Ellington 'confident' he will continue career with Heat
MIAMI — Wayne Ellington isn’t worried about his negotiating leverage. All he’s worried about is finding a way to re-sign with the Heat this offseason.
“I haven’t really hidden how I feel about this team and this organization,” Ellington said Friday on exit interview day. “I’m very, very hopeful that everything works out the way it’s supposed to and we’re able to get everything done.”
Ellington will become an unre- stricted free agent on July 1 after spending the past two seasons with the Heat. The 30-year-old is expected to get a pay raise in free agency from this past season’s $6.3 million salary after setting a career-high and team record with 227 made 3-pointers in 2017-18.
There’s one problem, though. As presently constructed, the Heat would have to go into the punitive luxury tax to re-sign Ellington — something that’s hard to envision them doing for a team that’s not considered a title contender.
“I understand what’s going on with the salary cap, the luxury tax and all that kind of stuff,” said Ellington, who averaged a career-high 11.2 points on 39.2 percent shooting from 3-point range this past season. “But I remain confident. That’s just the
type of person that I am. I feel like when you want to get something done, there are ways to get things done. I’m hopeful that, God-will- ing, that things work out the right way. The ultimate goal is to be back here with my brothers. But at the same time, I understand that it’s a business and anything can happen.”
Miami has 11 players under contract for 2018-19 who are due $120 million. That puts the Heat way above the projected $101 million salary cap, very close to the projected $123 million luxury tax line, and in a tough posi- tion when it comes to Elling- ton’s impending free agency.
The Heat have Ellington’s early Bird rights, though, which allows them to exceed the cap to pay him 175 per- cent of his current $6.3 million salary. That means Miami can offer Ellington a deal starting at $10.9 million next season, with early Bird rights allowing for a contract that includes eight percent raises off the first-year salary and is required to be a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years.
But re-signing Ellington to this type of deal would likely put the Heat in the luxury tax if other salary can’t be shed through trades, which is an issue.
With the Heat currently just $3 million under the tax line, signing Ellington to a starting salary of $10.9 million using his early Bird rights would put them about $8 million over the tax line.
Despite this salary-cap hurdle, coach Erik Spoels- tra remains optimistic the Heat will find a way to bring back Ellington.
“I love Wayne and we’re all hopeful of it. And I’m sure Wayne wants to be back,” Spoelstra said Friday. “First, know the visions of my boss (Heat president Pat Riley). Anything in this league, he can get done. So, people are saying can you contend for a title with this team? I know who I work for. And then, secondly, I know the creativity of (general manager)
IAndy Elisburg. But none of it has to be decided right now. Wayne knows that we love him.
“It was a unified symbiotic relationship where I think he really benefited from our culture. We benefited from his commitment to become the player that was transformational, his ability to come off screens. I think all of us, it’s just right that he is our franchise leader in 3-point shots. It’s the way it should be, and he can keep on going. If it means I’ve got to recruit him and tell him he can shoot 20 threes (per game) next year, quote me on that right now.”
The Heat already faced some challenges in bringing back Ellington last summer, but they showed off their financial creativity to fit his $6.3 million salary under the salary cap. Elisburg and the Heat were able to shave just enough money off the cap hits of Dion Waiters and Kelly Olynyk, by including bonuses in their contracts that didn’t count against the team’s salary cap, to allow for enough room to guarantee Ellington’s 2017-18 salary.
“There are ways to get things done,” Ellington said. “There are ways to make things work out. I realized that even last summer with how it played it out. In order to come back, there was some tweaking that had to be done in order so I could come back for this season that just passed. I’m confident that if you want to get something done, you can get it done.”
After playing for seven different teams over the first nine seasons of his NBA career, Ellington hopes he’s finally found a home in Miami.
“That’s half the battle in the NBA is finding some stability,” he said. “A guy like myself who hasn’t really had that throughout my career, that’s something that I’m absolutely going to value going into this free agency is having some stability and finding a place — obviously hopefully this place — where I can be for a while.”