Miami Heat Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Look Ahead At Potential 2026 Free Agents

August 8th, 2025 at 9:59pm CST by Eli Cohen

Free agency is not the headline event it once was in the NBA, as a large portion of the top players on the market tend to extend, like Luka Doncic did last weekend with the Lakers, or move in trades rather than signing with new teams. However, there are still likely to be talented players available and ready to contribute to new situations, as Zach Harper details for The Athletic.

Teams like the Lakers, Clippers, and Heat have made an effort to keep their flexibility for next year, write Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton for ESPN. However, those teams are also expected to try to maintain cap space for 2027, a summer in which multiple MVPs – Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic – could potentially reach the market, though of course neither is guaranteed to be available.

The Celtics will also likely look to retool their roster next summer after trading away key contributors in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis for salary cap relief, as they seek to rebuild their roster into a contender around Tatum once he has recovered from his Achilles tear.

Trae Young, with a $48.9MM player option for the 2026/27 season, has the potential to be one of the top names on the board, and while Harper expresses confidence that an extension with the Hawks will get done, there have been rumors that it’s far from a certainty, and that next season could serve as an evaluation period for the Hawks’ core under a new head of basketball operations.

Other high-end veterans with player options for ’26/27 include James Harden (Clippers), Zach LaVine (Kings), Draymond Green (Warriors), Austin Reaves (Lakers), Andrew Wiggins (Heat), Fred VanVleet (Rockets), and Bradley Beal (Clippers). Harper considers Harden, Green, and Reaves very likely to remain with their current teams, and VanVleet also relatively likely to stay, though the Rockets have some level of flexibility in regard to the future of their roster.

Then there are the unrestricted free agents. As of this moment, LeBron James (Lakers) and Kevin Durant (Rockets) represent the cream of the crop, but there are other talented players such as Porzingis (Hawks), Anfernee Simons (Celtics), Coby White (Bulls), and others who are sure to garner suitors.

For what it’s worth, Durant has been widely expected to extend with Houston, but James is ineligible to be extended prior to free agency and White’s salary is so modest relative to his value that he’s considered likely to wait until he can get a bigger payday on the free agent market.

One interesting inflection point will be players on team options, such as Isaiah Hartenstein and Luguentz Dort on the Thunder, and Bogdan Bogdanovic and Brook Lopez on the Clippers. The Thunder, particularly, could have some tough decisions to make on their role players soon as lucrative extensions take effect for stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams.

Heat’s Highsmith Undergoes Knee Surgery, Out 8-10 Weeks

August 8th, 2025 at 12:53pm CST by Luke Adams

Heat forward Haywood Highsmith suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee during a recent training session in his hometown of Baltimore and has undergone surgery to repair the injury, the team announced today (via Twitter).

According to the Heat, the procedure was completed in Miami on Friday by team physician Dr. Harlan Selesnick (Twitter link). Highsmith will begin rehabilitation work immediately, but the expectation is that he’ll be sidelined for approximately eight-to-10 weeks.

Training camps are scheduled to get underway in roughly seven-and-a-half weeks, so Highsmith’s injury figures to delay his availability this fall. He’s unlikely to be back to full health by the time the Heat begin practicing and may not be ready to return by the time the regular season tips off a few weeks later.

It’s an unfortunate setback for a player who is entering a contract year and who will be looking to establish himself as a regular part of Erik Spoelstra‘s rotation after seeing his role fluctuate last season. Highsmith set career highs by appearing in 74 regular season games and averaging 24.6 minutes per night, but was in and out of the starting lineup and was briefly removed from the rotation entirely.

A versatile defender with good length, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game last season, with a shooting line of .458/.382/.721. He’ll earn about $5.6MM in 2025/26 on an expiring deal.

Southeast Notes: Sarr, Heat, Trades, Free Agency

August 6th, 2025 at 7:09pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Second-year Wizards big man Alex Sarr, playing for France, enjoyed an impressive showing during a EuroBasket warm-up game against Montenegro, per Eurohoops. In an 81-75 victory, Sarr scored 19 points and pulled down four boards across just 13:49 of action.

