How will Heat fill back end of roster amid Lillard waiting game? And Butler still confident
The only thing certain about where the Miami Heat’s roster stands at the moment is the uncertainty that surrounds it.
With a potential trade for Portland Trail Blazers All-Star guard Damian Lillard looming over the Heat’s roster for this upcoming season, things have been in a holding pattern for the last few weeks.
The Heat has not added a player since the first weekend of free agency in early July, as it came out of summer league this week with a roster that sits at 15 players (13 on standard contracts and two on two-way contracts).
NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players under contract in the offseason and preseason. Rosters must be cut to a maximum total of 18 players (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way contracts) by the start of the regular season.
The 13 players who the Heat currently has signed to standard contracts for 2023-24: Bam Adebayo, Thomas Bryant, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic, Kevin Love, Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson and Orlando Robinson.
The Heat also signed Jamaree Bouyea and Dru Smith to two-way contracts for next season, but those deals can be swapped out at any time. Two-way contracts do not count toward the salary cap or luxury tax and allow for players to be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games, with other game action having to come in the G League.
The Heat will also add a few developmental prospects on Exhibit 10 deals to fill the final few spots on its preseason roster.
Exhibit 10 deals, which usually represent an invite to training camp, do not count against the salary cap or hard cap and can be converted to a two-way contract or standard one-year minimum contract prior to the start of the regular season. In addition, Exhibit 10 contracts offer guarantees of up to $75,000 if they are waived by their respective NBA team and then move on to that team’s G League affiliate and stay there at least 60 days.
Here’s the issue: Until a team has 14 players signed to standard contracts (not including those on two-way deals), teams can’t sign players to Exhibit 10 contracts.
With the Heat currently operating with 13 players under standard deals, it’s not in position to officially lock in some of its favorite developmental prospects on Exhibit 10 contracts. But Miami has received verbal commitments from those it will sign to Exhibit 10 deals this offseason as a workaround to that rule.
According to multiple league sources, one of those players is 6-foot-9 sharpshooting forward Drew Peterson. The Heat plans to sign Peterson to an Exhibit 10 deal and an agreement is already in place.
Once Peterson signs his Exhibit 10, he’ll be on track to take part in training camp with the Heat and then will likely spend most of next season with Miami’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Peterson could also impress enough in training camp to earn a spot on the Heat’s regular-season roster.
Peterson, 23, went undrafted this year out of Southern Cal and played for the Heat’s summer league team.
When will the Heat add a 14th player to a standard contract so it can formally sign Peterson and others to Exhibit 10 deals? If the Heat waits for a resolution on Lillard’s trade request, a 14th player might not be added for weeks.
But if an option becomes available who the Heat feels it can’t pass up, it will likely add a 14th player on a standard deal whether the Lillard saga is over or not.
Meanwhile, forward Jamal Cain wants to be that 14th player. The Heat could fill the 14th spot on its 15-man roster by promoting Cain to a standard contract after he spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with Miami.
Cain remains a restricted free agent, which gives the Heat the ability to match outside offers to either bring him back on a two-way deal or move him to a standard contract.
Cain has a standing qualifying offer from the Heat for a two-way deal, which can’t be rescinded by Miami because the July 13 deadline to do so already passed.
But Cain, 23, is looking for a standard contract for this upcoming season.
There are several teams that are believed to be interested in Cain, but he has not yet signed an offer sheet with another team to force the Heat to make a quick decision on his future with the organization. An offer sheet must be for a standard contract lasting at least two seasons (not including option years), with the Heat then having two days to match that offer sheet to retain Cain.
Cain, who went undrafted out of Oakland University last year, averaged 15.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while shooting 51.5 percent from the field and 8 of 21 (38.1 percent) from three-point range in six games during this year’s summer league.
But the Heat, so far, has been hesitant to offer Cain a standard contract. Miami continues to weigh its options to fill the back end of its roster, as a potential trade for Lillard could leave the Heat with different personnel needs than it has now.
Cain is the lone remaining available Heat free agent from last season’s roster after center Omer Yurtseven signed with the Utah Jazz on Monday. Yurtseven signed a two-year contract with a $2.8 million salary for this upcoming season to join the Jazz.
BUTLER STILL CONFIDENT
Butler recently sat down for an extended interview during his tour through China, continuing to express confidence that he’ll eventually win his first NBA championship with the Heat.
“You can’t win a championship without playing great throughout the playoffs. We fell short,” Butler said during the interview, one month after the Heat fell to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals. “But I know that we can make it happen. So next year is going to be our year. And if this ‘Playoff Jimmy’ is a real thing, then he needs to be much better next year.”
In Butler’s first four seasons with the Heat, he has made three Eastern Conference finals and two NBA Finals but has yet to win a title.
“I believe that with all my heart that we, I will win a championship for the Miami Heat because I don’t plan on playing for another NBA team after the Miami Heat,” Butler continued during the interview in China. “So I know that we’re capable of doing this. I know that the team that coach Pat [Riley] and coach Spo [Erik Spoelstra] put around me and my teammates, we’re going to be fine. We’re always going to have an opportunity. This year is our year, I really do believe that. We understand what it takes to get there and now we just have to get over that hump.”
