2019 Southeast NBA Free Agency Primer – The under performing division
Miami Heat
Situation Entering Offseason:
About the only thing the Heat were able to celebrate this past season was the Dwyane Wade Farewell Tour.
Much like the rest of the Southeast Division the Heat are in flux. They overpaid middle tier players and are saddled with those contracts again this season taking them well into the luxury tax. The Heat like the Hornets have difficulty scoring and much of that is due to a lack of playmakers.
Factor in Hassan Whiteside hasn’t exactly enamored himself to Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley. Whiteside wants more touches and while his shot blocking remains stellar it’s youngster Bam Adebayo who the club would prefer to move forward with.
Salary:
Cap Space: $ (41,627,358.00)
Floor Space: $ 42,409,494.00
Max Space: $ (23,931,328.00)
Projected Space: $ (36,006,473.00)
*as per Keith Smith of Real GM
Key free agents to re-sign:
The team won’t have any free agents to deal with unless Udonis Haslem decides he wants to stick around. He’s been a definitive example of the Heat culture which would likely lead to Riley using up a vet minimum should the career-long Heat big man decide he wants to stay.
Scan the team’s roster and you almost close your eyes to pick a great reserve player who would make any playoff team better. The problem is there aren’t any true stars on this team especially on offense. Of the eight players earning more than $10M, Josh Richardson is arguably Miami’s most complete player — and he earns the least of the octet.
If Riley can find a way to move one or both of Whiteside or Ryan Anderson’s contract that would surely help their situation. Although Riley is old school and asking him to tank would be akin to asking him to drink poison, the truth is waiting til the trade deadline to offload some of these expiring contracts or serviceable playoff helpers might be his most practical move.
2019 Roster Depth:
- Bam Adebayo
- Ryan Anderson
- Goran Dragic
- Kelly Olynyk
- James Johnson
- Derrick Jones Jr.
- Yante Maten
- Kendrick Nunn
- Josh Richardson
- Duncan Robinson
- Dion Waiters
- Hassan Whiteside
- Justise Winslow
Draft Picks:
- Tyler Herro
- K.Z. Okpala
2019 free agents
Hassan Whiteside (intends to pick up his $27.1M player option)
Dwyane Wade (retired)
Udonis Haslem (hasn’t decided if he’ll retire yet)
2020 free agents
Derrick Jones Jr.
James Johnson (Player)
Kelly Olynyk (Player)
Ryan Anderson
Goran Dragic