Team reaches agreement to add Love
Miami moving toward deal with Zeller
The Miami Heat are expected to have a dramatically different look to their power rotation when they return from their current eightday All-Star break, with an NBA source confirming to the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the team is adding veteran power forward Kevin Love from the buyout market and is “trending” toward also adding journeyman center Cody Zeller.
The moves come in the wake of the Heat having attempted to patch together a power rotation this season in the wake of losing P.J. Tucker, last season’s starting power forward, to the Philadelphia 76ers in the offseason during free agency.
The agreement with Love bolsters the power rotation and the Heat’s sagging 3-point offense, while Zeller provides size and bulk behind starting center Bam Adebayo.
Love essentially confirmed his agreement, posting on Twitter, “Heat Nation let’s go!!!”
The Heat have been utilizing 6-foot-5 Caleb Martin at power forward this season, with undrafted rookie center Orlando Robinson the latest player backup to Adebayo.
The reshuffle during the buyout period comes with the Heat having fallen to the No. 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, a spot that means having to qualify for the postseason in a play-in tournament.
The move to Love comes after he reached an agreement Saturday to move on from the Cleveland Cavaliers after he had fallen out of their rotation in the wake of an early-season thumb injury.
The expected addition of Zeller comes with the Heat also anticipating the season debut of secondyear center Omer Yurtseven, who is returning from November ankle surgery.
The Heat just weeks ago had been going at backup center with ineffective veteran big man
Dewayne Dedmon, who was traded two weeks ago in order to clear the luxury-tax space and roster spot needed to add Love, 34, and Zeller.
The Heat resume their schedule Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks at the start of a three-game trip.
In Love, the Heat not only would add bulk to their power rotation, but also a 3-point-shooting big man to help space the floor. The Heat have struggled with their 3-point shooting this season.
Love, 6 foot 8, is a career .372 3-point shooter, a percentage that dipped to .354 this season as he has worked back from the thumb injury.
Zeller, 30, is a 6-foot-11 center who last played in the NBA last season with the Portland Trail Blazers. He had attended training camp prior to this season with the Utah Jazz, after recovering from a leg injury.
Under NBA rules, a player must be released by his previous team by March 1 in order to be eligible for another team’s playoff roster. With the Saturday agreement with Cleveland, that element of the equation with Love already has been addressed.
Love was in the final year of a contract that paid $28.9 million this season. He will become a free agent in the offseason.
The move to Love leaves the Heat without his Bird Rights, having to otherwise utilize salary-cap exceptions or cap space should they choose to re-sign the 2016 NBA champion. The Heat, with the rookie-scale extension of Tyler Herro to kick in next season, already are projected to be well over the 2023-24 NBA salary cap.
Such also would be the case with Zeller. In order to make the two additions work, the Heat also have the roster spot available that is currently held by undrafted guard Jamaree Bouyea on a 10-day contract. Bouyea’s 10-day contract expires before the Heat resume play.