Udonis Haslem expected to return to Heat for 19th NBA season. Here’s where roster stands
Udonis Haslem has committed to return to the Miami Heat for a 19th season.
Haslem, who turned 41 on June 9, is again expected to sign a one-year deal at the NBA veteran minimum of $2.6 million, with a formal announcement from the Heat expected soon.
The veteran forward played in one game this past season. He finished with four points, one rebound, a drawn charge, and two technicals that led to an ejection after just three minutes of playing time in the Heat’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers on May 13.
Haslem has played less of an on-court role and more of a leadership role in recent seasons. He has played in 29 games since the start of the 2017-18 season, but has served as a Heat captain in each of the past 14 seasons (the longest tenure in team history).
“What people don’t understand is [coach Erik Spoelstra] doesn’t praise me and these guys don’t listen to me just because I show up every day,” Haslem said at the end of last season. “I roll up my sleeves and I’m in the trenches and I get it done every day. ... I don’t have an offseason. I’m 40 years old. If I take an offseason, I might as well retire. So I don’t have an offseason. Straight from the season, I’m going back into the gym, I’m calling Bam [Adebayo], his [expletive] is coming with me. I spend time with these guys’ family. This is a 24-hour job. This is a lifestyle for me. It’s earned. Everything Spo gives me, it’s earned.”
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.
“Everybody knows in this building, but most importantly in that locker room, the level of impact that he has,” Spoelstra said last season of Haslem. “ That’s developing leaders in that locker room and helping teach and cultivate our culture. ... But it’s not him just barking that out. He’s rolling up his sleeves and developing the next wave of leaders in the Heat culture.”
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 5,755 rebounds. Haslem is the only undrafted player in NBA history to lead a franchise in total rebounds.
Haslem has appeared in 859 career regular-season games (500 starts), averaging 7.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 25.1 minutes while shooting 49 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).
Haslem became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Heat in franchise history last season. He surpassed Juwan Howard, who previously held that title after playing in a game for the Heat in 2013 at 40 years old and 69 days.
When Haslem signs his contract, the Heat’s roster for next season will stand at 14 players on standard NBA contracts: Jimmy Butler ($36 million for next season), Bam Adebayo ($28.1 million), Kyle Lowry ($27 million), Duncan Robinson ($15.5 million), P.J. Tucker ($7 million), Tyler Herro ($4 million), KZ Okpala ($1.8 million), Markieff Morris (minimum counts as $1.7 million toward salary cap), Dewayne Dedmon (minimum counts as $1.7 million toward salary cap), Victor Oladipo (minimum counts as $1.7 million toward salary cap), Haslem (minimum counts as $1.7 million toward salary cap), Max Strus ($1.7 million), Gabe Vincent ($1.7 million) and Omer Yurtseven ($1.5 million).
The Heat added Lowry, Tucker and Morris and retained Robinson, Dedmon, Oladipo, Haslem, Strus, Vincent and Yurtseven in free agency.
With 14 players, the Heat’s roster to begin next season could be complete besides still needing to fill its two two-way contract spots.
Entering the season with 14 players is one shy of the NBA regular-season maximum of 15 players but still acceptable under NBA roster rules. Miami has gone with 14 players in previous seasons when up against the luxury tax or hard cap.
The 14 players committed to the Heat for next season combine to total $131.1 million, and that number grows to $136.3 million when including Ryan Anderson’s $5.2 million waive-and-stretch cap hit.
The 2021-22 NBA salary cap is set at $112.4 million and the luxury-tax threshold is at about $136.6 million. But because the Heat is acquiring Lowry through a sign-and-trade transaction, Miami faces a $143 million hard cap.
This leaves the Heat with about $6.7 million to fill out the roster before reaching the hard-cap threshold unless other trades are completed to create additional room.
But Miami is not expected to come close to the hard cap because it also wants to avoid crossing the luxury tax threshold with the threat of a punitive repeater tax (when a team is over the tax at least three times over a four-year period) looming. The Heat finished the 2019-20 season as a tax team.
Miami is in position to avoid the tax this season if it enters the season with 14 players on standard contracts, as it stands about $300,000 away from the luxury tax line following Haslem’s commitment.
