Heat are hopeful they will be able to work out deal with Ellington.
An early run in NBA free agency on players who specialize in 3-point shooting opened a window at the start of the process Sunday about where the Miami Heat might stand with Wayne Ellington.
Among the first 20 players to reach reported agreements, six are known primarily for their 3-point shooting.
Of that group, Doug McDermott received a threeyear, $22 million contract from the Indiana Pacers to leave the Dallas Mavericks, with Joe Harris receiving a higher average salary, at $16 million over two seasons, to stay with the Brooklyn Nets.
Ellington earned $6.3 million last season from the Heat.
Despite the rapid resolution with several 3-point specialists around the league, the Heat had immediate contact with Ellington at the start of free agency, maintaining an ongoing dialogue, with both sides hopeful of an agreement.
With the Heat already at $120 million in 2018-19 payroll when counting the 11 players under contract, even a return by Ellington at last season’s salary would put the Heat over the 2018-19 luxury tax of $123.7 million that was formally set late by the NBA Saturday night.
The Heat have operated in the punitive dollar-for-dollar (or more) luxury-tax previously, but have stressed such an approach is preferably reserved for seasons when in championship contention.
In addition to Ellington, the Heat’s remaining free agents were bypassed during the frantic opening round of spending.
Beyond Ellington, the Heat’s other free agents are Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Luke Babbitt and Jordan Mickey, as well as two-way prospect Derrick Jones Jr., who has been extended a qualifying offer and is the team’s only restricted free agent.
In addition to McDermott and Harris, 3-point specialists who agreed to terms after the midnight start of free agency (contracts cannot be formally signed until Friday, due to the NBA’s personnel moratorium) were: Ersan Ilyasova (three years, $21 million to move from the Philadelphia 76ers to Milwaukee Bucks), Marco Belinelli (two years, $12 million to move from the 76ers to San Antonio Spurs), Nik Stauskas (one year, $1.6 million to move from the Brooklyn Nets to Portland Trail Blazers) and Omri Casspi (one year, terms yet to be announced, to move from the Golden State Warriors to the Memphis Grizzlies).
Because Ellington has been with the Heat for two seasons, the Heat retain Ellington’s early-Bird Rights, which allows them to re-sign him — while going over the cap and not using any of their salary cap exceptions — to a contract that can start at as much as $10 million for next season.
A move to retain Ellington could make it less likely the Heat utilize a part of their taxpayer mid-level exception of $5.3 million or their bi-annual exception of $3.4 million.
Ellington, 30, is coming off a season when he converted a franchise-record 227 3-pointers, averaging a career-high 11.2 points per game. Ellington closed sixth in the NBA in 3-pointers made, an NBA record for 3-pointers scored as a reserve.