- While a trade remains the preferred outcome for both the Rockets and Carmelo Anthony, a buyout “isn’t off the table,” league sources tell Iko. Iko names the Lakers, Heat, and Pistons as teams that could be willing to take a chance on Anthony.
- Sources tell Iko that the Heat don’t really want to take back any salary if they move Wayne Ellington. It’s not clear if that’s a reference to multiyear salary or if Miami doesn’t want to take back any money at all in a potential Ellington deal. The latter would be trickier – a trade partner would need cap room or a traded player exception to accommodate the sharpshooter’s $6.27MM salary – but would be financially advantageous for the Heat. It appears they could dip ever so slightly below the tax line by getting off Ellington’s contract.
Hassan Whiteside has impacted the Heat in a much more positive way this season, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, who shares perspectives from some of Whiteside’s teammates and other figures around the franchise.
Whiteside, who missed part of last season due to injury, was unhappy with his playing time after his minutes dropped from 32.6 per game to 25.3. The Heat handled the matter internally at the time, working with him to become a better teammate and approach games with a team-first mentality.
“I think I’m just in a better place than what I was last year,” Whiteside said, according to Jackson. “Going through all the injuries and stuff, I was real frustrated with myself too, not being able to be there with my teammates, not being able to contribute like I wanted to. There was a lot of frustration with myself also, with the injuries. I’m just happy we’re winning. All the other stuff will come.”
Whiteside has averaged 12.5 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 25.8 minutes per game this season with Miami. His overall mindset and willingness to trust coach Erik Spoelstra has helped improved their relationship as a result.
“Spo’s my guy,” Whiteside said. “We overcommunicate. We got an understanding. He wants to win. I want to win. We’re definitely in a better place.”
Spoelstra, who’s coached Whiteside for each of the past five seasons, is impressed with his growth and maturity. Whiteside has put forth a ton of work in recent months, including improving his quality of screens to help his team.
“Every year, he’s becoming a better basketball player and learning how to become an ultimate winner. And he’s enjoying it more,” Spoelstra said. “That’s the whole thing that’s tough for players to really grasp. The more you breathe life into somebody else and enjoy somebody else’s success, whatever it is that you are searching for yourself, you usually end up getting because of that giving mentality.”
There’s more out of Miami today:
- Erik Spoelstra will tie Pat Riley‘s franchise record by coaching his 849th regular-season game with the Heat on Monday, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel tweets. Spoelstra, who’s in his 11th season as head coach, can pass Riley’s record on Wednesday against the Clippers.
- Dwyane Wade played his final game in Chicago on Saturday, tallying 14 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in nearly 27 minutes. “I have more of a connection here than anywhere else,” Wade said postgame, according to Mark Strotman of NBC Sports. “It’s my birth city. It’s the place where my vision to become an NBA player started, watching my favorite team and watching my favorite players growing up. It definitely felt different than any other city but it was a good different. It was a joyous time for me to be here.”
- Rodney McGruder has earned a higher ground for restricted free agency this summer, Winderman details for the Sun Sentinel. McGruder, 27, met the criteria of starting half of the season (41 games) last week, raising his $1.9 million qualifying offer to $3MM. The CBA also states that the “starter criteria” could include playing 2,000 or more minutes, according to Winderman, with McGruder logging 1,185 minutes just over the halfway point of the season.
As NBA teams consider their trade options before the February 7 deadline, it’s worth keeping in mind that two-thirds of the league’s clubs hold traded player exceptions. These traded player exceptions allow over-the-cap clubs to acquire a player – or multiple players – whose salary fits within the TPE without having to send out any salary in return.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
Traded player exceptions can’t be combined with another salary or exception and often aren’t worth much, so most of them ultimately go unused. Still, they can come in handy every now and then, particularly for under-the-tax clubs that don’t mind adding a little more money to their books.
Last season, a total of 16 trades were completed between January 29 and February 8, resulting in 18 outstanding trade exceptions that will expire between January 29 and February 8 of this year.
