Moving forward with Jones Jr., Nunn
Heat guarantee deals for 2 young players for ’19-’20
MIAMI — Count in Derrick Jones Jr. and Kendrick Nunn as the Miami Heat’s 2019-20 roster continues to come into focus.
With Thursday a deadline for conditional guarantees for both, all it took was the stroke of 5 p.m. for the two to cash in.
Only a preemptive move by the Heat would have denied the guarantees, with a source close to the situation stressing there were “no plans” except to move forward.
For Jones, it marks the first time he has had a contract fully guaranteed for a season. He will earn $1.6 million in 2019-20 after playing for a similar salary last season. He is set to become a free agent next summer.
The athletic forward was shifted from a two-way contract to a standard deal at the start of the 2018 offseason, with, at that time, the Aug. 1, 2019 deadline put in place for this coming season’s salary.
Jones, who started 14 games, scored in double figures 16 times last season, with a pair of doubledigit rebounding games. He led the Heat in scoring twice and in rebounding three times.
Known as “Airplane Mode” for his leaping abilities, Jones had been expected to compete in last season’s dunk contest during AllStar Weekend, before being eliminated from consideration due to a knee injury. He said he would like to return to the event this season if extended an invitation.
Jones gives the Heat 11 players under full guaranteed contracts for the coming season: Jones, Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, James Johnson, Justise Winslow,
Dion Waiters, Kelly Olynyk, Meyers Leonard, Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and KZ Okpala.
Nunn’s guarantee now rises to $150,000 from the $50,000 guarantee he received at the start of the summer. His staggered guarantee schedule on his $1.4 million 2019-20 contract next calls for a $450,000 guarantee if he is on the opening-night roster.
Nunn is one of two players on the Heat’s offseason roster working with a partial guarantee. Forward Duncan Robinson, who was converted from a two-way contract to a standard NBA deal the final week of the season, is working with a $1 million guarantee on his $1.4 million contract
In addition to the 13 players with fully or partially guaranteed deals, the Heat have Exhibit 10 contracts with summer-league prospects Chris Silva, Jeremiah Martin and Kyle Alexander — deals that do not count against the salary cap or luxury tax.
Teams can carry a maximum of 20 players during the offseason and no more than 15 during the regular season.
The Heat are expected to carry no more than 14 players, working under the limits of a $138.9 million hard-cap payroll due to the freeagency sign-and-trade agreement for Jimmy Butler.
So far this offseason, the lone guarantee bypassed by the Heat was Thursday’s $150,000 deadline with forward Yante Maten, who previously had received $100,000 of that guarantee before being waived.
In addition to that $100,000 due Maten, the Heat’s 2019-20 salary cap also includes $5.2 million due to forward Ryan Anderson, who was waived last month under the stretch provision, and $350,00 to center A.J. Hammons, who was waived by the Heat in Feb. 2018 under the stretch provision.
The Heat open training camp in late September, with the regular season to open in mid-October.