South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
As clock ticks on Okpala, costs become evident
MIAMI — It could be argued that KZ Okpala entered the NBA under more pressure than any Miami Heat second-round pick.
A team already operating in the void of draft choices went all in during the second round in 2019 when Okpala was still on the board at No. 32.
So, not one, not two, but three future second-round picks were sent to the Indiana Pacers to secure that draft position and therefore secure Okpala.
Understand, to that point the Heat front office had been on a streak of secondround maximization. There was Josh Richardson at No. 40 in 2015, James Ennis at No. 50 in 2013, Patrick Beverley at No. 42 in 2009, Mario Chalmers at No. 34 in 2008. Not all were officially Heat selections, but those that weren’t were selected at the Heat’s behest in prearranged deals ( just as the Heat in the second round drafted Bol Bol for the Denver Nuggets at No. 44 in 2019 and Bojan Bogdanovic for the Brooklyn Nets in 2014).
Okpala, though was a split decision, not all in the Heat scouting department sold on the wing out of Stanford that some had projected as a first rounder. And that’s when the Heat further upped the ante for Okpala (and themselves), when, during the 2019 summer league, they extended a fully guaranteed three-year, $4.2 million contract.
Had the projections been on target, it would have proven to be the ultimate value deal, one that would carry Okpala directly to full Bird Rights for the Heat without any of the uncertainty of restricted free agency and offer sheets.
For that matter, the annual salaries were so nominal, topping out at $1.8 million this season, that the cost was equivalent to a replacement player on a minimum deal.
But then the math changed, the Heat spending to the cusp of the luxury tax this offseason, currently without room under the tax line for even an additional minimum-scale player.
So after a pair of injury/illness-limited seasons, there is no wiggle room for the Heat. At the moment, the soft-spoken 22-year-old cannot be released in favor of a replacement, because the Heat lack the room under the tax for such a move.
And that is what made this week so interesting regarding a pair of teams with their own tax concerns.
For the Brooklyn Nets to ease their tax bill, they offloaded the salary of 2019 first-round pick Sekou Doumbouya at the cost of a 2024 second-round pick also going to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets then ate Doumbouya’s salary and waived him.
That same day, the Indiana Pacers offloaded the contract of sidelined guard Edmond Sumner to the Nets, at the cost of also sending along a second-round pick.
That second-round pick acquired by the Nets was the Heat’s 2025 second-round pick, one of the three sent out in 2019 when the Heat acquired Okpala (also going out were 2022 and ‘26 second-round picks). And even then, the Pacers respected the value of that second-rounder, protecting it through the first seven selections of the 2025 second round.
And yet, if the Heat were to opt to follow suit to offload Okpala’s contract in favor of the addition of a more proven/productive roster component (or to convert one of their two-way players to a standard deal), the cost after the Doumbouya and Sumner is clear: Another second-round pick.
Effectively bringing the cost of Okpala to four second-round picks.
Four.
For now, there is no pressing need for such a move, and certainly time for Okpala to show that his summer-league finale in August and previous low-stakes games when he was a featured player can be replicated.
His is not your typical three-year rookie cycle, considering the impact of COVID and bubble ball and a roster quickly reconfigured into win-now mode.
But a sign of something more, something sustained, would help, something beyond play in the preseason.
Already, Okpala seemingly has been bypassed in the rotation by Max Strus and Gabe Vincent, two who did it the hard way, through two-way contracts. Now there also is, arguably, the more established body of work of two-way addition Caleb Martin.
Three years in, the fight is for scraps as an 11th man.
No, not the typical Heat second-round value.
As the clock ticks.
With the draft collateral controlled by others.