- The Heat are still struggling to recover from the loss of Dwyane Wade via free agency this past summer and are likely headed to the 2017 Draft lottery as a result, Marc D’Amico of NBA.com writes.
Heat center Hassan Whiteside is ready to go from target to recruiter in the free agent market, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Whiteside was one of the top names in free agency over the summer, attracting interest from several organizations before re-signing with the Heat for $98MM over four years. Now he wants to be part of the effort to bring other big names to Miami. “When you start being around those guys a lot more, when you’re making the All-Star Game and when you’re making those different events where you get to meet the best players and hang around, that’s especially when you can build a bond with a lot of those guys,” Whiteside said. “I think that’s where a lot of recruitment comes from.”
There’s more news out of Miami:
- Wayne Ellington should return soon from the quad injury that has sidelined him since the final preseason game, Winderman writes in a separate piece. The Heat signed Ellington in July to a two-year deal worth more than $12MM to bolster their outside shooting.
- The Heat’s injury problems have created more playing time for Rodney McGruder, writes Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald. The rookie guard played more than 30 minutes twice this week, including some late-game experience. “It just puts you in those situations earlier than you ever would have expected,” he said. “I’m in a great situation with great teammates, a great coaching staff that believes in all of us. It makes it that much easier to go out there and play. For me, I just try to stay the course, and the minutes I do have — whatever they are — I treat them like crunch-time minutes. Because whenever you get out there those are important minutes.”
- Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale says work ethic was the most important thing he learned during his time as an assistant under Erik Spoelstra, Navarro adds in the same story. Fizdale spent eight seasons in Miami before taking the Memphis job over the offseason. “I would put him against anybody in the league from the standpoint of preparation, time spent on watching film, really time spent on deep thought on what motivates his team, what guys to play,” Fizdale said of Spoelstra. “He’s a forward-thinking guy, really open minded, forward-thinking guy.”
- Heat center Hassan Whiteside‘s winding road to NBA stardom provides hope for other players scrapping to make the league, Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy told the media earlier this week. Whiteside played 19 games for the Kings his first two seasons and wound up in the D League, China and Lebanon before resurfacing with the Heat, where he emerged as one of the league’s top centers. Whiteside, who re-signed with the Heat for four years and $98MM over the summer, is averaging 16.9 points and a league-best 15.1 rebounds. “Hassan Whiteside is a great lesson for other players and a great lesson for those of us making personnel decisions in the league, especially with big guys,” Van Gundy said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen overnight. Hassan Whiteside right now is playing as well as any big man in the league. His numbers are mindboggling.”
If Chris Bosh doesn’t appear in a game by February 9 and an independent doctor selected by the NBA and NBPA declares him medically unfit to continue his career, the Heat could remove his current and future cap hits from their books. That much has been well documented. However, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald details, in that scenario, the Heat would unfortunately have some motivation to root against Bosh making a comeback for another team.
According to Jackson, if Bosh were to play in 25 games for another team starting in 2017/18, his cap charges would return to Miami’s books. The Heat wouldn’t be required to remove salary to get back under the cap, but they could be subject to a very expensive luxury tax bill with Bosh’s $25MM+ salary back on the payroll, and his $26MM cap hit for 2018/19 could prevent the team from having any cap room during the 2018 offseason. In that scenario, the Heat might be stuck in a position where they have to shed significant salary via trade in order to avoid a mammoth tax bill, so the team might be inclined to take a cautious approach to spending in 2017 even if Bosh’s cap hits are removed.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- As Jackson observes, if Bosh’s 2016/17 cap charge is removed from the Heat’s payroll between February 9 and February 23, the team could be in a position to take on salary at this season’s trade deadline. It’s not clear how quickly cap relief would be granted to Miami, but Jackson suggests there’s a “good chance” of it happening before the deadline.
- In a separate article for the Herald, Jackson notes that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is considering possible lineup and rotation changes in order to kick-start the club’s struggling offense. “I’ll look at everything right now to get us more organized, get guys comfortable and get them to their strengths,” Spoesltra said. “Everything is on the table.”
