Team paid $5.1M to unloadMcRoberts
MIAMI— In the end, the Heat essentially paid Josh McRoberts to go away.
With the numbers coming out from last week’s flurry of trades to clear and then re-fill cap space, the Heat’s machinations included paying theMavericks $5.1 million to take on McRoberts’ $6 million 2017-18 salary, the Sun Sentinel has confirmed.
The amount paid is the entire allotment a team can spend in trades for the 2017-18 NBA calendar year that runs from July 1 to June 30. Itmeans theHeat cannot include cash in a deal for the balance of the season, nor spend to buy a trade pick at the 2018NBAdraft.
While there are ways aroundthat restrictionwhen it comes to the draft (including having a team pick for the Heat and then later paying out of the 2018-19 allotment), it shows the degree that the team went to clear the needed cap space to sign James Johnson, Dion Waiters andKelly Olynyk.
The Heat also sent their 2023 second-round pick to the Mavericks in the McRoberts deal, acquiring center A.J. Hammons, the 2016 second-round pick out of Purdue, in exchange. Hammons currently is playing with theHeat’s summer-league team.
The money spent in the Dallas deal essentially provided the means to add Olynyk.
As for the Heat’s maneuvering through the cap, including converting some salary to bonuses, the Heat wound up with 2017-18 salaries of $13.9 million for Johnson, $11 million for Waiters and $10.6 million for Olynyk.
Those figures, plus picking up the $6.3 million salary for2017-18 onthe conditional contract ofWayne Ellington put the Heat at the 2017-18 salary cap.
The Heat still have a $4.3 million mid-level exception, as well as the ability to pay additional playersontheveteran-minimum scale. hits balloon to $19.3 million the next two seasons due to the ramifications of his 2016 agreement as a restricted free agent.
Johnson is coming off a solid season, his third after going undrafted out of Fresno State in 2014, averaging 13.7 points, the secondhighest average in the NBA by a player without a start. His 1,002 points this past season were the most in franchise history by a player without a start, surpassing Ray Allen‘ s 863 in 2012-13.