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2019 Offseason In Review: Miami Heat

October 8th, 2019 at 1:41pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2019 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2019/20 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Miami Heat.

Signings:

Standard contracts:
- Jimmy Butler: Four year, maximum salary ($140.79MM). Fourth-year player option. 15% trade kicker. Acquired via sign-and-trade.
- Udonis Haslem: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
Two-way contracts:
- None
Non-guaranteed camp contracts:
- Kyle Alexander: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Daryl Macon: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Jeremiah Martin: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Mychal Mulder: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Davon Reed: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).
- Chris Silva: One year, minimum salary (Exhibit 10).

Trades:

Acquired No. 44 pick in 2019 draft (used to select Bol Bol) from the Hawks in exchange for the Heat’s 2024 second-round pick (protected 31-50 and 56-60) and cash ($1.88MM).
Acquired either the Nuggets’ or Sixers’ second-round pick (whichever is least favorable) and cash ($1.2MM) from the Nuggets in exchange for the draft rights to Bol Bol (No. 44 pick).
Acquired the draft rights to KZ Okpala (No. 32 pick) in a three-team trade with the Pacers and Suns in exchange for the Heat’s 2022 second-round pick, the Heat’s 2025 second-round pick, and the Heat’s 2026 second-round pick (all sent to Pacers).
Acquired Jimmy Butler (sign-and-trade), Meyers Leonard, and cash ($110K) in a four-team trade with the Sixers, Trail Blazers, and Clippers in exchange for Josh Richardson (to Sixers), Hassan Whiteside (to Blazers), and the Heat’s 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected; to Clippers).

Draft picks:

1-13: Tyler Herro — Signed to rookie contract.
2-32: KZ Okpala — Signed to three-year, minimum salary contract. Fully guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.

Departing players:

Ryan Anderson (waived)
Yante Maten (waived)
Josh Richardson
Dwyane Wade (retired)
Hassan Whiteside

Other offseason news:

Signed head coach Erik Spoeltra to four-year extension.
Exercised 2020/21 rookie scale option on Bam Adebayo.
Assistant coach Juwan Howard left for Michigan.
Named Eric Glass head coach of Sioux Falls Skyforce (G League affiliate).

Salary cap situation:

Remained over the cap.
Carrying approximately $134.44MM in guaranteed salary.
Hard-capped (within approximately $1MM of hard cap).
$8.36MM of mid-level exception still available (used $898K on KZ Okpala).
Full bi-annual exception ($3.62MM) still available.
- Note: Due to hard cap, Heat would have to reduce salary elsewhere in order to use full MLE and/or BAE.
$6.27MM traded player exception available (expires 2/6/20).

Story of the summer:

Entering the 2019 offseason, the Heat’s ability to make a competitive bid for any of the summer’s top free agents looked extremely limited. Not only was team salary well above the projected cap, but there was no guarantee the club would even be able to stay below the tax line. Going after a maximum-salary free agent seemed like a pipe dream.

Well, that was the perception from outside the organization at least. Within the front office, Pat Riley and his management team weren’t about to let a few cap limitations get in the way of pursuing a star.

Riley and the Heat made good on that plan, acquiring Jimmy Butler in a sign-and-trade deal with the Sixers that didn’t require the team to create cap room. Still, while Miami’s creative approach to landing an impact player is laudable, it’s also worth noting how many sacrifices the team had to make to get it done.

The sign-and-trade deal for Butler didn’t just include the Sixers — two other teams had to get involved too in order to meet salary-matching requirements, and the Heat had to part with promising youngster Josh Richardson and a future first-round pick in the process. Plus, as a result of acquiring a player via sign-and-trade, Miami is now hard-capped for the rest of the 2019/20 league year, all but eliminating the possibility of adding a 15th man to the opening-night roster or making any additional trades that involve taking on excess salary.

If Miami had the cap room to sign Butler outright, none of those steps would have been necessary. But, as a result of pricey contracts handed out to Goran Dragic, James Johnson, Dion Waiters, and Hassan Whiteside (dealt to Portland in the Butler sign-and-trade), the team didn’t have the flexibility to create a max-salary slot under the cap. And now its flexibility for the rest of the season will be hampered to an even greater degree.