After being selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft, the seven-foot center made the All-Rookie First Team with Washington for 2024/25. In 67 healthy contests, he averaged 13.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.4 APG and 1.5 BPG.

Sarr’s Washington colleague Bilal Coulibaly chipped in another 10 points for the French team.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

Reeling after a drama-filled 2024/25 season headlined by the Jimmy Butler trade demand, the Heat are looking to return to contender status moving forward. In a reader mailbag, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscriber link) suggests that the key to improving for Miami is trades, not free agency. The NBA landscape has changed mightily since the summer of 2010, when president Pat Riley signed free agent future Hall of Famers LeBron James and Chris Bosh to form a superstar “Big Three” with incumbent guard Dwyane Wade. That team went to four Finals in four years, winning twice. Butler was also acquired in free agency (via sign-and-trade), but the Heat have since embraced the trade route. To wit, Miami managed to acquire guard Norman Powell from the Clippers as part of a multi-team deal this offseason.
The Heat have some cap flexibility in 2026, but the top free agents in that class are combing off the board as a result of several offseason contract extensions, observes Winderman in another Sun Sentinel story (subscriber link). All-Stars like Paolo Banchero, Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, De’Aaron Fox, Jalen Williams, and James Harden have all finalized extensions with their respective teams or are expected to do so, while players like Chet Holmgren, Mikal Bridges and Bradley Beal have also completed multiyear deals. Harden and Beal do have player options for next season, so in theory they could become available. Dyson Daniels and Draymond Green are among the notable players who are extension-eligible but have yet to agree to new contracts.
In case you missed it, Hornets forward Grant Williams recently provided an update on his rehab from a host of season-ending knee issues suffered last November.

Former Heat Employee Accused Of Stealing Team Items, Selling Them For Profit

August 6th, 2025 at 8:23am CST by Dana Gauruder

A former Heat employee has been accused of stealing more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items and selling at least 100 of those items for profit, according to reports from The Athletic’s Brooks Peck and the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang and Charles Rabin.

According to a Department of Justice press release, Marcos Thomas Perez faced federal charges of transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce on Tuesday. Among the items Perez alleged stole was LeBron James’ jersey from Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, which he sold for approximately $100K. The jersey was later sold in 2023 at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.68MM.

The federal investigation was launched in early 2024 after game-worn jerseys from James, Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade — among many other items — went missing from the Heat’s arena, the Kaseya Center.

Perez worked the City of Miami Police Department in November 1992 until he retired in April 2016. He was employed by the Heat as a security officer from 2016-21, then worked for the NBA as a security employee from 2022 until this year.

“During his tenure, Perez worked on the game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center, where he was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room,” the DOJ’s press release reads. “This equipment room stored hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia that the organization intended to display in a future Miami Heat museum.

“During his employment, Perez accessed the equipment room multiple times to steal over 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, which he then sold to various online marketplaces. Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often for prices well below their market value.”

Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez’s home in April and seized almost 300 items that the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their arena.

Meadowlark Media’s Amin Elhassan first reported the news of the investigation on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” last week, according to the Herald. The Heat organization and the league have declined to comment during the ongoing investigation.

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Miami Heat

Heat Notes: Westbrook, Powell, Bridges, Herro, Fontecchio

August 4th, 2025 at 8:21pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Signing free agent guard Russell Westbrook wouldn’t make much sense for the Heat, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Winderman anticipates that Westbrook would rather sign with a team that has a stronger chance to contend.

Bringing in any free agent at this point creates salary cap and luxury tax issues for the Heat, according to Winderman, who also notes that Westbrook would likely to have to accept a role as the fourth guard in the rotation behind Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Davion Mitchell.