- Count Stan Van Gundy among those who thought it was “sad” to see Dwyane Wade leave the Heat this summer instead of finishing his career with the franchise, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It’s the way it is now,” Van Gundy said. “Very few guys, very, very, very few guys are going to finish where they start. But it certainly looked for a long time like he would have been one of the guys who would have finished there.”
- Udonis Haslem always knew David Fizdale, who left the Heat to coach the Grizzlies during the offseason, was going to be a head coach in the league, as the Sun Sentinel passes along. “He was definitely head coach material. I expected him to leave a lot earlier,” Haslem said. The power forward added that Fizdale is players-coach and he can easily relate to what players have gone through to make it to the NBA.
Heading into free agency this past summer, DeMar DeRozan seemed likely to re-up with the Raptors, but there were several teams lurking as probable suitors for the All-Star shooting guard. As Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated writes, those teams included the Heat, Clippers, and Lakers.
DeRozan is a Los Angeles native, and the idea of returning to Southern California to play for one of his hometown teams certainly had some appeal to him. However, the 27-year-old quickly reached a new agreement with Toronto instead, declining to take meetings with any other team. DeRozan spoke to Spears about that decision and a few other topics, so let’s round up some of his more interesting quotes from the piece…
On whether it was hard to pass up the opportunity to play for an L.A. team:
“Yeah, of course. At the end of the day, the Lakers are the Lakers. I grew up a Lakers fan. Kobe [Bryant] was my favorite player growing up. I didn’t miss a game as a kid. Just to have the opportunity was amazing. I watched one of my favorite players create a legacy of his own and leave his mark there. He left his own mark there. It will always be there. I want to leave my own mark in Toronto.”
On why he chose not to meet with any teams besides Toronto in free agency:
“If I knew where I wanted to be from the beginning … I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time and just hear somebody else talk or say something when I know in the back of my mind that I want to do something else. As long as that something else was mutual, there was no point of me doing anything else. … I don’t want to waste anybody’s time. I didn’t want to give false hope if I knew what I felt inside was right. And that was me going back [to the Raptors].”
On what it meant that the Raptors pushed hard to re-sign him to a long-term deal:
“It meant a lot. It was a mutual feeling. It made everything else easier. Nobody had a doubt, from the organization to the fans. Everything we created was going to be there and still was going to be the same. That’s amazing when everybody is on the same page.”
On whether he wants to become the greatest player in Raptors history:
“Without a doubt. No question. How many people get to say they hold one record for an organization, or were on the winningest team in Raptors history, or did this with one organization? All of those things last longer than your playing career. It took time for me to get out of the second round [of the playoffs] in Raptors history. And we did that [in 2016], and that’s something that is going to be there. … If we don’t do it and someone else wins a championship, they are still going to revert back to the 2015/16 team as the best team until then. Ten, 15, 20 years from now, whatever it might be, those things last longer. It’s something you put your all into.”
Be sure to check out Spears’ full piece for more thoughts from DeRozan on living in Canada, growing up in Compton, playing for Team USA in the Olympics, and watching the U.S. election results.
On Monday, we examined the Mavericks’ slow start and explored the next steps for a team that has avoided rebuilding for more than a decade and a half. Kevin O’Connor’s piece for The Ringer provided some context on the situation in Dallas, but the Mavs weren’t the only longtime contender identified by O’Connor as a team that should be tanking this season. O’Connor also suggested that the Heat, off to a 4-9 start after last night’s loss to the Sixers, should look toward the future.
The Heat were just one game away from an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in the spring, but this version of the team looks significantly different from that one. Veterans like Luol Deng, Joe Johnson, and – of course – Dwyane Wade are gone. Chris Bosh remains unable to play, and indications are that the team doesn’t expect him to return. Hassan Whiteside is thriving in an increased role, but he doesn’t have much help around him, and the Heat are off to a slow start.
As O’Connor observes, Heat president Pat Riley has long been averse to tanking, having said in the past that he doesn’t love the idea of having to do a full rebuild through the draft: “Lottery picks are living a life of misery. That season is miserable. And if you do three or four years in a row to get lottery picks, then I’m in an insane asylum.”
