Not time for retirement yet. Udonis Haslem explains decision to return to Heat for 18th season
Veteran forward Udonis Haslem is putting off retirement for at least one more year.
During a Friday appearance at a Subway restaurant he operates located inside a Walmart in Coconut Creek, Haslem announced he has decided to return to the Miami Heat for an 18th NBA season.
“I am the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat is me,” Haslem said in front of a group of reporters. “... Just understanding what my value is and understanding that these guys really still value what I bring to the table. With that being said, another opportunity to win another championship in Miami.
“I really didn’t understand how impactful I was to these guys until I had the opportunity to be in the bubble and spend as much time as I had to spend with these guys. I really understood that these guys really respond to me, man. That was huge for me. With that being said, we’re going to do it again. Championship? Why not. We were this close, man.”
Haslem, who turned 40 in June, is expected to sign a one-year, $2.6 million veteran minimum contract with the Heat. He declined to say whether this will be his final NBA season, joking that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told him not to make that declaration until after this upcoming season is over.
But Spoelstra and several Heat teammates, including All-Stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler, strongly encouraged Haslem to return for another season in recent months.
While Haslem has made his intentions known to continue his playing career, free agent negotiations aren’t allowed to begin until Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. and free agent signings aren’t allowed to start until Nov. 22 at 12:01 p.m in this unique offseason amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Heat is prohibited from commenting on Haslem’s decision to return until then.
Why would Haslem return for an 18th NBA season?
First, Haslem never got the farewell ceremony many envisioned this past season because the pandemic forced the season to be completed in a Disney bubble.
“I really would like for the people that have been a part of my journey and sacrificed for me for so long to be able to enjoy it at some point,” Haslem said. “The pandemic kind of threw a monkey wrench into that. So hopefully moving forward, I will be able to include my family and my friends the day that I’m going to walk away from the game of basketball.”
Second, Haslem still feels like his presence in the locker room has a positive impact on his teammates.
“I do understand that it’s my job to move the needle and help win basketball games without actually shooting the ball,” Haslem said. “That’s not easy. That [stuff] is not easy, bro. So I do take it serious. I do work hard at it and I do have to spread myself thin. I got film with [Chris] Silva today. I worked out with Bam yesterday. I do have to do these things in order to move the needle from a perspective of a guy that’s actually not getting minutes.”
And finally, Haslem wants to help deliver another NBA championship to Miami after the Heat finished just two wins short of its fourth title in franchise history this past season.
“I didn’t want to go away like that,” Haslem said. “I didn’t want to go away telling these guys that I could help them win a championship and not really doing it. I think everybody made a commitment. Jimmy made a commitment, Bam made a commitment, everybody made a commitment and we didn’t get it done. The job is not finished. We got work to do. Spo leads, I bring up the rear and we have a pretty good working relationship.”
Although Haslem’s 2020-21 salary will be about $2.6 million if he signs a minimum contract as expected, he would count about $1.6 million against the salary cap and luxury tax.
Haslem is one of the Heat’s six impending unrestricted free agents this offseason — a list that also includes Jae Crowder, Goran Dragic, Solomon Hill, Derrick Jones Jr. and Meyers Leonard.
The Heat’s current salary-cap breakdown for next season looks like this: Butler ($34.4 million), Andre Iguodala ($15 million), Kelly Olynyk ($12.2 million player option), Adebayo ($5.1 million), Tyler Herro ($3.8 million), Duncan Robinson ($1.7 million), Kendrick Nunn ($1.7 million), KZ Okpala ($1.5 million), Silva ($1.5 million), a projected $2.4 million cap hit for the 20th overall pick in this year’s draft, a $5.2 million waive-and-stretch cap hit for Ryan Anderson that’s still on the books, and a $350,000 waive-and-stretch cap hit for AJ Hammons.
Assuming Olynyk opts-in to the final season of his contract and the Heat keeps the player it selects with the 20th overall pick in Wednesday’s draft, Miami will have about $85 million committed to 10 players (not including Haslem since he hasn’t signed a contract yet) for next season with the 2020-21 cap set at $109.140 million. That means the Heat could create up to $22 million in cap space, including cap holds, if it renounces the rights to its six impending free agents.
The other, more likely alternative, would be the Heat operating as an over-the-cap team in order to preserve the Bird rights of its free agents and be able to exceed the salary cap to re-sign Dragic and Crowder. Miami could then augment the roster by signing a player with its $9.3 million mid-level exception or acquiring a player into a $7.5 million trade exception, and filling out the roster with minimum contracts like the one expected to go to Haslem.
The Miami native, who attended Miami High, has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat and currently holds the longest streak by any active player with only one team in the league.
Undrafted out of Florida in 2002, he has played a role on each of the franchise’s three championship teams and is the Heat’s all-time leading rebounder with 5,754 rebounds. Haslem is the only undrafted player in NBA history to lead a franchise in total rebounds and he has served as a Heat captain in each of the past 13 seasons, the longest tenure in team history.
Haslem has appeared in 858 career regular-season games (500 starts), averaging 7.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 25.1 minutes while shooting 48.9 percent from the field and 75.5 percent from the foul line.
Along with holding the title of the Heat’s all-time leading rebounder, he’s also the team’s all-time leader in offensive and defensive rebounds and also ranks among Miami’s all-time leaders in games played (second), minutes (second) and field goals made (fifth).
But Haslem has played much less of an on-court role and more of a leadership role in recent seasons, as has logged just 191 minutes in 28 games since the start of the 2017-18 season. He played a total of 44 minutes over four regular-season games and did not play in the playoffs this past season.
That trend is likely to continue this season, as Haslem has not played in more than 16 regular-season games or logged a playoff minute since the 2015-16 season.
“Nah, that’s not my job, man,” Haslem said when asked if he’ll push to play more minutes this season. “That’s Spo’s job to put guys in and make the rotation of who plays and who doesn’t play. I can go out there and stay in great shape, keep myself ready. If my number is called, I’ll go out there and play.”
Haslem became the second-oldest player ever to start a game for the Heat this past season, and he’ll pass Juwan Howard as the oldest player to start or play in a game for the Heat in franchise history the next time he steps on the court.
NBA teams are usually allowed to carry a maximum of 20 players up until the start of the regular season, when the limit is cut to 15 players under standard contracts and two players under two-way deals. But with the expected uncertainty surrounding player availability amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s still unknown whether the league will allow for expanded rosters for added depth this upcoming season.
Training camps are expected to open Dec. 1 in advance of a Dec. 22 start to the 2020-21 season. Each team will play a shortened 72-game schedule.
This means the offseason will last just 71 days, which is the fewest days between the end of a season and the start of the next season in NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL history, according to Elias Sports.
As one of the final two teams playing this past season, the Heat will experience that very short offseason firsthand. The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Heat in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Oct. 11 to win the championship in the league’s Disney quarantine bubble.
“I don’t like it,” Haslem said of the quick turnaround to next season. “Because I can’t speak for other teams, but from the second we stepped into the bubble, I asked my guys to give a lot mentally, physically and emotionally. And I didn’t let up on my guys, man. So to ask them to have that quick turnaround and give that again. We’re not going to cry about it and we’re going to figure it out. But I don’t like it.”
Here’s our Friday story on the Heat hiring Caron Butler as an assistant coach.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 11:51 AM.
