- The Heat want rookie center Kel’el Ware to gain weight before the start of the season, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link). The first-round pick weighed in at 230 pounds when he arrived at Summer League camp, and he said the team would prefer him to be between 240 and 245.
- Free agent forward Haywood Highsmith still has interest in returning to the Heat, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. The Sixers were considered a potential landing spot for Highsmith, Chiang adds, but that seems less likely after Philadelphia signed Caleb Martin.
7:28pm: Martin has officially signed with the Sixers, the team confirmed in a press release.
“Caleb is a battle-tested performer who has elevated his game when his teams have needed it most,” president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said in a statement. “We’re excited for him to bring his skillset and mentality to the 76ers.”
The Sixers also confirmed in a separate release that they’ve waived Reed.
11:45am: Martin’s deal with the Sixers is indeed guaranteed for roughly $32MM and can reach up to $40MM with bonuses, Scotto clarifies (Twitter link).
9:23am: Free agent forward Caleb Martin is planning to sign with the Sixers, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). In order to help make space for the veteran forward, the 76ers are planning to waive Paul Reed‘s non-guaranteed contract, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link).
In a follow-up story, Wojnarowski writes that Martin will sign a four-year contract that includes more than $32MM in guaranteed money. Meanwhile, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports Martin’s deal is worth $40MM over four years (Twitter link). We’ll see where the final numbers come in, but it’s possible both reports are accurate — for instance, there might be $32MM+ in guarantees, with additional incentives that could push the overall value higher.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype adds that Martin’s fourth year will be a player option (Twitter link).
Martin, who will bring extensive playoff experience to Philadelphia, could easily fit the roster off the bench or in the starting lineup at power forward. Over the past three seasons with Miami, Martin has averaged 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds across 195 games (84 starts).
He was especially critical to the Heat’s run to the NBA Finals in 2022/23, when he averaged 19.3 points on 60.2% shooting from the field and 48.9% from deep in the seven-game Eastern Conference Finals against Boston. He nearly came away with the Conference Finals MVP award for that performance.
As Wojnarowski observes, Martin’s 13.6 points per game against the Celtics for his career (playoffs and regular season) are his most against any Eastern Conference opponent. As the Sixers continue to revamp their roster around superstar Joel Embiid, they’re adding a player who has given the reigning NBA champs problems throughout his career.
Philadelphia’s interest in Martin has been reported multiple times since free agency began. However, those reports suggested he was seeking more than what the Sixers were capable of offering.
The Heat also had interest in bringing back the 28-year-old forward, proposing a four-year extension on top of his $7.1MM player option before he decided to turn down that option. According to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald (Twitter link), Miami’s original offer would have been for four years and about $58MM, beginning in 2025/26, for a total of $65MM-ish over five years. However, once Martin declined his option, the Heat could no longer make that offer (they were limited to 8% raises in a free agent contract, rather than the bigger second-year jump they could have included in an extension).
Meanwhile, the Sixers are moving on from Reed, their former No. 58 overall draft pick in 2020. Reed has evolved into a serviceable backup in the frontcourt over the past few seasons. In ’23/24, he averaged 7.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 1.0 blocks, appearing in all 82 of Philadelphia’s regular season games.
However, his $7.7MM contract for next season was fully non-guaranteed, so he was always viewed as a candidate to be traded or released as the 76ers looked to maximize their cap room.
JULY 6: Adebayo has officially signed his maximum-salary extension with the Heat, the team announced in a press release. It includes a player option for the 2028/29 season, tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
JUNE 26: Heat big man Bam Adebayo intends to sign a three-year contract extension, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reports (Twitter link). It’ll be a maximum-salary extension, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Adebayo has two years left on his contract. He’s due to make $34,848,340 next season and $37,096,620 in 2025/26. The extension would take the 26-year-old through the 2028/29 season. He can sign the deal on July 6, by league rule, according to Reynolds.