Still, the Heat’s core is somewhat lacking, with Goran Dragic, Justise Winslow, Tyler Johnson, and Josh Richardson joining Whiteside as the current building blocks. There’s certainly some talent there, but not enough to return to title contention. Miami will likely need to land another impact player to become a top team in the East again, and it remains to be seen where the team will find that guy.
South Beach is an appealing home for NBA players, meaning the Heat are always a major player in free agency, and the team should have some flexibility next summer, but top free agents may be reluctant to sign with the Heat if they’re coming off a lottery season. Additionally, having traded multiple future first-round picks in their deal for Dragic, the Heat aren’t loaded with future assets. And as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel observes, many of their veterans, such as Dion Waiters, Derrick Williams, James Johnson, Josh McRoberts, and Luke Babbitt, don’t have much trade value, due to their underwhelming performances or short-term contracts.
Riley has indicated that he intends to get another first-round pick for 2017 if it’s possible, which could mean trading Dragic at some point during the 2016/17 league year. The Heat also should end up with a pretty high draft pick of their own if they continue to struggle. If the 71-year-old Riley wants to accelerate the rebuilding process, he could attempt to turn Dragic and his first-rounder into a star via trade(s). But it may make more sense to exercise some patience and add some more young talent through the draft.
What do you think? Is it too early for the Heat to start to look ahead to 2017/18, or is this year’s team not a viable playoff contender? If Miami explores potential deals, is Dragic the only obvious trade candidate, or could they extract some value from other players? Does it make sense for the team to be patient with its rebuild or dangle its increasingly valuable 2016 first-rounder to try to land immediate help? Jump into the comments section below to share your opinions on the Heat!
Heat forward Chris Bosh missed his 41st consecutive game over the weekend, triggering an insurance policy that now covers more than half of his salary, reports Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel.
Bosh has been sidelined since the 2016 All-Star Break with blood clot concerns. He had hoped to rejoin the team in training camp, but a failed physical left his career in limbo.
Under Bosh’s contract, the Heat paid $9.5MM of his nearly $24MM salary for this season up front. The organization will continue to issue paychecks, but it can recoup the money from the insurance company. Cap experts Bobby Marks of The Vertical and Albert Nahmad of the HeatHoops blog have determined that Miami can get back about $41MM of the $76MM left on Bosh’s contract through insurance.
“It doesn’t take over,” explained GM Andy Elisburg. “You’re allowed to then file for insurance. You’re still responsible for paying the salary. It isn’t something that’s the assumption of the salary. But you now have the opportunity to make an insurance claim, and it’s a per-game basis.”
The Heat are expected to eventually petition the league for a medical exclusion, which they are eligible to do on February 9th, the one-year anniversary of Bosh’s last game. That would wipe the final two seasons of Bosh’s contract — totaling more than $52MM — off the team’s cap.
Bosh, who is currently vacationing in Southeast Asia, is hoping to catch on with another team once his situation with the Heat is resolved. He continues to occupy a roster spot and is being listed as inactive for each game.
Pat Riley was non-committal about whether the Heat would be active before the trade deadline or be willing to take on contracts that run through next season, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. “The important thing is we are a forward-thinking team,” Riley said. “We are not going to be thinking backwards. We’re not going to have any regrets. We love what we have with our young players and we know assets, whatever assets we have in the future are going to help us rebuild, whether it’s picks, whether it’s personnel, whether it’s [cap] room. I’m always thinking down the future, down the road.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- The Heat are off to an abysmal start to the season, but Riley remains optimistic about his team’s chances this year, Jackson relays in the same piece “I’ve been through this drill before,” Riley said. “We have great faith and great belief in our young players. Our young players have been not forced but put up into a position where they now have to deliver timely times during the game, sustaining drives, stopping drives, making shots at the end, making free throws. They’ll get it. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
- Goran Dragic is the type of point guard the Heat need and trading him away doesn’t solve their issues, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel argues in his latest mailbag. Winderman believes that Miami needs Dragic’s play-making ability and once he returns from ankle injury, the team will show improvement.
