Heat guard James Jones has exercised his player option for the 2013/14 season, remaining with the two-time defending champions for at least one more year, according to the team's official Twitter account.
Known solely for his ability to knock down three-point shots, other areas of Jones' game aren't seen as strengths. He played just 221 minutes last season, and only 33 in the playoffs.
James is set to make $1.5MM next season.
Rashard Lewis' agent, Colin Bryant, confirmed today what Lewis himself told Bill Ingram of HoopsWorld two weeks ago, telling Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (Twitter link) that the Heat forward will pick up his 2013/14 player option to remain in Miami.
Lewis' option for next season will only pay him the minimum salary for a veteran with 10+ years of experience ($1,399,507). Still, he'd probably have trouble finding more than the minimum with another club, so giving up the chance to compete for another title in Miami never really made much sense for the 33-year-old.
In his first season with the Heat, Lewis appeared in 55 games (14.4 MPG), averaging 5.2 PPG and 2.2 RPG while shooting 38.9% on three-pointers.
It's already been a busy day of news and rumors, and things don't figure to slow down anytime soon. With the draft fast approaching and free agency to follow shortly thereafter, the NBA's roster-movement season is in full swing. As we try not to let anything slip through the cracks, let's round up a few Tuesday odds and ends from around the Association:
While the Heat can’t and won’t do too much to shake up their roster this summer, they do have some important decisions to make as they chase their third consecutive NBA title. Five Miami veterans in total will be eligible for free agency but there’s one in particular that is a higher priority than the others. Here’s more out of Miami and Orlando..
We covered many of the pertinent points from Sam Amico's latest NBA report at FOX Sports Ohio earlier today in a post that rounded up today's Cavs rumors. But Amico's piece also features a few more notable tidbits, including word of the Blazers exploring moving up in the draft, the Bucks preparing to make a splash, and league executives beginning to believe Dwight Howard will sign with the Rockets. In addition to Amico's notes, we're hearing plenty of news and rumors from around the league, with the draft just three days away, so let's dive in….
Guaranteed Contracts
Options
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
Free Agents / Cap Holds
Draft Picks
Cap Outlook
The Heat will celebrate their second consecutive championship with another victory parade Monday in Miami, and all in attendance would be well-advised to embrace the moment. Though the Heat are betting-line favorites to win again next season, there's plenty of reason to believe the team's stay atop the NBA won't last much longer.
The future of LeBron James promises to be a topic of nearly ceaseless discussion for the next 12 months as he nears an early-termination option on his contract. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have the same options in their deals, but neither of them are quite as certain to merit new max contracts on the open market as James is. There will be plenty of financial incentive for James to elect free agency next summer. He, like Wade and Bosh, took less than the max to sign with the Heat in 2010, but with a mounting stack of MVP awards, James not be so charitable this time around.
James will be looking at a Heat team with serious questions about its future, ones that have nothing to do with Wade's increasingly balky knees. The repeater tax in the new collective bargaining agreement is set to kick in for 2014/15, punishing teams that will have paid luxury taxes in that season and the three previous years. The Heat have been taxpayers for the past two years, and their guaranteed contracts for next season exceed the projected tax line of $71.6MM. Bringing back James, Wade and Bosh next summer would surely make the Heat taxpayers again, and for that year, owner Micky Arison would have to shell out at least $2.50 for every dollar he spends beyond the tax threshold. The farther into the tax the team goes, the higher the rate it will have to pay.
Up to this point, the luxury tax has simply been a dollar-for-dollar charge. That changes in 2013/14, when tax teams must pay at least $1.50 for every dollar above the tax line, regardless of how many seasons they've paid the tax in the past. That brings the dilemma into focus for this summer, since the cost of keeping the championship team together rises even before King James can bolt.
The easiest way for the Heat to cut next season's tax bill is probably to use the amnesty clause. They aren't going to amnesty James, Wade or Bosh, so the choice comes down to one of their other three eligible players: Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony. Miller's contract, worth a total of $12.8MM for two more seasons, is the most expensive among the three. He seemed destined for the amnesty scrapheap until re-emerging in the Heat's rotation in the conference finals. The 13-year veteran became a starter in the middle of the NBA Finals, and just as he did at the end of last year's Finals, Miller proved that his three-point shooting is a critical part of the team's success. Still, he's overpaid for someone who's essentially a spot-up shooter, and even though it would be difficult to cut ties with a playoff hero, I think it would still be a wise move for team president Pat Riley and company.