For the Heat though, that trade-off was a necessary evil. They believe Butler was worth both the investment ($140MM+) and the cap machinations necessary to bring him aboard. Now that he’s under contract for the next four years, Miami will have the opportunity to continue building around him once those undesirable contracts start to expire.

Key offseason losses:

The Heat only lost five players this offeason, and two of them – Ryan Anderson and Yante Maten – didn’t have particularly lengthy or memorable stays in Miami. The other three are worth singling out, however.

This isn’t the first time Dwyane Wade has departed from the Heat. He also left during the 2016 offseason to sign with Chicago before eventually returning during the 2017/18 season. The future Hall-of-Famer’s departure feels a little more definitive this time around though, since he has formally retired as a player.

Wade retires as the Heat’s all-time leader in games played, points, assists, steals, and several other key categories, and in many cases, no one came close to his numbers. Wade’s 21,556 points, for instance, more than double the total of runner-up Alonzo Mourning (9,459).

The 13-time All-Star will be remembered more fondly in South Beach for his role on the Heat’s championship teams in 2006, 2012, and 2013 than he will for his final season and a half with the organization, but it will still be an adjustment to watch a Wade-less Heat team going forward.

Richardson and Whiteside, meanwhile, left the Heat as part of the Butler sign-and-trade. The team was reluctant to include Richardson in trade offers for Butler last fall, but seemingly became more inclined to move him after a 2018/19 season in which his efficiency stats took a hit as he assumed more play-making responsibilities — his .412 FG% and .357 3PT% were noticeable steps down from his 2017/18 marks (.451 FG%, .378 3PT%).

As for Whiteside, the big man is an exceptional rebounder and shot blocker, but had seen his minutes cut back in recent years, a trend that was likely to continue as Bam Adebayo took on more responsibilities. It made sense to move him rather than risk him once again expressing frustration with his reduced playing time.

Key offseason additions:

We’ve already devoted a few paragraphs to the acquisition of Butler, but it’s worth reiterating what a good fit he can be in Miami. The Heat are known across the league for a culture built on a relentless work ethic and a commitment to conditioning, traits that are right up Butler’s alley.

The standout swingman can match up with opponents’ top wing scorer on the defensive side of the ball and – as he showed in last year’s playoff series vs. Toronto – he’s more than capable of generating offense too. While he may not be a top-five or top-10 player in the NBA, his ability to make an impact on both ends of the floor should help increase Miami’s ceiling this season.

Butler wasn’t the only notable addition for the Heat this summer. The team has been raving this fall about rookie shooting guard Tyler Herro, the 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft. Of the nine players who averaged at least 3.4 three-point attempts per game for the Heat last season, five left the team during the season or in the summer, so Herro’s ability to let it fly from outside and space the floor for teammates will be valuable, even if other aspects of his game take a little longer to come around.

Meyers Leonard, who was acquired from Portland in the Butler sign-and-trade, also enters the mix at center this season, though it’s unclear how big a role he’ll play. Adebayo and Kelly Olynyk should receive most of the available minutes at the five, but Leonard could potentially play alongside one of them in certain lineups. He’d also be leaned on more heavily if Olynyk’s ankle injury continues to bother him into the regular season.

Outlook for 2019/20:

The Heat have essentially been a .500 team in recent years, winning between 39 and 44 games in each of the last three seasons and missing the playoffs in two of those seasons. Adding Butler should put the team in better position to surpass that 44-win mark and more comfortably earn a postseason spot in 2019/20, but that’s hardly a lock.

Due to the cap machinations required to make the Butler acquisition work, the Heat may not have the flexibility necessary to make significant adjustments or upgrades to the current roster, or to add needed reinforcements if they’re hit hard by the injury bug.

It would be a slight upset if Miami misses the playoffs altogether, but either way, this roster still seems to be at least a move or two away from becoming a legit contender in the East.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Johnson Close To Returning To Heat Camp

October 7th, 2019 at 8:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Heat president Pat Riley said forward James Johnson is very close to reaching his conditioning requirements and joining the team for training camp, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

Johnson failed to meet Riley’s standards – which Johnson’s agent Mark Bartelstein described as a weight issue – and has been working out apart from the team.

