- Heat forward Kelly Olynyk has kept tabs on the Canadian men’s national team, most notably the team’s head coaching search ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup that starts on August 31, Michael Grange of Sportsnet writes. Olynyk, who was born in Canada, will likely play for the team this summer. “It’s not a thing where we need someone to micromanage a game and do all that stuff and trick other teams,” he said of the team’s coaching search. “We have the talent, we have the abilities we just need someone to help us put them to the test.”
The Heat‘s confidence in Yante Maten‘s offensive game led the team to sign him a new contract this morning, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Playing all season on a two-way deal, the undrafted rookie forward out of Georgia was signed for the three games of this season, along with a partial guarantee over the next two years. His salary for 2020/21 becomes fully guaranteed if he makes the opening night roster this fall.
Maten had a productive season in the G League, averaging 23.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 blocks per game despite missing time in January and February with an ankle injury. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra believes Maten would have been in the running for MVP honors if he hadn’t gotten hurt.
“He’s got a great offensive skill set,” Spoelstra said. “You can’t teach that kind of touch for somebody of his size. He’s a gym rat, very coachable. We’re looking forward to growing with him. He’s a good kid.”
There’s more out of Miami:
- With an available roster spot remaining, the Heat are considering a standard contract for their other two-way player, Duncan Robinson, Jackson reports in the same story. Robinson played 13 games for Miami this season and must be given a standard deal to become eligible for the playoffs.
- Udonis Haslem has barely played over the past three seasons, but Spoelstra will lobby him to return for another year, Jackson adds. The team believes Haslem’s leadership is worth investing a roster spot, even though he has appeared in just eight games this season. “I’m going to try to convince him to keep on going,” Spoelstra said. “He has the right to take his time, and that’s what he’s going to do. But at least we got him to that point, where it’s not an automatic package deal with Dwyane [Wade]. That would be fitting, but I would like to see him continue. We need it and what he brings to the table is what so many organizations are missing — that leadership, knowledge, somebody that really understands your culture. I will respect whatever decision he makes, but I am going to recruit him hard this summer.”
- Dion Waiters‘ late-season performance may have dissuaded the Heat from trying to trade him this summer, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. However, he adds that conditioning will be important and Waiters will need to meet his weight requirement for training camp to prove his commitment to management. He still has two years and $24.75MM left on his contract.
9:27am: The deal is official, the Heat confirmed on Twitter.
9:04am: Yante Maten, who has been a two-way player with the Heat all season, has agreed to a multi-year contract with the team, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Miami used part of its mid-level exception for the signing (Twitter link).
The deal is partially guaranteed and Maten will have a chance to earn $3.1MM over the next two seasons, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link). He will be eligible for the playoffs is Miami can qualify.
Maten signed a two-way deal in July after going undrafted out of Georgia. The 22-year-old forward spent the entire season in the G League, averaging 23.5 points and 9.6 rebounds in 30 games.
Today marked the deadline for the Heat to add a player to reach the 14-man roster minimum. They still have one opening they can fill by Wednesday.
- Heat guard Dwyane Wade said he’ll probably need a therapist after he retires at the end of the season, as he told Rachel Nichols of ESPN. “It is going to be a big change. This is what I know, like, my life has been this,” he said. “I told my wife I need to do therapy and we need to do a little bit. I was always against someone that don’t know me telling me how to live my life or giving me instructions. But I need someone to talk to about it. Because it is a big change.”
- The Heat need to add another player to the roster by Sunday to get back to 14 on the 15-player roster, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel points out. They might even add two players and could convert the two-way contracts of Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten to standard contracts to make them playoff eligible. However, that would also boost their qualifying offers from $50K to $1.4MM apiece, Winderman notes.
If the Lakers elect to move on from head coach Luke Walton at season’s end, Heat assistant Juwan Howard would be among the candidates they consider, reports Marc Stein of The New York Times (via Twitter).
Still, while Howard would be an option for the Lakers, he shouldn’t be considered the frontrunner, according to Stein. At least one betting site set odds earlier this week on who will coach the Lakers to start 2019/20, and Howard was listed as the favorite at 4-to-1, followed by Walton and Tyronn Lue at 7-to-1.
