Heat Notes: Season, Playoffs, Adebayo, Free Agents

The Heat hope to hit the ground running in the event the NBA season is resumed, staying ready and waiting for Adam Silver‘s decision, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes.

Silver is expected to make a decision within the next few weeks on the season’s fate. However, the Heat are already working to take advantage of the newly-opened practice facility and hold individual workouts with hopes of getting back to game shape earlier than most teams.

“I definitely tell guys that we have this little period where we can go in and do these voluntary workouts, take advantage,” Udonis Haslem said on ESPN’s Now or Never, as relayed by Winderman. “Hit the ground running. If the season comes back, we want to hit the ground running.”

Haslem, who turns 40 next month, is no exception to this lifestyle. Despite weighing potential retirement, the three-time NBA champion is keeping the same work ethic he’s held throughout his career.

“The younger guys, they can adjust a lot faster than the guys my age,” Haslem said. “But, for me, I guess that’s why I just never stop working. At his stage of my career and at this stage of my life, it’s a choice to make and a lifestyle. It can’t just be a decision that I make. It’s a lifestyle. So I tell all my young guys that I’ll never ask you anything I won’t do myself.”

Here are some other notes out of Miami tonight:

• In a separate article for the Sun Sentinel, Winderman examines which first-round opponents the Heat could meet in the playoffs and which team they might prefer to play. The top tier of the East is full of talented clubs with championship aspirations, including the Bucks, Raptors, 76ers, Pacers and Celtics.
• Miami should wait to offer Bam Adebayo a contract extension due to the team’s complex salary-cap situation, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. By agreeing to a max contract extension with Adebayo this offseason, as Jackson notes, the Heat would limit their salary-cap space for the summer of 2021 when the team hopes to pursue the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo. By waiting and keeping Adebayo’s more modest cap hold on its books, Miami could sign other free agents in 2021 before going over the cap to ink the big man to a long-term deal.
• NBA teams could benefit from having some sort of a “quarantine team” made up of current free agents if the NBA season is resumed, Winderman opines. Players from this group of free agents could be added to rosters in the event that multiple players get sick or quarantined during the playoffs, ensuring that each team has enough players. These players could also come from the G League if the rest of its season is canceled.