Adebayo averaged 19.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game this past season. His value goes well beyond offensive numbers. The Heat star has made the NBA’s All-Defensive team in each of the last five seasons, earning a First Team selection for the first time in 2023/24.
Adebayo could have waited until next offseason with the hope of making an All-NBA team or winning Defensive Player of the Year. In that scenario, he would have become eligible for a five-year super-max extension worth as much as $346MM, cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (Twitter link).
Assuming a $141MM cap in 2024/25, with 10% raises in each of the next two seasons, Adebayo would earn a $51,183,000 in 2026/27; $55,277,640 in ’27/28; and $59,372,280 in ’28/29, for a total of $165,832,920.
While those salary numbers are eye-popping, Adebayo could have been eligible for even bigger salaries had he delayed an extension with the aim of making an All-NBA team, so this could turn out to be a team-friendly deal. Adebayo, who turns 27 next month, has spent his entire seven-year career with Miami.
The Heat have signed undrafted former Colorado State guard Isaiah Stevens, Miami announced in a team press release.
According to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter link), Stevens’ new contract is an Exhibit 10 deal.
The six-footer, a five-time All-MWC honoree during his tenure with the Rams, finished his college career as Colorado State’s all-time leading scorer (with 2,350 career points) and passer (863 career assists), while also making the most three-pointers (253) in team history.
Last season, Stevens averaged 16.0 points per game on a .474/.440/.836 shooting line. He also dished out 6.8 dimes, pulled down 6.8 boards, and swiped 1.2 steals per night.
At present, all three of the Heat’s two-way player slots are occupied. Stevens is the team’s second reported Exhibit 10 signing, along with Bryson Warren.
An Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal that doesn’t count against a team’s cap unless the player makes the regular season roster. It can be converted to a two-way contract before the season begins or can put a player in line to earn a bonus of up to $77.5K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.
JULY 6: The Mavericks and Pistons have issued press releases confirming that their trade is official and that the details reported below are accurate.
JUNE 28: The Mavericks and Pistons are in agreement on a trade that will send veteran wing Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks to Detroit in exchange for swingman Quentin Grimes, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
The three draft assets will be Toronto’s 2025 second-round pick and a pair of 2028 second-rounders, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter). Dallas has previously traded away its own 2028 second-rounder, but controls Miami’s pick and the least favorable of the Clippers’ and Hornets’ selections for that year, so those figure to be the ones headed to the Pistons.
This deal was first mentioned as a possibility by Marc Stein on Tuesday.
By moving off of Hardaway’s $16.2MM expiring contract and taking back Grimes (who will make about $4.3MM next season), Dallas will create upwards of $15MM in breathing room below the first tax apron, tweets cap expert Yossi Gozlan, putting the club in a position to use the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception (projected to be worth about $12.9MM).
Besides creating financial flexibility, the Mavs will also receive an intriguing young three-and-D player in Grimes, who showed promise in 2022/23 by averaging 11.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 29.9 minutes per game (71 games), with a .468/.386/.796 shooting line. He saw his minutes cut back in New York last season, and a knee injury limited him to just six games after he was acquired by Detroit in February.
Grimes, who will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason as he enters the final year of his rookie contract, also drew trade interest from the Heat and Hawks, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, new Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon had spoken openly about his club’s willingness to take on unwanted contracts if they’re attached to more valuable assets. While the previous front office regime appeared to be viewing Grimes as a potential keeper, Langdon clearly prioritized the draft picks he’ll receive in this swap.
Hardaway’s value as a player also shouldn’t be overlooked. He’s coming off a season in which he averaged 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 26.8 minutes per game across 79 appearances, with a shooting line of .402/.353/.852. After he played a limited role in the playoffs though, there had been a sense that his days with Dallas were numbered.
It’s unclear if the Pistons intend to hang onto Hardaway heading into the 2024/25 season, but the team reportedly has had interest in adding veterans and shooting this summer, making THJ a potential fit. He’s a career 36.0% three-point shooter.
