Acquiring Okpala comes with a cost
Heat could wind up with no second-round draft picks until 2027
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the Miami Heat wait for the NBA to sign off on their transactions at Saturday’s end of the league’s personnel moratorium, clarity has come into focus with the cost of acquiring No. 32 pick KZ Okpala, the forward out of Stanford.
The three draft choices the Heat will send to the Indiana Pacers are the Heat’s own secondround picks in 2022, ’25 and ’26.
The upshot is the Heat have now dealt each of their secondround picks through 2026.
The Heat still could be left with a pair of second-rounders in the interim.
As part of last month’s draftnight trade that sent Oregon forward center Bol Bol to the Denver Nuggets, the Heat will receive from Denver the least favorable 2022 second-round pick from either the Nuggets or Philadelphia 76ers.
The Heat also will retain their 2024 second-round pick unless they finish with one of the 10 best records in the league in 2023-24, with the pick otherwise to go to the Atlanta Hawks or Detroit Pistons.
Last month’s draft provided several examples of the ability for teams to buy into the second
round, as the Heat initially did for a pick from the Atlanta Hawks.
Okpala cannot join the Heat until a series of trades are completed at the end of the personnel moratorium. Okpala currently is listed on the Phoenix Suns’ roster, with the Suns to then trade him to the Pacers, who will forward him to the Heat.
The earliest Okpala can join the Heat in summer league would be for Sunday’s 8 p.m. Eastern game against the Utah Jazz on the UNLV campus.
Work remains: The Heat still have significant decisions due in advance of Saturday’s lifting of the NBA personnel moratorium.
Foremost will be determining how to clear enough space under the $138.9 million hard cap on team payroll in order to complete the sign-andtrade agreement for Philadelphia 76ers guard Jimmy Butler.
Among the options would be a trade that trims payroll or else accepting the long-term consequences of stretching the remaining salary due forward Ryan Anderson, which would carry salarycap complications for the 2020 and ’21 offseason.
The Heat face a July 10 deadline on the non-guaranteed portion of Anderson’s deal but effectively could have to make that decision by Saturday due to the Butler implications.
In addition, the Heat have yet to sign first-round pick Tyler Herro.
Limited options: Despite solid play from Kendrick Nunn during summer league, the Heat face limited options with the guard who was signed on the final day of the regular season after his rookie year with the Golden State Warriors’ G League affiliate.
With Nunn having received a $50,000 guarantee this week from the Heat, he would have to be waived prior to his next guarantee deadline ($150,000 on Aug. 1) in order to be shifted to a Heat two-way contract.
However, before such a move would be possible, the Heat would have to expose Nunn to the waiver wire, possibly losing him to that process.