Lakers’ Vincent on leaving Heat: ‘My value had changed’
Gabe Vincent was looking forward to the Los Angeles Lakers’ lone regular-season trip to Miami to face his former team Monday, but a nagging knee injury derailed those plans.
Vincent, 27, was also looking forward to returning to the Heat in free agency this summer, but business derailed those plans.
Missing the trip is unfortunate, he told the Miami Herald in a phone conversation.
“I obviously wanted to go play in the arena again, play in front of the fans again,” he said of Monday’s game (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “Definitely wanted to go be there, support my teammates and go compete.”
Instead, Vincent will watch from Los Angeles just five months after playing as the Heat’s starting point guard in the
NBA Finals.
Vincent, who went undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2018, left the Heat after becoming one of the organization’s undrafted success stories. He spent the past four seasons with the Heat after joining Miami on a twoway contract midway through the 2019-20 season.
He entered free agency this summer hoping to return to the Heat, but ended up signing with the Lakers after not receiving the offer he wanted from Miami.
The Heat’s final offer was a four-year deal worth about $34 million ($8.5 million per season). He ended up taking the Lakers’ fully guaranteed three-year offer worth $33 million ($11 million per season).
“I think I had a good playoff run, and I think that changed my value,” he said.
With the Heat entering free agency this past offseason already deep into the luxury tax, even just adding $2 million to Vincent’s salary for this season would have added more than $5 million to the team’s tax bill.
Vincent played on a minimum salary of $1.8 million last season.
“I’m not going to sit here and act like the dollar figure didn’t play a role at all. It did. I’m human,” Vincent said of opting to sign with the Lakers. “A guy like me with my kind of background, we don’t see opportunities like this often.”
The fact Florida has no state income tax helped close the gap between the offers, but it wasn’t enough to keep Vincent in Miami.
“My taxes took a hit and it still ended up being more,” Vincent said. “Some people will say it’s not much more. But I also was in the G League a year and a half and I was on a much different salary. So I don’t undervalue any bit of it. Obviously, I’m grateful to the Heat and I’m grateful to the Lakers, and I’m excited to have this opportunity ...”
LOVE TO THE BENCH
After opening the season as the starting power forward, Kevin Love was taken out of the starting lineup in the sixth game of the season, Friday’s home win over the Washington Wizards.
Forward Haywood Highsmith, 26, who is a smaller but more versatile frontcourt option at 6foot-5 and 220 pounds, entered the lineup in place of the 6-foot-8 Love, who didn’t play at all for the first time this season.
“I think the word is fluid,” Love, 35, said after Sunday’s practice when asked about his role change. “There’s going to be opportunity, cases for me throughout the season where it makes sense to go big. It’s just that so many teams around the league now are playing four smalls and one big.
“I think we were searching. Obviously, 1-4 is never the way you want to start.”
Following Friday’s win, which moved the Heat to 2-4, coach Erik Spoelstra made clear “K-Love is going to have a role for us.”
Love said he is “going to be more than OK” as long as the communication to him remains as clear as it has been.
THIS AND THAT
At 38 years old, LeBron James enters the game averaging 24.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 56 percent from the field in his 21st season. “He’s redefining what is possible with human performance at that age,” Spoelstra said.
Forward Caleb Martin (left knee tendinosis) was ruled out for the game.
Golden State
L.A. Clippers
L.A. Lakers
Phoenix
Sacramento
MONDAY
L.A. Lakers at Miami, 7:30
Golden State at Detroit, 7
San Antonio at Indiana, 7 Dallas at Orlando, 7 Washington at Philadelphia, 7 Milwaukee at Brooklyn, 7:30 L.A. Clippers at New York, 7:30 Utah at Chicago, 8
Sacramento at Houston, 8 Boston at Minnesota, 8
Atlanta at Oklahoma City, 8 New Orleans at Denver, 9
SUNDAY
Phoenix 120, Detroit 106 Toronto at San Antonio
Golden State at Cleveland Charlotte at Dallas
Memphis at Portland
SATURDAY
Philadelphia 112, Phoenix 100 Charlotte 125, Indiana 124 Orlando 120, L.A. Lakers 101 Atlanta 123, New Orleans 105 Boston 124, Brooklyn 114 Houston 107, Sacramento 89 Minnesota 123, Utah 95 Denver 123, Chicago 101
5 3 3 3 2
1 2 3 4 3
.833 .600 .500 .429 .400
— 11⁄2 2 21⁄2 21⁄2