We have more on the Heat:

Powell, who was traded to the Heat by the Clippers last month, is training in South Florida but not with the Heat. He’s working out with the Jamaican national team, which is holding its training camp at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to prepare for the FIBA World Cup 2027 Americas pre-qualifiers, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, “I was expecting training camp to be in Jamaica, but then I learned that it was in Boca. And then being traded to the Heat, being so close to where I’ll be playing and being able to go down there and go to the facility, look for a place to stay. … It’s definitely cool,” Powell said.
Mikal Bridges‘ extension with the Knicks provides an interesting comp for future negotiations between the Heat and Herro, Winderman writes. While Bridges has never made an All-Star team or won an NBA award, unlike Herro, he’s a better two-way player. Bridges’ average of $37.5MM per season in his four-year extension still might not be enough to lock down Herro to a long-term agreement, notes Winderman.
Also at The Sun Sentinel, Winderman explores whether it would make sense for the Heat to utilize the stretch provision before the Aug. 29 deadline, pointing out that they could move below the luxury tax line by shedding some salary. The primary candidate, in Winderman’s view, is Simone Fontecchio, who was acquired in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade with Detroit. He has an $8.3MM expiring contract which could be stretched at $2.7MM over each of the next three seasons.

Bam Adebayo Endorses Heat’s Roster Moves

August 2nd, 2025 at 5:11pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat haven’t won a playoff series since their surprising run to the 2023 Finals, but Bam Adebayo believes the team’s offseason moves have it headed back toward contention, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Adebayo spoke to reporters Saturday at his youth basketball clinic in Miami, marking his first public comments since the Heat were knocked out of the playoffs by Cleveland in April.

“It’s a very good shake-up for our team and now there’s a different dynamic to it,” Adebayo said.

Miami added another dynamic scorer last month by acquiring Norman Powell from the Clippers in a three-team trade. After two straight top-four finishes in the Sixth Man of the Year voting, Powell moved into L.A.’s starting lineup last season and responded with a career-high 21.8 points per game. Chiang notes that he was one of just six players who averaged at least 21 PPG while shooting better than 48% from the field and 40% from three-point range.

The Heat were able to land Powell at a bargain price, sending versatile forward Kyle Anderson, veteran big man Kevin Love and a 2027 second-round pick to Utah in the deal.

“I feel like Norman is one of those guys that floats under the radar,” Adebayo said. “But as you saw this year, he’s really shown that he can be an All-Star caliber player. You’ve seen what he’s done and you’ve seen him grow in this league. And, obviously, he wants to take the next challenge. Obviously, the next challenge is being with the Miami Heat. So I’m happy to have him.”

Miami was also able to re-sign free agent point guard Davion Mitchell, who was acquired from Toronto in February. Mitchell responded to the trade by putting up 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.4 steals in 30 games with Miami while shooting 50.4% from the floor and 44.7% from beyond the arc. Chiang states that he also made a difference with his aggressive defense, as the Heat gave up 3.4 fewer points per 100 possessions when he was on the court.

“Davion being back, obviously, we’ve been missing somebody that can really play on-ball defense,” Adebayo said. “And having him come in and be that guy and understand his role, I’m looking forward to him being here for a full year and all of us being together and getting to know one another and turning this into more of a brotherhood. We were kind of disconnected a little bit trying to figure out everybody’s role and trying to figure out everybody’s style of play. But now we’re going to have a good training camp and then we go from there.”

Adebayo also talked about the teammates he lost as the Heat retooled their roster. In addition to parting ways with Love and Anderson, Miami sent Duncan Robinson to Detroit in a sign-and-trade deal that brought back Simone Fontecchio.

“I’m going to miss them, obviously,” Adebayo said. “Just because Duncan has been here for eight years and having that connection was special. And then K-Love was a leader that could speak to somebody from a championship level, could obviously encourage the younger group, be an example, but also he was the bridge between some of the coaches and the players. So like I said, I’m going to miss both of them. I’m glad we had the time that we did. It was, obviously, helpful for my growth and my development as a player and as a captain.”