“He’s already almost there again,” Riley said. “So I think in very short notice I’m going to turn this over to (coach) Erik (Spoelstra).”

Riley says he has no hard feelings toward Johnson but that the banishment “had to be done.”

“I’ve always had that feeling about players, even the ones that may fall short of certain goals and things of that nature,” he said. “It’s just something that had to be done. Now, he realizes it, and I realize it. It’s not going to take away from the team and it’s not going to take away from him once he reaches those conditioning requirements.”

Johnson has a $15.3MM contract this season with a $16MM player option for the 2020/21 season. He’s the projected starter at power forward after starting 33 of 55 games in which he appeared last season.

Heat Notes: Butler, Reed, Nunn, Johnson

October 6th, 2019 at 8:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Heat fans have already embraced Jimmy Butler, which was evident during an intrasquad scrimmage, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald notes. Fans broke out a “We love Jimmy” chant during the proceedings.

“I think the fan base feels the same way we do about Jimmy,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We just feel that he has Heat DNA, that he was meant to play here and meant to put on a Miami Heat uniform. He has a magnetic personality that the fan base is really going to enjoy and he’s a very good basketball player.”

We have more on the Heat:

Guard Davon Reed is competing for a two-way deal but he hopes to eventually receive a standard contract, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Reed, who spent most of last season with the Pacers’ G League affiliate, was signed to an Exhibit 10 contract in September. “I can do a lot of different things,” he said. “There’s a lot of facets to my game. Most important, I’m going to put my team first. I think my energy, my effort, my talking and just my game will show.”
Guard Kendrick Nunn led the Heat’s summer league team in scoring and Miami seems inclined to keep him on the regular roster, according to Khobi Price of the Sun Sentinel. Nunn will receive a $450K guarantee if he’s on the opening night roster. “We were fortunate to get somebody of his quality,” Spoelstra said. “He also was a fit with us in terms of the culture fit, the work ethic, the drive – there’s a long lineage of non-drafted Miami Heat players who have come through our player development program and he’s the next notable one.”
The biggest mystery regarding the James Johnson saga is whether both the forward and the team can eventually move past this moment, Winderman writes in a mailbag piece. Johnson hasn’t been allowed to participate in camp yet because he didn’t meet the team’s weight goal set for him.

Johnson's Absence Due To Weight

October 4th, 2019 at 7:49pm CST by Dana Gauruder

James Johnson‘s agent Mark Bartelstein said his client has been absent from the Heat’s training camp because of his weight rather than his conditioning, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports.

Johnson hasn’t been allowed to participate in camp until he reaches that weight goal set by Heat president Pat Riley. Bartelstein said Johnson passed the team’s conditioning test and will return to the team “shortly,” Jackson adds. Johnson has a $15.3MM salary this season with a $16MM player option next season.

James Johnson Working Out On His Own

October 2nd, 2019 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

James Johnson, who is away from the Heat for a second day after failing to meet his conditioning requirements, has been in touch with the team’s trainers but is working out on his own, a source tells Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).

Heat Notes: Butler, Johnson, Haslem, Waiters

October 1st, 2019 at 11:06am CST by Arthur Hill

Jimmy Butler is insisting that his new Heat teammates follow his intense work ethic, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. In the week before camp opened, Butler set up early-morning workouts to prepare for this season. In Butler’s case, early meant 4 am.

“I got here at about 6:05 one morning, and Jimmy’s in a full sweat, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Damn, I thought I was going to be the first guy working out,’” Meyers Leonard said. “I was with a couple of the young guys. That’s impressive to me. That’s a superstar and a guy you can count on and is clearly ready to put the work in and carry the load.”

That’s the type of extreme leadership that caused the Heat to make Butler the centerpiece of their offseason plans. Not only does he have his younger teammates in the gym before sunrise, he’s constantly challenging them to get better, particularly first-round pick Tyler Herro.

“He just wants to win,” Herro said. “He’s not a bad guy like everyone thinks he is. He’s a really good teammate. For him to take me under his wing early on just means a lot to me. He’s a really good guy.”