A longtime NBA big man who won titles with the Heat as a player alongside LeBron James in 2012 and 2013, Howard transitioned to Miami’s coaching staff when he retired after the ’13 championship. He has served as an assistant to Erik Spoelstra since then and drew some interest last spring from a couple teams seeking a head coach — Howard reportedly interviewed with the Knicks and Pistons before they hired David Fizdale and Dwane Casey, respectively.
Although nothing is official yet, Walton is widely expected to be replaced once the Lakers’ season comes to an end. In recent weeks, Lue, Jason Kidd, and even Rick Carlisle have been cited as potential candidates for Los Angeles in the event that the club makes a change.
- Heat veteran Udonis Haslem reflected on his storied 16-year career in an exclusive article relayed by Marc Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated, looking back on his competitors, teammates, early upbringing and love for the game of basketball. Haslem has spent the past few seasons in a very limited on-court role, doing most of his work on the Heat with the younger players in practice and in the locker room. Haslem’s veteran presence is greatly valued by Miami’s coaching staff and players, many of whom have publicly stated their hopes of him returning for another season.
Josh Richardson returned to the Heat‘s lineup on Wednesday after missing three games with a heel injury, but left the loss early due to a groin injury. Now, he may be done for the season.
While an MRI on Richardson’s left groin injury didn’t reveal any damage, the young wing could miss the next two weeks, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. If that timeline is accurate, it would extend into the first round of the postseason. The Heat are currently fighting for their playoff lives and are no lock to make it, which means Richardson may not get a chance to play again until 2019/20.
Richardson, 25, has been a key contributor for the Heat this season, averaging team highs in PPG (16.6 PPG) and MPG (34.8) while playing strong perimeter defense. It will be an uphill battle for the ninth-seeded Heat to re-enter the playoff picture without him, though the team has plenty of backcourt and wing depth. Dwyane Wade, Justise Winslow, Dion Waiters, Rodney McGruder are among the players who could be leaned on more heavily with Richardson sidelined.
The Heat, who sit a half-game back of the Nets and Magic for the Nos. 7 and 8 spots in the East, will finish their season by playing at Minnesota, at Toronto, vs. Philadelphia, and at Brooklyn.
After being named the G League’s Most Valuable Player and the Defensive Player of the Year for the 2018/19 season on Monday, Raptors 905 big man Chris Boucher – now a member of the Toronto Raptors – headlines the All-NBA G League first team, as the league announced today in a press release.
Boucher was joined on the All-NBAGL first team by teammate Jordan Loyd, as well as Capital City Go-Go guard Jordan McRae, Long Island Nets big man Alan Williams, and Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario center Angel Delgado. All four players are currently on two-way contracts with NBA teams.
That’s a common theme for this year’s All-NBAGL teams, as most of the 15 players named to the three squads aren’t currently NBA free agents, having signed two-way or NBA contracts.
The complete list of the 2018/19 All-NBA G League teams, along with the All-Rookie and All-Defensive squads, is below. Players currently on a 15-man NBA roster are marked with an asterisk (*), while players on two-way contracts are noted with a caret (^).
All-NBAGL First Team:
- Chris Boucher (Raptors 905) *
- Angel Delgado (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Jordan Loyd (Raptors 905) ^
- Jordan McRae (Capital City Go-Go) ^
- Alan Williams (Long Island Nets) ^
All-NBAGL Second Team:
- Isaiah Hartenstein (Rio Grande Valley Vipers) *
- Walt Lemon (Windy City Bulls) *
- Note: Lemon wasn’t on an NBA contract for most of the season, but was recently called up by the Bulls.
- Yante Maten (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Johnathan Motley (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Theo Pinson (Long Island Nets) ^
All-NBAGL Third Team:
- P.J. Dozier (Maine Red Claws) ^
- Amile Jefferson (Lakeland Magic) ^
- Kalin Lucas (Grand Rapids Drive) ^
- Duncan Robinson (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Christian Wood (Wisconsin Herd) *
- Note: Wood spent most of the season on the Bucks’ roster, but was recently released and claimed off waivers by the Pelicans.
