South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Heat waive Weber, 3 others
MIAMI – The Miami Heat took care of their bookkeeping Saturday in advance of the NBA's roster deadline by releasing guard Briante Weber and three others.
The NBA deadline to reduce preseason rosters to the regular-season limit of
15 is Monday at 5 p.m. But because of the 48-hour waiver period, most of the releases are handled Saturday.
Also waived were guard Rodney Purvis and forwards Jarnell Stokes and Raphiael Putney. The moves leave the Heat with
14 players under NBA contract, plus undrafted forwards Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten.
Purvis and Putney are expected to move on to the Heat's developmentalleague affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, who hold their G League rights. Those two, as with Weber and Stokes, are now free to be signed by any NBA team.
Weber told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Saturday that he does not foresee a return to the G League.
"I don't see myself doing anything with the G League," he said, "nothing for me there."
Stokes remains a Skyforce possibility.
Weber, who envisioned an opportunity with Goran Dragic as the only true point guard on the Heat roster,
Saturday first posted three broken-heart emojis on Twitter followed by a post of, "Somethings don't change SMH."
Weber has had three separate tryouts with the Heat but has played only one regular-season game with the franchise. He played 6:08 in Friday night's 119-113 victory over the Atlanta Hawks that ended the Heat's preseason at 3-3. He missed his lone attempt from the field and closed with four points, three rebounds and a steal.
An October release by the Heat has become all too familiar for Weber. He was signed by the Heat on Oct.
19, 2015 and released Oct. 24,
2015. Before the 2016-17 season, he was released by the Heat on Oct. 22, 2016.
The Heat ended their sixgame preseason schedule with the NBA offseason limit of 20 players.
The Heat are expected to open the season with the current 14 players because of their position against the punitive NBA luxury tax.
Carrying a 15th player at the league minimum would
count at $1.48 million for purposes of the salary cap. But with the Heat into the luxury tax, the actual outlay for such a player would be roughly $4 million. Carrying such an additional player could also complicate a potential bid to get back under the tax by season's end, when the tax is officially computed.
The Heat entered training camp with 14 players under guaranteed NBA contracts, with those 14 expected to comprise the opening-night roster for Wednesday night's regularseason opener against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center: Bam Adebayo, Dragic, Wayne Ellington, Udonis Haslem, James Johnson, Tyler Johnson, Derrick Jones Jr., Rodney McGruder, Kelly Olynyk, Josh Richardson, Dwyane Wade, Dion Waiters, Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow.
Weber's chances appeared to potentially be enhanced with James Johnson and Waiters, two of the team's primary ballhandlers, missing the entire preseason and expected to
miss the start of the season, as well.
But even with Dragic as the lone true point guard on the Heat's current roster, the team has been stressing an equal-opportunity approach in advancing the ball, with Wade, Tyler Johnson, Olynyk and others handling that function during the preseason.
Weber, who was signed Aug. 21, appeared in five preseason games, averaging 9.0 points, 3.0 assists, 2.60 steals, 1.8 rebounds in 16.4 minutes, shooting .464 from the field, .571 on 3-pointers and .833 from the foul line.
Stokes, who was signed Aug. 27, appeared in three exhibitions, averaging 5.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.00 steals in 11.2 minutes, shooting .438 from the field.
Purvis and Putney were this past week, each appearing briefly at the end of Friday's exhibition finale, in their lone preseason appearance.