the Heat for next season to become an unrestricted free agent. Martin is expected to command a salary for the upcoming season that will price out the Heat because of its tight salary-cap situation.

The Heat remains in contention to re-sign Highsmith, who is expected to receive interest from a handful of other teams.

Love’s return has the Heat’s roster at 10 players on standard contracts for next season: Jimmy Butler ($48.8 million), Bam Adebayo ($34.8 million), Tyler Herro ($29 million), Terry Rozier ($24.9 million), Duncan Robinson ($19.4 million), Kel’el Ware ($4.2 million, contract not signed yet), Love ($3.8 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.7 million), Josh Richardson ($3.1 million) and Nikola Jovic ($2.5 million).

This list does not include Orlando Robinson and Pelle Larsson, with the inclusion of those two players giving the Heat 12 players on standard contracts for next season depending on what the team opts to do with their contracts.

The Heat has until July 15 to guarantee Orlando Robinson’s full $2.1 million salary for this upcoming season. If the Heat decides not to guarantee Robinson’s salary, he will become an unrestricted free agent.

Larsson, the Heat’s second-round draft pick this year, is expected to sign a standard contract with the Heat. While it’s still unclear how the Heat will structure Larsson’s standard deal, his salary for next season will likely be between $1 million and $2 million.

...continued

swipe to next page