Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
With Wade back, Heat have tax decisions ahead
MIAMI — The weekend lesson was about civics, Dwyane Wade’s desire for one more season to bond with fans in South Florida.
The calculus of the equation, though, remains for the Miami Heat, with both roster and cap math to be sorted out.
Because even with the NBA maximum of 20 players signed for next week’s start of camp at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, there still could be a void when it comes to the 15-player regular-season roster.
And even with Wade agreeing to return for the $2.4 million NBA veteran minimum, the Heat still remain burdened by the luxury tax.
From a roster perspective, all might not be as it appears.
While the Heat are positioned to retain 17 of the 20 players who will participate in camp, at least four appear headed to the team’s developmental-league affiliate, the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce, with two more players potentially to be added to the camp mix.
Practically assured roster spots for the Oct. 17 regularseason opener against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center are the 14 players in camp under guaranteed contracts: Hassan Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo, Udonis Haslem, James Johnson, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Derrick Jones Jr., Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson, Wayne Ellington, Rodney McGruder and Wade.
Then there are undrafted rookies Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten, who hold two-way contracts and would not count against the 15-player regular-season roster limit. While either, or both, could be converted to standard contracts at any time, the Heat not only can keep either in the NBA for up to 45 days during the regular season, but that 45-day clock does not begin until the Oct. 22 starting of G League training camps — three games into the Heat regular season.
As for the other four players on the camp roster — Briante Weber, Jarnell Stokes, Marcus Lee and Malik Newman — each is under a summer contract, eligible to be directly assigned to the Skyforce, with up to a $50,000 bonus for reporting to Sioux Falls.
In the case of Weber and Stokes, it would be as returning-rights players, having previously been with the Skyforce. Lee and Newman could be assigned directly to Sioux Falls as affiliate players, provided the majority of their preseason time comes with the Heat.
Because teams can assign up to four affiliate players to their G League affiliate, it is possible Lee and Newman are cut late in the preseason in order to add two more players to the Heat preseason roster, to then assign those additions as affiliate players, as well.
The Heat has utilized such an approach in recent years to add players such as DeAndre Liggins, Tony Mitchell, Luis Montero and Larry Drew II late in camp and then funnel them to the Skyforce.
Because of those options, it remains possible that the Heat’s 15th roster spot could go to a player not yet on the camp roster, perhaps one added off the current freeagent list or after roster trims elsewhere around the league.
Another option would be for the Heat to go into the regular season with 14 players under NBA contract, a possibility that Heat president Pat Riley has mentioned in recent years.
The advantage to such a move this year would be to lessen the Heat’s luxury-tax bill, which currently stands near $10 million due to the multiplier on team salary above the $123.7 million tax threshold.
At approximately $6.3 million above the tax line, the Heat would need to shed that amount of payroll by season’s end in order to get below the tax. The greatest concern with the tax would be to start the clock toward the onerous “repeater” tax, which is triggered by being in the tax for any four seasons over a five-year period. While the Heat’s cap situation likely will have them operating below the cap in 2020 NBA free agency, such spending at that stage could otherwise put the Heat back into the tax going forward.
By accepting the $2.4 million veteran minimum instead of the $5.3 million taxpayer mid-level exception, Wade not only assisted the Heat’s actual payroll, but the veteran minimum is only charged at $1.5 million against the salary cap and luxury tax, with the NBA paying the differential.
For the Heat, the simplest solution to escape the tax would be to trade a $6.3 million salary for nothing in return. The problem on the current payroll is that no tradable single player earns that much other than the considerably higher 2018-19 salaries of Whiteside ($25.4 million), Tyler Johnson ($19.2 million), Dragic ($18.1 million), James Johnson ($14.7 million), Olynyk ($12.5 million), Waiters ($11.6 million) and Richardson ($9.4 million). Even if Justise Winslow agrees to a rookiescale extension by that Oct. 15 deadline, he still would count as his current $3.4 million against the cap.
So even with Wade seemingly making the Heat whole as it comes to camp next week, both roster and salary work remains for the front office.