Who stays, who goes?
NBA deadlines leave Heat with several impending personnel decisions to make
PHOENIX — While no single personnel date stands with as much potential consequence as the Feb. 8 NBA trading deadline, the league nonetheless is about to move into a period with deadlines of significance for the Miami Heat.
Outside of the trade deadline, the swirl around the June 27 draft, and then the June 30 start of the free-agency negotiation period, January is filled with days of subtle impact, dates worth noting, considering their impact on Heat players such as Orlando Robinson. Jamal Cain, RJ Hampton, Cole Swider and Dru Smith.
Friday, 10-day contracts begin:
With the Heat operating with an open roster spot on their standard roster since the start of the season, Friday is the first time teams can sign players without a commitment for the season.
Although the Heat have been able to withstand significant injury absences, at times leaving them with far fewer than the maximum 15 players that can be in uniform on game nights, 10-day contracts stand as a means to either plug holes for short-term periods or audition players for the open 15th spot on the standard roster.
Considering the Heat’s position hard up against the second apron of the punitive luxury tax, 10–day contracts stand as a means to pay only when needed, 10 days at a time, at the veteran-minimum, scale.
Among those signed to 10-day contracts by the Heat over the past decade have been Tyler Johnson, Michael Beasley, Okaro White, Chris Silva, Jamaree Bouyea and current forward Haywood Highsmith.
Still, any such move would come at a significant cost. While 10-day contracts pay about $115,000, the overall hit for the Heat for each such contract would be about $500,000 in light of the luxury-tax multiplier.
Sunday, all contracts become guaranteed for season:
This 5 p.m. deadline on Sunday actually is the timeline needed for players without guaranteed contracts to clear waivers by the actual Jan. 10 deadline.
The lone player on the Heat’s standard roster without a full guarantee is backup center Orlando Robinson.
Robinson said he has not been thinking about the deadline.
“I knew of it when I signed (in July), but I haven’t really thought about it,” he said during this fivegame trip that concludes Friday night against the Phoenix Suns. “During the season, time goes by really fast.
“I try to stay in the present. I just try to do everything I can to help this team win and whatever
happens, happens. But I’m enjoying my time here and hope that there’s more time.”
Jan. 10, two-way deals guarantee:
The Jan. 10 deadline is also when two-way contracts become guaranteed, which pertains to Cain, Hampton and Swider, all of whom only played the final 39 seconds of Wednesday night’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Heat typically ride out the full-season developmental cycle with such players, unless elevating to a standard deal, which remains an option with all three.
But there have been moves in this window by the Heat before, including in 2020, when they added Gabe Vincent on Jan. 8 on a two-way contract and waived the two-way contract of Daryl Macon.
The NBA two-way contract salary is $559,782. To this point, Cain has been guaranteed half of that salary, with guarantees to Swider and Hampton initially at $75,000.
Jan. 14: This previously had stood as the deadline to sign players to two-way contracts. But with the NBA this season allowing for three such contracts instead of the previous two, two-way deals now can be signed until March 4.
Jan. 21, Dru Smith trade eligibility: Because players signed cannot be dealt for three months or until Dec. 15, Smith does not become trade eligible until Jan. 21.
Sidelined for the season on the lone guaranteed season on his contract, Smith still is eligible to be dealt.
While such a move might come as cold, by packaging Smith with more cash than what remains on his contract, the Heat could clear a standard roster spot for a veteran without an increase to their position against the luxury tax.
The Heat made such a move with an injured player in July, when they sent sidelined guard Victor Oladipo and two secondround picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for luxury-tax relief. Oladipo, in the midst of rehab from a knee injury sustained in the opening round of the playoffs in April, subsequently, while still rehabilitating, was then sent by the Thunder to the Houston Rockets in October, still yet to play since that playoff injury.