Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Roster deadline looms for Heat
NBA given this next week to finalize resumption rosters
A week before 2020-21 free agency had been scheduled to begin, the NBA on Tuesday will open an unprecedented personnel period in advance of the resumption of 2019-20.
With the league having frozen transactions in the wake of the March 11 shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NBA has designated the period from noon Tuesday until June 30 at 11:59 p.m. as a special transaction window.
For the Miami Heat, who already have a full roster, it opens the door to potentially swap out a current player for an upgrade, maneuver two-way contracts, or make a last-ditch effort to potentially slide under the luxury tax.
With 15 players under NBA contract and two others under two-way contracts, the Heat stand at the NBA roster limit. However, with the league’s formal COVID-19 testing to begin Tuesday and players facing a Wednesday deadline to opt out of the resumption in a “bubble” type of setting at Disney World, there figures to be greater roster clarity in coming days.
In addition, the Sun Sentinel has confirmed through an NBA source that even if the Heat remain at the 17-player maximum, they still would be able to exceed that total should a player be lost before or during the restart due to COVID-related illness. However, from the last day of the seeding games through the playoffs, the only players allowed to be added would be those with three or fewer seasons of experience.
In some ways, the added personnel period replicates the typical team maneuverings over the final weeks of the regular season. Last year, the Heat switched Duncan
Robinson and Yante Maten from twoway contracts to standard NBA deals over the final week of the season. During that same period, the Heat added current starting guard Kendrick Nunn, and also waived guard Rodney McGruder in order to get under the luxury tax.
While an approach as dramatic is not expected with a Heat roster that stands 41-24, as the No. 4 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, the Heat often have taken a long view at such junctures.
The NBA is scheduled to resume the season July 30 at the Wide World of Sports complex just outside of Orlando. There, there will be eight “seeding” games, which effectively will be the end of the regular season. The Heat already have clinched a playoff berth, with the postseason to be conducted with the typical four best-ofseven series, scheduling that could run as
late as an Oct. 13 Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Among players available to be signed during the impending personnel period are Jamal Crawford, J.R. Smith, Tyler Johnson, Gerald Green, DeMarcus Cousins, Jordan Bell, Iman Shumpert, Trey Burke, Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Walton Jr., Allen Crabbe, CJ Miles, Anthony Tolliver, as well as players from the G League not under control of NBA teams.
At the time Heat President Pat Riley completed the Feb. 6 trade for Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill, he noted the machinations of offloading James Johnson, Dion Waiters and Justise Winslow left the team with room under the hard cap for an additional player move.
“We’ll keep our eyes out,” he said.
Now, such a deadline is at hand, a window mere days before the offseason freeagency period would have begun during a typical season.
While two-way players will be available for playoff rosters due to a one-time exception, teams still are limited to a 13-player active roster for both the remaining regular-season games and in the playoffs.
All 30 NBA teams will be involved in the revised personnel window, including the eight lottery teams not invited for the resumption.