NBAGL All-Rookie Team:
- Chris Chiozza (Capital City Go-Go) *
- Note: Chiozza wasn’t on an NBA contract for most of the season, but was recently called up by the Rockets.
- Angel Delgado (Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario) ^
- Yante Maten (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
- Theo Pinson (Long Islands Nets) ^
- Duncan Robinson (Sioux Falls Skyforce) ^
NBAGL All-Defensive Team:
- Kadeem Allen (Westchester Knicks) ^
- Chris Boucher (Raptors 905) *
- Amida Brimah (Austin Spurs)
- Gary Payton II (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
- Norvel Pelle (Delaware Blue Coats)
The All-Defensive team is the only squad that features players who are currently NBA free agents — Brimah and Pelle haven’t been on an NBA roster this season, while Payton only briefly spent time with an NBA team, signing a 10-day contract with the Wizards in January.
Kelly Olynyk passed the 1,700-minute mark for the season on Monday during the Heat’s loss to the Celtics and as a result, he’ll pick up a $1MM bonus for surpassing the threshold, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks relays (Twitter link). Olynyk played the entire second half against Boston and he’s been one of the more reliable members of the team this season, playing in all but three games so far this year.
Olynyk has the $1MM bonus for 1,700 minutes on each season of the contract he signed back in 2017. Prior to his Heat deal, his season high in minutes played was 1,538.
The threshold was considered “unlikely” prior to last season, meaning that it was not accounted for in Miami’s 2017/18 salary cap. The bonus was then changed to “likely” after he hit the 1,700-mark last year and it was accounted for in this year’s figures. Had Olynyk not received 1,700 minutes, Miami’s 2018/19 salary cap would have been reduced by $1MM.
Olynyk will also take home a $400K bonus if the Heat make the playoffs, which was also determined to be likely for this season, since Miami made the postseason last spring. If Olynyk had failed to earn either his minutes-player or postseason bonuses, the Heat may have been able to sneak under the luxury tax line, but that’s no longer in play.
The Heat’s team salary remains at roughly $125MM, behind the Celtics for the sixth-highest mark in the league. Miami technically has the highest payroll in the NBA, coming in at $153.23MM though Chris Bosh‘s $26.84MM salary doesn’t count toward the team’s books as a result of the Fitness to Play Panel addition in the latest CBA.
Miami, which currently owns a record of 38-39, could have the highest salary cap ever for a team without a winning record, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald details. Previously, the Knicks held that distinction, going 23-59 during the 2005/06 season with a payroll of $124MM.
The Heat are on their way to being a luxury taxpayer this season. According to Jackson, more than 110 teams have finished in the luxury tax and 22 have had a losing record (the Heat did it twice before during the 2003/04 and 2007/08 seasons).
The franchise has $83MM in guaranteed salary on the books for next season, though that figure does not include Hassan Whiteside‘s ($27.09MM) and Goran Dragic‘s ($19.22MM) respective player options.
Earlier today, the Kings and Knicks filled the final open spot on their respective rosters, signing a 15th man to a rest-of-season contract. With the NBA’s 2018/19 regular season set to come to an end next Wednesday, we can expect to see more teams making that kind of transaction in the next week.
While teams often leave a roster spot or two open during the season to maintain flexibility or to help reduce their projected tax bill, most of those clubs won’t leave any openings at season’s end. After all, the one-day cap hit for a minimum-salary player signed on the last day of the season maxes out at $8,548.
For playoff-bound clubs, that’s a small price to pay to add one more depth piece who might be needed for a game or two in the postseason. For lottery-bound teams, it’s a worthwhile investment to fill that 15th roster spot with a developmental player who could be an option for the 2019/20 roster.
With that in mind, here are the teams that still have at least one 15-man roster spot available:
Teams with two open roster spots:
- Miami Heat
Teams with one open roster spot:
- Brooklyn Nets
- Houston Rockets
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- San Antonio Spurs
- Toronto Raptors
- Washington Wizards
Teams with a full 15-man roster who have one player on a 10-day contract:
- Atlanta Hawks (Deyonta Davis; expires Sunday night)
- Boston Celtics (Greg Monroe; expires tonight)