The Spurs have emerged as a potential third-team facilitator as the Kings continue to pursue free agent forward DeMar DeRozan via sign-and-trade, NBA insider Marc Stein reports (Twitter link). Previous reports have indicated that Chicago is willing to facilitate a sign-and-trade but is insistent on a third team being involved so as to not take back much, if any, salary.
On the #thisleague UNCUT podcast (Twitter link), Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report stated that the Kings, Heat and Clippers are teams exploring avenues to acquire DeRozan via a three-team sign-and-trade. Haynes also mentions San Antonio as a landing spot for unwanted salary alongside Detroit.
We have more free agent rumors:
- Russell Westbrook may be more likely to go to the Nuggets through free agency rather than by way of trade, DNVR Sports’ Harrison Wind opines (Twitter link). The Clippers could either buy out Westbrook or send him to another team that would buy him out, clearing the path for him to sign with Denver. For what it’s worth, finding a trade that makes sense for both sides appears difficult.
- As was reported earlier this year, Stein indicates in his latest Substack post that free agent swingman Evan Fournier‘s preference is to remain in the NBA rather than to accept a EuroLeague deal. According to Stein, Fournier is expected to receive some NBA interest as free agency winds on.
- Greek club Panathinaikos is reportedly interested in adding free agent forward Dario Saric, according to Sportando. The 30-year-old forward averaged 8.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 37.6% from deep as a reserve for the Warriors last season. It would be a little surprising to see Saric make the jump to Europe so soon after free agency begins given his productive season last year and the chance for more NBA interest to trickle in.
Coming off a season in which he made a career-high 41.3% of his three-point attempts, free agent swingman Malik Beasley was considered the Mavericks‘ Plan B for outside shooting help if they were unable to land Klay Thompson, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
With Dallas no longer in the mix for Beasley, the 27-year-old sharpshooter is receiving interest from the Pelicans, who like the idea of having him stretching the floor alongside Zion Williamson, league sources tell Scotto.
Meanwhile, the Pistons “flirted” with potentially offering Buddy Hield a one-year contract and have considered doing the same for Beasley, Scotto writes, but for now Detroit wants to keep its salary cap space open for trade purposes, since the team is well positioned to take on an unwanted contract or two and receive draft assets for its trouble.
Here’s more from Scotto:
- The Nuggets and Heat were among the teams to express interest in Hield before he agreed to join the Warriors, per Scotto. However, neither team could realistically match the $8.7MM starting salary Hield got from Golden State. Denver is shopping in free agency with its $5.2MM taxpayer mid-level exception in the hopes of adding a player who can help fill the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope-sized hole in the team’s rotation, Scotto notes.
- When he declined his $7.1MM player option with Miami, Caleb Martin was hoping for a deal worth at least the full mid-level exception ($12.9MM) and possibly more than that, sources tell HoopsHype, but nothing has materialized so far. The Sixers are among the teams with interest in Martin, but his asking price would have to drop for that to be realistic, according to Scotto.
- While the Pelicans continue to peruse the trade market for centers – with Wendell Carter of the Magic among the targets on their radar – veteran big man Daniel Theis has been linked to New Orleans as a possible cheaper option in free agency, Scotto writes.
- The Mavericks, in the market for one more guard, have considered a possible reunion with Spencer Dinwiddie or Dennis Smith Jr., according to Scotto, who hears that Malachi Flynn is another playing Dallas is considering if Dinwiddie and Smith end up elsewhere.
- Johnnie Bryant (Knicks), Jared Dudley (Mavericks), and Trevor Hendry (Nets) are among the coaches the Cavaliers are eyeing as possible assistants for Kenny Atkinson‘s staff, Scotto reports. Bryant was close with Donovan Mitchell from their days in Utah together, while Dudley and Hendry were with Atkinson in Brooklyn (Dudley as a player, Hendry as a staffer).