Haslem and Anthony certainly merit consideration for the amnesty, and Anthony in particular, since he disappeared from the Heat's rotation once Chris Andersen arrived. Haslem was the starting power forward for most of the season, but Miller took his playing time in the playoffs as coach Erik Spoelstra more fully embraced the small-ball philosophy. Haslem played less than 10 minutes over the last three games of the Finals combined. Haslem's contract has $8.96MM left on it for the next two seasons, about $4MM less than Miller's deal. That difference would be multiplied by the increased tax rates, so the effective difference would be somewhere around $11.5MM, at least. Haslem, a Miami native, has been with the Heat for his entire 10-year career, so there are plenty of sentimental reasons to hang on to him, too.
Anthony was the least productive player of the three this past season, and his remaining contract, worth $7.6MM over two more years, is the least expensive. Amnestying him instead of Miller or Haslem would help keep the rotation together for another run at a title, but Arison may be better off testing the depth of his pockets at another time.
The return of Ray Allen would help make the decision to amnesty Miller easier, since Allen is another of the team's elite three-point shooters. Allen is on the fence about his $3.229MM player option for next season. He had plenty of suitors on the open market last year, and even though he played a significantly reduced role this past season compared to what he had done with the Celtics, I think plenty of teams would line up for him again if he elects free agency. The Celtics were willing to pay him twice as much as he got from the Heat last summer, and while I don't think Allen will merit any offers of a $6MM annual salary this time around, he can probably do better than what he's set to make in his option year. At the very least, teams should be willing to offer him a multiyear deal that would give Allen more guaranteed money than a one-year option pickup would provide. The Heat could re-sign Allen to a deal with a starting salary of $3.708MM for as many as four years through Non-Bird rights. A multiyear deal could pose yet more tax issues down the road for the Heat, but that may be what it takes to bring Allen back.
Re-signing Allen would make it easier for the Heat to bring back Andersen, too. The team would barely be able to exceed the minimum salary to re-sign the Birdman without dipping into the $3.183MM taxpayer's mid-level exception. The Heat would have to use that exception to replace Allen if he leaves, and since they'd probably like to find another outside shooter with Allen gone, that would probably signal an exit for Andersen.
The Heat experimented with lineups that didn't feature a traditional point guard at times this season, including during the Finals, when those groups were effective down the stretch in games. That might lead to speculation that the Heat could turn down their $4MM option on Mario Chalmers, but I don't think the team envisions giving Wade or James significantly more ballhandling duties while forcing one them to guard opposing point guards every night. James was effective stopping Tony Parker in the Finals, but that's a heavy burden for a player who has so many other tasks, and I think the Heat would be loath to saddle him with such duty in the regular season. Norris Cole doesn't appear ready to assume a starting role, and finding a cheap replacement for Chalmers who could share the position with Cole would probably weaken the team quite a bit. I don't think the Heat will try to skimp here, particularly given Chalmers' relative youth on an otherwise aging roster.
If Riley is to get creative in a quest to save money, it would probably involve a trade. Bosh has drawn mention as a potential trade candidate, and the perception remains that he's the most expendable of the Heat's three stars, particularly after his scoreless performance in Game Seven of the Finals. Miami would probably target a cheaper big man as part of a trade, but inexpensive size has long been the most difficult-to-find commodity in the NBA. Bosh isn't a traditional rim-protecting center, but his speed and long arms make him a disruptive presence on defense. Even if Bosh is overpaid to some degree, the Heat would probably be looking at a downgrade for their roster next season if they traded him, risking another shot at a title.
Wade's trade value is at an all-time low, but if the Heat are to deal away one of their stars, he's probably the best choice. His up-and-down play this postseason proved that he has to perform at an All-Star level for the Heat to win against the best opponents. If he can no longer do so consistently, the Heat might be better off trading him for someone who can. An underpaid star wing player is usually easier to find than a big man with similar credentials, so that's another argument for trading Wade instead of Bosh.