- Hassan Whiteside believes the team’s rough start is a result of a tough schedule to begin the season, Shandel Richardson of the Sun Sentinel writes. “We haven’t played any bad teams,” Whiteside said. “We played all playoff teams … We’re not losing to bad teams. We’re right there. It makes no sense to get down on ourselves.” Whiteside, who re-signed with the Heat on a four year, $98MM deal over the summer, is enjoying personal success this season, averaging career highs in points, rebounds and free throws made per game.
The concept of “dead money” on a salary cap isn’t as common in the NBA as it is in the NFL, but it essentially functions the same way in both leagues. Dead money refers to the salary remaining on a team’s cap for players that are no longer on the roster.
For NFL teams, taking on a certain amount of dead money is a common practice, since signing bonuses affect cap hits differently, and big-money players are more likely to be released before playing out their entire contracts. That practice is less common in the NBA.
Still, with the NBA’s salary cap on the rise, teams may be a little more willing to part ways with players on guaranteed salaries, since that increased cap gives clubs more flexibility than they used to have. Within the last month, we’ve seen players like Ronnie Price and Greivis Vasquez, who each had $4-5MM in guaranteed money left on their contracts, waived in order to clear room for newcomers.
Over the next few days, we’ll examine each of the NBA’s 30 teams, breaking them down by division, to figure out which teams are carrying the most dead money on the cap for 2016/17, and what that information might tell us about those teams. We’ve already examined the Central and Atlantic divisions. Today, we’ll turn our attention to the Southeast.
Here are the 2016/17 dead money figures for the Southeast teams:
1. Atlanta Hawks
Total dead money: $2,030,431
Full salary cap breakdown
The Hawks have a D-League franchise lined up to begin play in 2019/2020, but for now, the team can’t assign affiliate players to a D-League squad before the season, limiting the need for partial guarantees — Matt Costello‘s $50K guarantee was the only one handed out by the team. Still, Atlanta has been willing to waive a couple players on fully guaranteed salaries so far, after determining those guys weren’t in the plans. Edy Tavares ($1MM) and Jarrett Jack ($980K) both received their walking papers from the Hawks.
2. Washington Wizards
Total dead money: $1,008,334
Full salary cap breakdown
Interestingly, a handful of Wizards signees appeared to be merely camp invitees based on their contracts — Danuel House, Daniel Ochefu, and Sheldon McClellan all got guaranteed worth between $50-100K. However, all three players remain on the team. Instead, the Wizards’ dead-money total is made up of cap charges for one player who was waived last year – Martell Webster ($833K) – and one who wasn’t able to hang onto his roster spot in camp this year (Jarell Eddie — $175K).
Eddie’s deal originally didn’t feature any guaranteed money for the 2016/17 season, but the Wizards agreed to guarantee a portion of it in order to push his guarantee deadline back, allowing the team to get a look at him in camp. That move wasn’t particularly costly, but ultimately proved unnecessary.
3. Miami Heat
Total dead money: $602,989
Full salary cap breakdown
Most of the Heat’s modest dead-money charges are for camp invitees, including Stefan Jankovic ($100K), Okaro White ($100K), and Keith Benson ($75K). The team’s most interesting dead-money cap hit belongs to Briante Weber, who left a $328K charge on Miami’s books. Weber showed promise last year, and recorded a triple-double in his first game for the Heat’s D-League affiliate this season. If he rejoins the NBA team at some point, Miami would have to pay him a new salary on top of the dead money from his previous contract.
4. Charlotte Hornets
Total dead money: $75,000
Full salary cap breakdown
The Hornets have been careful to avoid taking on much dead money over the last couple seasons, and that trend has continued so far this year. With the exception of Mike Tobey ($75K), most of the club’s camp invitees who have since been assigned to Greensboro didn’t even receive a partial guarantee, and none of Charlotte’s veterans look like release candidates, so the team should be able to keep its books fairly clean for the rest of the season.
5. Orlando Magic
Total dead money: $0
Full salary cap breakdown
The Magic’s books are even cleaner than Charlotte’s, with no dead money tainting the team’s cap so far. While Orlando has done a good job to avoid waiving unwieldy veteran contracts, it might have might some sense for the team to invest a little money on its camp invitees. The Magic avoided undrafted rookies, instead focusing on guys who already had some professional experience, and may have sacrificed a little upside in the process.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.