As money dries up, so might trade options
Not only have names that might have been of potential interest to the Miami Heat come off the NBA’s free-agency board, but just as significantly so has most of the cap space around the league.
As players continue to resign or relocate — with Tuesday’s moves including Tyreke Evans signing with the Indiana Pacers and Avery Bradley re-signing with the Los Angeles Clippers — even the league’s potential big spenders no longer have much to spend.
According to ESPN’s calculations, the only remaining teams with significant salary-cap space this offseason are the Chicago Bulls at $23 million, Atlanta Hawks at $21 million and Sacramento Kings at $18 million. Otherwise, the league appears down to salary-cap exceptions that max out at $8.8 million for the full mid-level exception.
The Philadelphia 76ers went from $15 million in cap space Tuesday to almost none with an impending trade for the Denver Nuggets’ Wilson Chandler. The Los Angeles Lakers, the other team that entered the offseason with significant salary-cap space, have exhausted the entirety of their stash with the impending signings of LeBron James, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo, among others.
Against that backdrop, the chance of the Heat offloading significant salarycap space this offseason now appears remote.
With the high-end contracts the Heat are carrying, trading into cap space this offseason almost certainly has been put on hold, with Hassan Whiteside at $25.4 million for the coming season, Tyler Johnson at $19.2 million and Goran Dragic also at $19 million. Each of those players have one additional season remaining on their contracts, each at the player’s option.
The possibility of the Heat easing their salary-cap crunch via trade remains, with trade season effectively opening with the Nuggets’ trade of Chandler into the 76ers’ cap space.
The lack of salary-cap space elsewhere could aid the Heat in their negotiations with free-agent 3-point specialist Wayne Ellington, who previously had been linked to the salary-cap space of the Pacers and 76ers. An outside offer of the full midlevel could still potentially trump a return offer from the Heat, who are hard up against the punitive dollar-for-dollar luxury tax.
Ellington is eligible for a contract starting as high as $10.9 million from the Heat for next season. Another option would be to take a one-year contract and then a longer-term deal next summer, when he will have full Bird Rights with the Heat and when the Heat might be better positioned against the luxury tax.
The lone Heat free agent to reach an agreement has been guard Derrick Jones Jr., who Sunday signed a two-year deal.
That leaves Ellington, Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Luke Babbitt, Jordan Mickey and Derrick Walton Jr. as remaining Heat free agents.
The Heat lack cap space beyond the $5.3 million taxpayer mid-level exception, but can exceed the cap to re-sign Ellington due to his early-Bird Rights. The Heat also can exceed the cap with Bird Rights held by Babbitt and Haslem.
The NBA free-agency negotiating period opened Sunday, with agreements not allowed to become finalized until Friday, at the close of the league’s offseason signing moratorium.
While the Heat have remained mostly idle this offseason, the Pacers, who finished as the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference last season, one spot ahead of the Heat, have been bolstered by the additions of Evans and 3-point specialist Doug McDermott. The Washington Wizards, who finished as the No. 8 seed in the East, one game behind the Heat, have traded Marcin Gortat to the Clippers for Austin Rivers, signed Jeff Green away from the Cleveland Cavaliers and reportedly are on the verge of adding Dwight Howard once his impending buyout from the Brooklyn Nets becomes official.