Justise Winslow‘s hope for an extension may fall victim to the Heat’s other recent financial decisions, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Miami already finds itself in luxury tax territory because of moves made during the past two offseasons and may not want to commit to a new deal with Winslow before the October 15 deadline.
After the Heat missed out on Kevin Durant in 2016 and lost Dwyane Wade to the Bulls, they responded by matching an offer sheet for Tyler Johnson and signing James Johnson and Wayne Ellington. A year later, Miami was a finalist for free agent Gordon Hayward, but once he chose the Celtics, the Heat used their cap space to add Kelly Olynyk.
The franchise could have more than $131MM in committed salary for 2019/20 if Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson and Goran Dragic all exercise their player options. Winslow will become a restricted free agent next summer if no extension deal is reached.
There’s more this morning from Miami:
- Whiteside may not be any happier with his playing time this season, Winderman adds in the same story. The center voiced his complaints about the coaching staff to the media last year as his minutes per game dropped to 25.3 after reaching a career-high 32.6 the season before. Whiteside is Miami’s highest-paid player at $25.4MM per season, but his usage has fallen as the Heat have transitioned to using smaller lineups. With Bam Adebayo, Olynyk and James Johnson all competing for minutes in the middle, it seems unlikely that Whiteside’s role will increase.
- Dion Waiters‘ lingering ankle injury takes away the Heat’s chance to see how he will work in tandem with Wade in training camp, Winderman notes in another piece. With no experienced backup point guard on the roster, Wade may inherit the role, similar to what he did in Cleveland. However, it’s going to be difficult to sort out all the backcourt candidates until Waiters is healthy enough to play.
- The Heat have been mentioned among teams with interest in Timberwolves forward Jimmy Butler, and they could offer the type of culture and veteran roster that Butler reportedly wants, Winderman tweets. However, they won’t have the cap room to add another star next summer, which might lessen Butler’s interest in coming to Miami. Winderman suggests that Richardson, Winslow, Olynyk and Adebayo could be among the players the Heat would consider moving in a Butler deal.
Mistake 1. Matching Johnson.
Mistake 2. Waiters contract.
Mistake 3. Whiteside contract.
3 strikes and your out.
Mistakes 1,2 and 3 are whiteside
Mistake 4 is Olynyk
Semi mistake 5 is the waiters deal and that’s only b/c hes been injured. That’s it otherwise though
How are you still bashing the Olynyk deal. 12.5 mil a year for him is a value contract.
I agree that Olynyk has posed a valuable pickup with the play i’ve seen from him so far.
For Butler, I would package a deal around Whiteside, and Winslow if they could get some confidence that they can retain Butler for more than the single year, and if not expiring contracts are not necessarily a bad thing with how the Heat have handcuffed themselves. Whiteside is playing in the wrong era which typically reflects his minutes, and Winslow you’re still looking for him for his potential offensively, while I do like his defense and then throw in that they need to make a decision on his contract extension.
I’ve seen JRich’s name brought up and I would hope he’s off limits. A 2 way player who shows and builds on being a vocal leader on the court.
I’d put my trust in a finishing squad of JRich, Butler, Wade, J. Johnson, and Bam in most cases
He played well last year. Still a bad deal, as I said ahead of time, although not for all the reasons I originally suggested. Him losing the 18 pounds leading into training camp really helped him, and the Heat were able to teach him to move his feet better and improve on defense. He still has areas where he needs to continue to improve on that end, especially not reaching with his hands. Offensively, as predicted, he was obviously a really good fit, but the issue is the rest of the roster and cap situation being where it is, especially with the log jam for minutes. Maybe if Whiteside wasnt here at his money, it wouldnt be as bad. I just think he needs to at least repeat what he did last year to be tradable at that number, although with Anderson getting moved maybe I’m wrong
He was in 4 of the 5 of the heats most successful lineups… just admit you were wrong about the deal formerlyz.
You wanted us to resign willie bloody reed instead LOL
For the exact same reason you just said…but also b/c I didnt think Bam would be as good as fast in certain areas on defense….I have admitted I was wrong several times this year. It wasnt abhorrent and disgusting as I said. I still think it’s bad b/c of the situation with the rest of the roster. Maybe “bad” isnt the right word. Maybe I would call it “not good” instead