The members of the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in Paris this summer have arrived in Las Vegas, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Team USA will hold a pre-Olympic camp in Vegas from July 6-8 and will be joined by a 15-man Select Team for scrimmaging purposes.
Led by LeBron James (two Olympic gold medals, 20 All-Star berths) and Kevin Durant (three gold medals, 14 All-Star berths), the 12-man Olympic roster is as formidable as any team USA Basketball has fielded in the 21st century, with 84 combined All-Star nods. It will make picking a starting lineup a challenging task for head coach Steve Kerr.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Kerr said on Friday, per Reynolds. “I’m guessing that all 12 players on this roster will be in the Hall of Fame someday. So, how do you pick five out of 12? The idea is, you find combinations that click, and you find two-way lineups that can be effective at both ends. Our big job in Las Vegas is to find five-man combinations that fit and to just ask all 12 guys to fully commit to the goal of winning a gold medal no matter what it looks like, no matter who’s playing.”
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Expect NBA teams to include unlikely incentives less frequently in player contracts going forward, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Those unlikely bonuses don’t count against the cap if they’re not earned, but they do count when determining a team’s position relative to the tax aprons, giving high-spending teams less wiggle room below those aprons. For instance, the Heat – who are operating in between the first and second aprons – would presumably prefer not to have to account for the $1.5MM unlikely bonus Tyler Herro would earn for winning Defensive Player of the Year.
- With the Bulls, Magic, Nets, Trail Blazers, Cavaliers, and Hawks among the teams announcing their Summer League rosters on Friday, Brett Siegel of Clutch Points has updated his tracker of the Summer League squads from around the NBA.
- While no concrete decisions have been made yet about next year’s draft schedule, the expectation is that the NBA will want the second round (ie. the second day) to start in the evening instead of the afternoon, Marc Stein writes at his Substack. The second day of the 2024 draft began at 4:00 pm Eastern time on June 27 so as not to compete with the U.S. presidential debate that was scheduled for that evening.
- There had been some speculation in the spring that Walter Tavares might try to make an NBA comeback this summer, but the former Hawks and Cavaliers big man – who has been a star in Europe since 2017 – won’t be going anywhere, having signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid, the Spanish team announced in a press release. The all-time EuroLeague blocks leader, Tavares has won a pair of EuroLeague championships with Madrid in 2018 and 2023.
The Jazz continue to listen to trade offers for Lauri Markkanen, according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe (subscriber link), who hears from sources who say the Heat are among the teams interested in the star forward.
As Lowe writes, Markkanen’s situation is complicated because he’s on a below-market contract that will pay him $18MM in 2024/25, which is the final season of his contract. That makes a standard contract extension – which can’t start above 40% of his current salary – unlikely. Rival teams may not be willing to give up a major haul of assets with no guarantees that the 27-year-old would stick around beyond next season.
Utah could potentially get more value in return for Markkanen in several months if the team renegotiates and then extends his contract. However, that scenario is also tricky.
As Marc Stein details (Substack link), Markkanen becomes eligible for a renegotiation and extension on August 6, but he won’t be trade-eligible for six months if he signs a new deal. That means if he signs the extension on the first day he’s eligible to, he would only be eligible to be traded for one day during the season: February 6, the day of the deadline. If the extension is signed on August 7 (or later), Markkanen would not be eligible to traded during the upcoming season.
While it’s not surprising that the Heat have shown interest in the Finnish star, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald casts doubt (via Twitter) on the feasibility of the team actually acquiring him. As Jackson notes, Utah has placed a high asking price in previous talks with Miami, which lacks future first-round picks to offer.
One team interested in Markkanen seems confident that he’ll eventually be traded, per Stein. Utah’s own 2025 first-round pick is top-10 protected, so the Jazz could be incentivized to tank ahead of a strong draft class. Utah has also struggled to acquire a second star to build the roster around him.