Southeast Notes: Rozier, Heat, Hornets, Wizards

July 31st, 2025 at 8:15pm CST by Earnest Marshall

When Jake Fischer recently reported that the Heat and Wizards held trade talks about guards Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart, he wrote that the two sides could not come to an agreement as Miami “could not reach an organizational consensus on whether such a trade was a clear upgrade.” Smart was ultimately bought out and ended up with the Lakers.

Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald confirms that the two Southeast teams did indeed engage with one another about a possible deal and notes that it would have made sense on paper given Smart’s expiring salary ($21.6MM) is cheaper than Rozier’s ($26.6MM). However, Chiang clarifies that the primary reason such a trade did not occur was primarily due to the fact that Miami didn’t want to attach the necessary draft capital it would have taken to complete such a deal.

The Heat remain open to trade talks surrounding Rozier, but they have been hesitant to include draft picks or sacrifice future flexibility simply to get off his expiring contract.

We have more from the Southeast Division:

A federal investigation was launched early last year regarding game-worn Heat gear that was stolen from the team’s facilities, Chiang writes in another post. The gear includes that from the likes of Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James.
Look for Mason Plumlee to start at center for the Hornets in a year where his competition looks to be rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner and former two-way big Moussa Diabate, Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer writes. Plumlee started for the Hornets during Mark Williams‘ rookie season before being traded to the Clippers. Boone suggests a similar situation could play out in 2025/26, with Plumlee starting as the man in the middle before Kalkbrenner ultimately takes over.
The Wizards will keep their 2026 first-round pick if it ends up in the top eight of the draft. The Knicks will own the pick if it falls outside of that range, but as Josh Robbins of The Athletic details, the Wizards don’t feel compelled to try to reacquire that selection in its entirety, since doing so would mean potentially giving up the swap rights they own on the Suns’ 2026 first-rounder.

Southeast Notes: D. Smith, Heat, Wizards, Djurisic

July 29th, 2025 at 12:46pm CST by Luke Adams

While Dru Smith had been considered the favorite to claim the Heat‘s final two-way slot, that can’t actually happen, notes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, since a CBA rule prohibits a player from being on a two-way contract with the same team for four seasons.

Smith hasn’t spent the entirety of the past three years on two-way deals with Miami, but he has been on a two-way contract for at least part of each of the past three seasons since 2022/23, making him ineligible to do so again in ’25/26.

The Heat did tender Smith a qualifying offer in June, but that offer is for a one-year, minimum-salary contract with a small partial guarantee (approximately $102K), rather than another two-way deal. Miami has just 14 players on standard contracts for now, so Smith could be the club’s 15th man, but team salary is already over the luxury tax threshold, so it’s unclear whether or not the front office plans to carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season.

Meanwhile, there’s still a two-way spot open on the Heat’s roster alongside Vladislav Goldin and Myron Gardner.

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

It hasn’t been an especially eventful offseason for the Heat — they’ve made modest additions like Norman Powell, Kasparas Jakucionis, and Simone Fontecchio, but will bring back a roster pretty similar to last year’s group. With that in mind, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel suggests that internal improvement represents Miami’s best hope of taking a step forward and identifies Andrew Wiggins, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier, and Nikola Jovic as a few of the top candidates to give the team more in 2025/26 than they did in ’24/25.
Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum are the only two players on the Wizards‘ roster who are older than 26 or earning more than $14MM in 2025/26, according to Varun Shankar of The Washington Post, who says the front office views the two veterans as positive influences and potential role models for the team’s younger players. Acquiring Middleton and McCollum also put Washington in position to create significant 2026 cap room, since both players are on expiring deals.
Nikola Djurisic, a 2024 second-round pick who signed his first NBA contract earlier this month with the Hawks, was left off Serbia’s roster for the upcoming EuroBasket tournament. As Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.com relays (via Twitter), Serbian head coach Svetislav Pesic referred to the 21-year-old forward as part of “the future of Serbian basketball” in explaining that decision. “There was a thought to include him (on the roster) as well, but we have a lot of experienced players in that position,” Pesic said. “Let him take a break from everything now. He spent a whole year in America.”

