Monday is deadline to use trade exception

The Heat has a few important deadlines approaching.

Obviously, Thursday’s NBA trade deadline is important for the Heat and the rest of the league. But Monday is also an important date for the Heat.

Miami holds a $7.5 million trade exception that expires at 11:59 p.m. on Monday. The Heat received the exception as part of last season’s trade with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Trade exceptions allow teams to trade for a player whose salary fits or players whose salaries combine to fit into the exception without having to send back salary to match. Chunks of the exception can also be used to acquire different players split up between multiple trades.

Trade exceptions can’t be combined with a player to acquire a more expensive salary, with the Heat only able to absorb a player whose salary is equal to or lower than the exception.

The Heat could include a player in the deal, but the player doesn’t need to earn $7.5 million or anything close to it to satisfy salary-cap rules to complete the trade because of the exception.

One power rotation player with shooting range who could fit into that exception money and has been linked to the Heat is Sacramento Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica, who is earning $7.2 million on an expiring contract.

Bjelica, 32, is averaging 7.4 points on 28.6% threepoint shooting, four rebounds and two assists in 25 games (one start) this season. He was out of the Kings’ rotation earlier this season, but has earned consistent playing time off the bench in the last three weeks.

But it’s important to note that many trade exceptions simply expire without being used because the number of rotation-caliber players who can be acquired thorough this mechanism is often very limited.

If the Heat even uses its $7.5 million trade exception before Monday’s deadline, it may not be for the full amount.

Why?

After the Heat acquired veteran forward Trevor Ariza in a trade on Wednesday with the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Meyers Leonard and a 2027 second-round pick, Miami went from being about $8 million away from the luxury-tax threshold to about $5.4 million below the luxury-tax line.

That means using the full, or anything close to the full, $7.5 million trade exception without including a player in a potential deal would leave the Heat over the tax threshold. The Heat entered this season with the expectation that it would not cross the tax line after finishing last season as a tax team, and the threat of the more punitive repeater tax (when a team is over the tax at least three times over a four-year period) looming.

“I think we’re significantly under the tax and so I don’t foresee us having to go into the tax,” Heat president Pat Riley said before the season in November. “But you never know what can happen. You just don’t know. You take a look at some of these trades that are being made and some of the contracts that are being moved around — one trade, one contract could take you there.

“But it better be one that can get you into the Finals, so [Heat owner Micky Arison] will always, I think, spend.”

The Heat would also have to open a roster spot if it uses the trade exception to acquire a player without sending one back in return because Miami’s roster is at the league maximum of 17 players (15 on standard contracts and two on two-way contracts).

GETTING TO THE LINE

Second-year Heat guard Tyler Herro entered Sunday averaging 2.6 free-throw attempts per game this season. That’s up from the 1.8 free throws he averaged per game as a rookie last season.

But Herro, who went 6 of 6 from the foul line in Friday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers, wants that number to be higher moving forward.

“I think it can definitely obviously benefit me,” Herro said. “The best scorers in this league are all guys that can get to the line at will, really catch rhythm from the freethrow line. I think that’s how they get their points. For me, I think it’s just slowing the game down and being able to read the defense and make the right reads, whether it’s making the extra pass or drawing contact to get to the free-throw line.”