Here are some more trade rumors from around the NBA:
- The Kings appear to be the frontrunner to acquire DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade with the Bulls, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who made the comments on SportsCenter (Twitter video link; hat tip to RealGM). However, Wojnarowski said a third team would likely to be need to be involved to absorb salaries, as Chicago is reluctant to add to its payroll. A six-time All-Star, DeRozan remains the top free agent left on the market.
- According to Lowe, the trade market for Hawks point guard Trae Young “is as chilly as it has ever been.” Sources tell Lowe that the Spurs and Lakers — two teams linked to Young — haven’t expressed much recent interest in the three-time All-Star. Lowe says San Antonio appears unmotivated to help Atlanta regain control of its own first-round picks in a deal for Young.
- Lowe hears rumors of Darius Garland potentially requesting a trade from the Cavaliers following Donovan Mitchell‘s extension have “quieted,” which confirms a report from his ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst. According to Lowe’s sources, the Cavs are still on the hunt for a 3-and-D wing, with Nets forwards Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith worth monitoring, though Cleveland only has one tradable first-round pick (2031). Stein has also heard that center Jarrett Allen will likely be difficult to acquire after Kenny Atkinson was hired as head coach, which means the Cavs could have the same core together entering next season.
Before he officially passed on his $7.1MM player option for the 2024/25 season, the Heat offered Caleb Martin an extension that would have been contingent on him picking up that option, according to Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. While the exact details of that offer are unclear, Miami could have given Martin a starting salary as high as about $18.1MM in 2025/26 based on the NBA’s rules for veteran extensions.
The Heat haven’t given up hope of retaining Martin, but they’re only about $7MM below the second apron and have no desire to surpass that threshold, so their ability to make a competitive offer is extremely limited. Although the club could technically come close to matching the $7.1MM option the 28-year-old declined for 2024/25, that significant raise for ’25/26 is no longer possible, since free agent contracts can’t increase by more than 8% annually.
A source close to Martin tells the Miami Herald duo that the forward had been hoping to secure a deal worth more than $15MM per year. While some teams have expressed interest, it doesn’t appear that any offers in that range are on the table for Martin at this point.
Here’s more on the Heat:
- It has been a fairly quiet offseason for the Heat so far, but that’s not because the team is reluctant to spend up to the second apron or use assets in trades, according to Jackson and Chiang. Three people who have been in contact with the team say Miami is maintaining its flexibility for now in case an opportunity to acquire an impact player opens up — it’s possible that sort of player could hit the trade market in the coming days or weeks, and the Heat don’t want to close the door on that possibility.
- The Heat have had some trade talks with teams, including one club with “substantial” cap room, according to Jackson and Chiang. The Herald reporters don’t have details on the potential trade partner or the players who were discussed, but the Jazz and Pistons are the only clubs who still have the sort of cap room that could be considered substantial.
- Bam Adebayo intends to sign the three-year contract extension that he and the Heat agreed to last week “pretty quickly” after he becomes eligible to do so on Saturday, per Jackson and Chiang. The deal will tack on three years to the two seasons left on Adebayo’s current contract and will run through 2028/29. If the cap increases by 10% in each of the next two offseasons, the star center would earn $165,348,864 on the three-year extension after making a total of $71,944,960 across the next two seasons.
- In a separate story for The Herald, Chiang explores the Heat’s two-way logjam, with Dru Smith, Zyon Pullin, and Keshad Johnson currently occupying the three slots and two-way qualifying offers still out to Cole Swider and Alondes Williams. If Miami wants to bring all five players to camp, at least two would have to be there on standard or Exhibit 10 deals. Swider, who is part of the Heat’s Summer League roster, says he’s focused on developing his game, not his contract situation. “Obviously, the Heat have my rights as a restricted free agent,” Swider said. “I want to be here. But at the same time, it’s all up to the things that I can control and I’m going to bring the energy, the effort and try to lead this summer league team to have a great summer league.”