Here are those traded player exceptions, listed in order of value, with the expiration date noted in parentheses for each TPE:
- Detroit Pistons: $7,000,000 (1/29)
- Utah Jazz: $3,708,883 (2/8)
- Portland Trail Blazers: $3,505,233 (2/8)
- Toronto Raptors: $2,451,225 (2/8)
- Utah Jazz: $2,386,864 (2/8)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $2,300,000 (2/8)
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1,889,040 (2/5)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1,697,250 (2/8)
- Los Angeles Clippers: $1,471,382 (1/29)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $1,471,382 (2/1)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,471,382 (2/8)
- Detroit Pistons: $1,471,382 (2/8)
- New York Knicks: $1,435,750 (2/7)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $1,429,818 (2/1)
- Detroit Pistons: $1,331,160 (2/8)
- Los Angeles Clippers: $1,331,160 (1/29)
- Miami Heat: $1,312,611 (2/8)
- Washington Wizards: $1,312,611 (2/8)
For the full list of traded player exceptions currently available, including three Nuggets TPEs ranging in value from $5.9MM to $13.7MM, click here.
The NBA’s 2019 trade deadline is now less than three weeks away, and a number of the trade candidates whose names are popping up the most have something in common, as Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports tweets: They’re all on expiring contracts.
Smith identifies Dewayne Dedmon (Hawks), Jeremy Lin (Hawks), Jonathon Simmons (Magic), Wayne Ellington (Heat), Robin Lopez (Bulls), Enes Kanter (Knicks), Noah Vonleh (Knicks), and David Nwaba (Cavaliers) as those players cited most frequently in trade chatter. Of those eight players, Simmons is the only one under contract for next season, and his 2019/20 salary of $5.7MM is partially guaranteed for just $1MM. In other words, his deal can be viewed as a de facto expiring contract too.
Here are a few more notes and rumors on the NBA’s trade market:
- The Hawks appear willing to take on 2019/20 salary in trade discussions, according to Smith (Twitter link). A willingness to eat a bad contract in exchange for a more favorable asset could make Atlanta a team to watch in the coming weeks, since most teams around the NBA want to preserve their cap space for 2019.
- Smith names the Sixers, Nets, Magic, Kings, Rockets, Pelicans, and Clippers as the teams that appear to be most active in trying to upgrade their rosters (Twitter link). Besides gauging the trade market, these clubs are also keeping an eye on potential buyout candidates, Smith notes.
- The Wizards have shown “little appetite” for any trade that involves moving Otto Porter for a return heavy on future assets and cap flexibility, sources tell ESPN’s Zach Lowe. That stance aligns with comments on Thursday made by owner Ted Leonsis, who stressed that Washington continues to push for a playoff spot and has no plans to tank.
The Heat have hit Dion Waiters with a fine after he publicly griped about his playing time earlier in the week, suggesting he was tired of being “patient” as he waited for an increased role. Miami didn’t disclose how much the fine for Waiters was worth, but said it was for conduct detrimental to the team, as David Furones of The South Florida Sun Sentinel tweets.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra addressed the issue today, telling reporters that dropping expletives and complaining to the media about his playing time won’t earn Waiters more minutes (Twitter link via Furones).
“I think it’s important for him to realize: Our team is much different than when he left last year, and while his teammates are really here to support him, nobody is volunteering their rotation minutes to him. It’ll have to be earned just like everybody else,” Spoelstra said, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “These concepts of patience and surrendering to the team, whether we want to put expletives in front of it or behind it, those are going to be very important concepts for him to embrace, and I think he will.”
Here’s more on Waiters and the Heat:
- According to Jackson, Waiters said today that he’s glad he let his frustration out, but he should have expressed it differently. “I was frustrated,” Waiters said. “I want to play. I want to speed this process up a little bit. I don’t mean no harm to nobody. I’m not perfect nor do I try to be. I just want to play the game I love that I missed for a year.” Waiters added that he “absolutely” wants to remain with the Heat.
- Multiple teammates, including Udonis Haslem, spoke to Waiters – both privately and during a team meeting on Wednesday – about channeling his frustration in more productive ways, writes Jackson. “We don’t have any bad apples on our team,” Haslem said. “We understand Dion’s comments, while not the right thing to do, are coming from a good place.”
- Waiters isn’t the only Heat player frustrated by his role. In a separate article for The Miami Herald, Jackson reports that Wayne Ellington‘s agent has had conversations with Heat officials about his client’s limited role and his future with the club. According to Jackson, the team stressed that it values Ellington and is aware he’d like to play more, but no promises were made.