Nikola Jokic Headlines Serbia’s Preliminary EuroBasket Roster

July 28th, 2025 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is among the 17 players listed on Serbia’s preliminary roster for this year’s EuroBasket tournament, the Basketball Federation of Serbia announced in a press release (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

Jokic is one of a handful of NBA players on the Serbian roster, along with Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Thunder guard Nikola Topic, Heat forward Nikola Jovic, and Wizards center Tristan Vukcevic.

There are also several other players in the group who have previous NBA experience, such as Vasilije Micic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, and Alen Smailagic.

The Serbian national team is convening on Monday to begin training for EuroBasket and will play a series of exhibition games in August leading up to the event, which tips off on August 27.

The Serbians will face Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Turkey in the EuroBasket’s group phase. The field is made up of four groups of six teams apiece, with 16 of the 24 total clubs advancing to the knockout round of the tournament.

It will be the second straight summer in which Jokic has represented Serbia in an international competition — he led the team to a bronze medal finish at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. However, the Serbians were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy in the most recent EuroBasket tournament in 2022, despite 32 point and 13 rebounds from Jokic in that game.

Heat Notes: Star Duo, Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio

July 27th, 2025 at 5:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

If this season goes poorly, it could lead to an internal examination of the Heat‘s longest-tenured pairing, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In an offseason mailbag, Winderman says the entire organization, including head coach Erik Spoelstra, understands that the team’s performance during the last two years – including back-to-back No. 8 seeds and pair of first-round playoff exits – is not to the franchise’s lofty standards.

Jimmy Butler‘s impact on those outcomes can’t be overlooked, but Winderman also suggests that the coming season could be “make-or-break” for theTyler Herro/Bam Adebayo duo.

Herro had a career year last season, averaging personal highs in points (23.9) and assists (5.5) per game while making his first All-Star team, but that coincided with Adebayo posting his lowest scoring year since the 2019/20 season. Most importantly, it didn’t lead the team to wins — Miami had a 37-45 regular season record, its worst mark in a decade.

Winderman notes in his mailbag that the trade for Norman Powell was a win-now move designed to bring in more reliable offense, and that there will be expectations for the team to show signs of growth in the first full season of the post-Butler era.

We have more from the Heat:

Nikola Jovic understands the Heat are taking a risk by allowing him to represent Serbia in this year’s EuroBasket tournament and is grateful for both the opportunity and the precedent set by former Miami guard Goran Dragic, writes Winderman. “You’re letting someone play for their country, paying them a lot of money, and they’re important to you,” Jovic said. “An injury would definitely be a setback for them. But, by chance, and to my great fortune, I’m part of the Miami team that had Goran Dragic.” The Heat expressed that Dragic always came back from international tournaments a better player, a pronouncement which gives Jovic confidence in himself and his development. The fourth-year forward is expected to play a large role with the Serbian team, which won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup, and he hopes that will help him solidify a more consistent role with the Heat. “This way, I enter the new NBA season already in game rhythm. I just keep going,” he said.
Also set to participate in EuroBasket is Heat shooting guard Pelle Larsson, who will represent Sweden not long after playing for Miami in Summer League. Winderman isn’t worried about the workload for Larsson, especially since the team let him out of his summer duties four days early to join the Swedes. Rather than being nervous about the grind of going from Summer League to EuroBasket to training camp, the Heat are excited to see what the 24-year-old can do as a leading man in the games, Winderman writes.
Simone Fontecchio has arrived in Folgaria, in northern Italy, to join the Italian EuroBasket squad, writes Michele Nespoli of Sportando. However, he will be unable to start training with them until Wednesday, July 30, as stipulated by the NBA’s regulations in regards to FIBA competition. Fontecchio has chosen to report to the team early to be in closer communication with them, as he did in 2023.