Still, no player on the roster is as much part of the fabric of the Heat's culture as Wade is. He took the sharpest discount among the team's three stars when they signed in 2010. Wade has the superstar credentials and the intimate knowledge of what it's like to be "the man" in Miami, even if he's no longer either of those things. That could help him recruit a replacement for LeBron if the four-time MVP leaves next summer. The intangibles in play as part of any Wade trade could be enough to scuttle the idea before it crosses Riley's mind.
This offseason figures to be about small-scale maintainance of a championship roster instead of earth-shattering moves. A third championship in a row, which would put Miami in the elite company of the Celtics, Lakers and Bulls as the only franchises ever to accomplish such a feat, is within the team's grasp. That's probably worth the cost of ignoring concerns about the future for one more year. Riley and the Heat pursued a similar strategy to chase the 2006 title with Shaquille O'Neal and company, bottoming out in 2007/08 with a league-worst 15-67 record. It didn't take too long for the Heat to rebound from that nadir, and with warm weather and no state income tax, not to mention a growing championship tradition, the team probably wouldn't take too long to bounce back from a similar crash. If 2013/14 must be a swan song for the LeBron-era Heat, expect the band from the last two or three seasons to remain largely intact for one more.
Additional notes:
Cap footnote:
Storytellers Contracts and Sham Sports were used in the creation of this post.
Despite looking extremely vulnerable at times in the series, the Heat persevered and pulled off a seven-game series victory over the Spurs to capture their second straight title. While LeBron James and Co. take some time to celebrate, the front office is already hard at work to line things up for next season. Here's the latest out of South Beach..
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the trade that sent Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza from New Orleans to the Wizards in exchange for Rashard Lewis and last year's No. 46 pick (Darius Miller). Lewis celebrated by picking up a championship with the Heat, who acquired him after the Pelicans bought him out. The date was notable for the Wizards, too, since it meant the expiration of a trade exception worth $1,853,491 that the team generated as part of the deal. Washington has until February to use its other trade exception, from the Jordan Crawford swap, as noted in our continuously updated database. Here's more from around the league:
As he continues rehabbing his knees in hopes of making an NBA comeback, Greg Oden remains interested in signing with the Heat, agent Mike Conley tells Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida. And according to Conley, that interest is mutual.
"The Heat need some size, that’s not a secret," Conley said. "Whether it’s in a backup role or whatever, he could help them. I know they’re interested in him and he’s interested in them."
Oden, who hasn't played in an NBA game since 2009 due to multiple knee surgeries, has been linked to the Heat in the past, along with teams like the Cavaliers, Bobcats, Spurs, and Celtics. There were rumblings about him signing with an NBA team this past season in hopes of rehabbing with the club and returning to the court in 2013/14, but Oden and his reps ultimately decided to wait until the offseason to seek out a deal. In the meantime, the former first overall pick has continued his rehab in Columbus, and Conley thinks it's progressing well.
"He’s doing great. I think he could be ready for the regular-season opener," Conley said. "I’m not sure he’d be ready to play significant minutes. But it would depend on whether the team that he went to wanted him to play right away or not."
Conley added that his client would be willing to work out for teams next month, though he "wouldn’t do contact."
If the Heat were to make an offer to Oden, it would likely have to be for part or all of their mini mid-level exception, which will be worth $3,182,700 this season. Miami may also need to use that MLE in order to re-sign Chris Andersen, who had been on a minimum-salary contract this past season. Asked about Oden's potential market value, Conley said he hasn't "gone down that road" yet.
When I asked two weeks ago, on the eve of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which team would walk away with the 2013 title, the results were surprisingly heavily slanted toward the Spurs, with more than 62% of you picking Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Co.
Today's poll essentially asks the same question that one did, though we have more information at our disposal. We've seen Dwyane Wade and Manu Ginobili struggle, we've seen Danny Green shine, and we know that it'll all come down to one last game at a packed American Airlines Arena (packed until the Heat fall behind by five points late in the game, at least).
With the game being played in Miami, the Heat will enter Game 7 as the favorites, so it will be interesting to see whether the majority of Hoops Rumors readers still like the Spurs. What do you think? Who wins tomorrow night's game and the 2013 championship?