- Rodney McGruder, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, started his 41st game for the Heat on Tuesday. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, that means McGruder has now met the “starter criteria” for RFAs, which will increase the value of his qualifying offer from $1.93MM to $3.02MM.
After missing more than a full year due to an ankle injury, Dion Waiters has recently returned to the Heat‘s rotation, with the team easing him back into a regular role. However, after playing just 12 minutes in a blowout loss to to the Bucks on Tuesday night, Waiters expressed frustration with his limited playing time, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.
“F— patience!” Waiters said. “I want to play. I’ve been patient long enough. What do I got to be patient for? Come on man. I’ve been patient. I think everybody knows that. It’s time. What are we waiting for? If I’m out there, play me.”
According to Jackson, head coach Erik Spoelstra has said repeatedly that Waiters needs to be patient because he’s coming off a major injury and the Heat already have an over-crowded rotation. The 27-year-old has been available for seven games since returning to action earlier this month, but has appeared in only five, and averaged just 15.4 minutes in those contests, which would easily be a career low.
Waiters said after Tuesday’s game that his patience “has run out,” and that the “next step is being back in the starting lineup,” per Jackson. In his first two seasons with the Heat, Waiters started 73 of the 76 games he played, but he has come off the bench in his five games so far in 2018/19.
Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, and Rodney McGruder are currently in Miami’s starting lineup, and the team also has to find playing time for Derrick Jones, Dwyane Wade, and Tyler Johnson. Throw in frontcourt minutes for starters Hassan Whiteside and James Johnson and backups Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo, and it doesn’t leave much time for Waiters — or fellow shooting guard Wayne Ellington, who has fallen entirely out of the rotation. Keeping everyone happy will be even more challenging once Goran Dragic returns from his knee injury.
It will be interesting to see how the Heat, who currently hold the sixth seed in the East, manage their logjam in the coming weeks. Making a trade or two before the February 7 deadline might be in the best interests of both the club and its players.
- Shooting guard Rodney McGruder could lose his rotation spot if Heat coach Erik Spoelstra decides to expand Tyler Johnson‘s minutes, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes in his latest mailbag. In that instance, Dion Waiters would start ahead of McGruder and Johnson would receive second unit minutes. Waiters returned from ankle surgery three games ago. McGruder has played fewer than 20 minutes in three of the last four games.
- After Tom Thibodeau became the fourth NBA coach in the last two years to lose his dual title of head coach and president of basketball operations, Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports writes that the trend has run its course. While that may be the case for now, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst believes it’s just a matter of time until we see another franchise try it. Windhorst suggests that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will be a candidate to assume some or all of Pat Riley‘s personnel control when Riley eventually retires.
JANUARY 8, 10:42am: Haslem addressed the subject of his retirement again today, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who tweets that the veteran said he’s 90% sure he’ll call it a career at season’s end.
JANUARY 7, 9:45pm: One longtime Heat player will call it a career at the end of this season, with Dwyane Wade having already announced that he plans to retire in 2019. A second Miami veteran appears likely to join him in retirement, as Udonis Haslem told David Yapkowitz of Basketball Insiders that the 2018/19 season will probably be his last.
“I’m gonna call it done too. There’s nothing else left for me to do on the basketball court,” Haslem said. “My kids are getting older, my son is playing college football at the University of Toledo, my 11-year-old is playing travel baseball and I never see him as he’s always out of town. My eight-year-old is playing travel basketball. There’s so many other things for me to be engaged in right now.”
While Haslem’s comments sound pretty definitive, and echo ones he made in the fall, Haslem suggested to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Twitter links) that he’s not making anything official just yet.
“I mean, the people that are close to me and that I’ve spoken to about it, they pretty much know what the situation is,” Haslem said. “But, at the same time… I just want to wait until the end of the season and weigh my options. Physically, I can still play. Mentally, my mind still thinks the game.”
As Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press notes (via Twitter), Haslem believes he’s still capable of playing and “desperately” wants to do so — it kills him not to see more action, says Reynolds. While Haslem has suggested he’ll likely retire at season’s end, the Heat would probably be willing to bring him back for another season, according to Reynolds.
Haslem, who will turn 39 in June, has been a member of the Heat since 2003, but has seen his playing time cut back significantly in recent years. After appearing in 14 games last season, he has played in three so far in 2018/19.