There’s more Heat news to pass along:

Veteran forward James Johnson won’t be permitted to participate in the start of camp because he failed to meet conditioning requirements, Jackson tweets. Johnson has a $242K likely bonus built into his contract regarding body fat percentage and weight requirements that he has met the last two years, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
Even though he has barely played the past three seasons, 39-year-old Udonis Haslem wasn’t ready to retire, relays Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Haslem told reporters it would have bothered him that the Heat missed the playoffs in his final season. “These guys can come back another season and say, ‘OK, we didn’t reach our potential. Let’s try it again.’ I’ve got to live with it,” Haslem said. “I’ve got to sleep every night knowing I had a great 17-year career, but my last year we didn’t make the playoffs, my last year we didn’t reach our goals, my last year, we didn’t reach our potential, my last year, Dion [Waiters] wasn’t the best he could be, my last year, Justise [Winslow] wasn’t the best. I have to live with it.” Haslem added that he hasn’t decided if this will be his final season.
Personnel changes mean Johnson and Waiters will have to adjust to being complementary players this year, Winderman states in a mailbag column.

Hypothetical Heat Trade Scenarios For Paul, Beal

September 30th, 2019 at 10:08am CST by Luke Adams

Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald offers a pair of hypothetical trade scenarios that could see the Heat add Chris Paul and Bradley Beal to their roster. Although Jackson’s suggestions would certainly appeal to Miami, there has been no indication that the Wizards will move Beal or that the Thunder will meet the Heat’s demands in a CP3 trade.

Work Not Finished Between Spoelstra And Heat Despite Extension

September 29th, 2019 at 5:32pm CST by JD Shaw

The contract extension between Erik Spoelstra and the Heat may have been finalized, but there remains plenty of work ahead for Spoelstra with the organization, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes. Spoelstra is the second longest-tenured head coach in the NBA (2008), trailing behind only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich (1996).

Heat, Erik Spoelstra Agree To Four-Year Extension

September 28th, 2019 at 3:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

3:56pm: The extension will cover four years, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel (Twitter link)

3:25pm: Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will sign a long-term extension with the team, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Spoelstra, who had one year left on his current deal, has been negotiating an extension behind the scenes.

Spoelstra, 48, is about to begin his 12th season in Miami, ranking him second to the Spurs‘ Gregg Popovich for the longest current tenure with one organization. He has a 523-363 coaching record and a pair of NBA titles.

[RELATED: Longest-Tenured NBA Head Coaches]

As Wojnarowski notes, Spoelstra has spent his entire career with the Heat, starting as a video coordinator in 1995. He was later promoted to assistant coach, then replaced Pat Riley as head coach in 2008.

Heat Notes: Butler, Olynyk, Winslow, Haslem

September 27th, 2019 at 5:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The culture established by team president Pat Riley was a deciding factor in Jimmy Butler agreeing to join the Heat, according to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.

“The winning habits, the winning ways. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?” he said. “I was excited to have an opportunity to come here, to be here, but when I keep hearing about this culture I was like, ‘I need that in my life.’”

Butler, who received a four-year deal worth approximately $141MM as part of a sign-and-trade with the Sixers, has shown that work ethic during early-morning workouts and in pickup games. Riley describes his biggest summer acquisition as a top-10 player in the NBA

“The one thing that I feel that I owe the franchise and this city is to put the most competitive team on the court that we can and one that will compete for championships,” Riley said. “I think having Jimmy Butler here is a step in that direction.”

We have more on the Heat:

Big man Kelly Olynyk won’t be available for the start of training camp but he’s expected to be ready for the opener, Reynolds reports in the same story. He suffered a bone bruise in his right knee while playing for Team Canada prior to the FIBA World Cup. Every other player on the training camp roster is expected to be available at the start of camp.
Riley wasn’t thrilled that Justise Winslow said publicly he wanted to be the starting point guard, Reynolds tweets. Winslow commented that he wanted to be the team’s floor leader earlier this month. He played well in that role last season after injuries struck but the starter in recent seasons, Goran Dragic, remains on the roster.
Butler would consider playing for Team USA in next year’s Olympics if he’s asked, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel tweets.
Prior to re-signing veteran forward Udonis Haslem, Riley asked him if he wanted to coach this summer, Reynolds tweets. Haslem said he wasn’t interested in coaching but Riley believes he’ll eventually change his mind, Reynolds adds.