Tucker joins 76ers; Oladipo, Dedmon staying
As NBA teams worked to put together their best trade packages in an effort to acquire Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant, the Heat learned early in free agency that it was losing one of the most important players from last season’s roster.
What has been rumored for the last week became reality, as veteran forward P.J. Tucker is not returning to the Heat. Instead, Tucker will join an Eastern Conference rival in the Philadelphia 76ers, a league source confirmed to the Miami Herald shortly after free agent negotiations were allowed to begin Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported the value of Tucker’s new fully guaranteed contract with the 76ers will be $33 million over three years.
But the Heat was able to cross two items off its free agent to-do list by receiving commitments from two members of last season’s playoff rotation: center Dewayne Dedmon and guard Victor Oladipo.
According to The Athletic, Oladipo will sign a one-year, $11 million deal to return to the Heat, which is a big increase from his league minimum $2.7 million salary last season. Miami held Oladipo’s Bird Rights, giving the Heat the ability to surpass the salary cap to re-sign him.
The Heat also agreed to terms with Dedmon, using his early Bird rights to exceed the salary cap to bring him back on a twoyear, $9 million contract, a league source confirmed. He will make $4.3 million next season and the second
year is not fully guaranteed.
Oladipo, 30, was an All-Star in 2018 and 2019. The Heat acquired him from the Houston Rockets in March 2021, but he has played only 12 regularseason games for Miami because of a knee injury.
Oladipo did not make his 2021-22 regular season debut until March 7, when he returned from knee surgery that he underwent in May 2021. He averaged 12.4 points and 3.5 assists in 12 games, falling out of the rotation at one point but closing the regular season with a 40-point game in Orlando.
After not playing in the first three games of the playoffs, Oladipo filled in for the injured Jimmy Butler and scored 23 points in a close-out Game 5 win in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks.
Oladipo had 19- and 15-point games in the second round against the 76ers.
And though Oladipo struggled with his shot
against the Boston Celtics (19 for 62) in the Eastern Conference finals, he scored 23 in Game 4 and played very good defense, including a four-steal performance in Game 3. Miami outscored Boston by 28 points when he was on the court in Games 6 and 7.
Oladipo said during the season that he’s looking forward to having a healthy summer to polish his offensive game after two major knee procedures in the past three years.
“I really haven’t had a healthy summer to really work on my game,” he said. “This summer I’m looking forward to finetuning all the stuff I’m great at, which includes [three-pointers, pull-ups, drives to the basket] and more. Transition, halfcourt, all the stuff that was second nature to me.”
Heat president Pat Riley said after the season:
“Vic’s story is off the charts. It was a great story. Watching him get into games, when he had 21 in Toronto and 40 in Orlando,
you started to see some things he could do.
“I thought he had some great moments for us. You do need players that can break down players on their own or with their quickness and slashing can create their own shots.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra added regarding Oladipo: “He lives in Miami and I saw it over the years. He hasn’t had a summer like this in four years. You are going to see a totally different Vic by the time he gets to training camp. He’s going into the summer able to work on his craft. He will get back to the player people are accustomed to seeing.”
As for Dedmon, he has been the Heat’s backup center since he joined the team as a free agent late in the 2020-21 season, providing much-needed quality minutes when starting center Bam Adebeyo has been on the bench.
Dedmon, who turns 33 in August, averaged 6.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in 67 games (15 starts) last season.
But even after retaining Dedmon and Oladipo, the Heat is left trying to fill the void Tucker leaves behind at the starting power forward spot.
Like most players, Tucker was looking for the most guaranteed money possible at this late stage of his career and the Heat drew a line as to how far it was willing to go to re-sign him.
According to multiple sources close to the situation, the Heat was willing to offer Tucker a fully guaranteed contract for the maximum-allowable three years using the nonBird exception. The deal would have included a starting salary of $8.4 million and been worth about $26.5 million over three seasons.
But the Heat was not willing to use the $10.5 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception to re-sign Tucker, according to sources, which would have allowed Miami to offer him a three-year contract worth about $33 million. Instead, Philadelphia used the non-taxpayer midlevel exception to sign Tucker to such a deal.
Tucker, who turned 37 in May, averaged 7.6 points on 41.5 percent shooting from three-point range, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in his lone season with the Heat.
Tucker put together one of the best seasons of his NBA career as a Heat starter, averaging his most points per game since 2015-16, shooting his highest percentage from the field since his rookie season when he played in just 17 games in 2006-07, shooting a career-best percentage from threepoint range, while averaging his most assists and posting his highest usage rate (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while on the court) since 2015-16.
With Tucker committing to the 76ers and Dedmon and Oladipo returning, only three players from the Heat’s season-ending roster remained available in free agency as of Thursday night: Udonis Haslem and Markieff Morris are unrestricted free agents, and Caleb Martin is a restricted free agent.
To show the organization’s appreciation for Haslem, the Heat sent a group of employees to Orlando where he was vacationing to shower him with love shortly after negotiations were allowed to begin Thursday at 6 p.m. The Heat is hoping Haslem, who turned 42 in June, decides to continue his playing career and returns for a 20th NBA season.
The Heat’s current roster for next season includes 12 players: Butler, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Oladipo, Tyler Herro, Dedmon, Nikola Jovic, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Omer Yurtseven and Haywood Highsmith.
NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 20 players under contract in the offseason and preseason, a total that does not include those on summer league contracts. Rosters must be cut to a maximum total of 17 players (15 on standard contracts and two on twoway contracts) by the start of the regular season.
While negotiations were allowed to begin Thursday evening, free agents can’t formally sign their new contracts until Wednesday at 12:01 p.m.