Day 1 Free agency tracker: With only one open spot on standard roster, what will Heat do?
NBA free agency is here.
While NBA teams were allowed to begin negotiating with their own impending free agents on June 23 after the NBA Finals ended, free agents can begin negotiating with every team in the league on Monday at 6 p.m. It’s worth noting that most free agent signings aren’t eligible to become official until the league’s moratorium is lifted at noon on July 6.
In the wake of three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson’s decision to exercise the early-termination in his contract for next season to become an unrestricted free agent, the Miami Heat enters free agency with a bit of flexibility to improve its roster despite nearly having a full roster.
What will happen when free agent negotiations open Monday evening? Heat updates will be posted here throughout Day 1 of free agency.
Midnight: As of midnight, the Heat has not yet made any roster moves since the 6 p.m. start of free agency. The Heat’s roster is still at 14 players on standard contracts — one player short of the league-wide 15-man limit for the regular season.
On Tuesday, NBA teams can begin signing first-round picks and minimum deals (two years or less). Two-way contracts can also still be signed and converted during the NBA’s free agency moratorium, which ends on July 6.
This means the Heat can sign first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis to his rookie contract and undrafted rookie Vlad Goldin to his two-way deal starting on Tuesday.
8 p.m.: Atlanta agreed to a four-year, $62 million deal with Minnesota’s Nickeil Alexander-Walker, removing the best available option with the Heat’s mid-level exception. The Hawks have improved this offseason with Alexander-Walker and Kristaps Porzingis.
7:30 p.m.: At least for now, the Heat has bypassed setting up a meeting with Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga and did not aggressively pursue him in the first hour of free agency. There has been contact between the parties, but no aggressive Heat pursuit as of this point.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Marc Spears reported that the Warriors are optimistic that they will re-sign Kuminga.
Meanwhile, several decent wing players committed to teams in the first hour of free agency - Bruce Brown (Denver), D’Angelo Russell (Dallas) and Ty Jerome (Memphis). The Heat has a $14.4 million mid-level exception available if it chooses to use it.
7:20 p.m.: According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Denver Nuggets are trading Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 unprotected first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets. The Nuggets are acquiring Cam Johnson in return.
Charania also reported that the Nuggets are signing guard Bruce Brown in free agency.
Meanwhile, it has been a quiet start for the Heat in free agency. Miami has not yet received any free-agent commitments, with the Duncan Robinson situation still unresolved.
Entering free agency, the Nuggets made sense as a possible suitor for Robinson because they were in need of outside shooting. But after the additions of Porter and Brown, Denver may not be the landing spot for Robinson.
5:45 p.m.: The Heat has full access to the $14.4 million mid-level exception and can offer it to any player. But is there an available free agent worth that entire exception? That’s dubious.
Most would say that Wolves forward Mickeil Alexander-Walker would be. The Athletic has linked Atlanta, the Heat, Minnesota and Houston to the versatile forward. The Hawks, according to several reports, have emerged as the front-runner.
Cleveland guard Ty Jerome has a strong market after a breakout season in which he averaged 12.5 points and shot 43.9 percent on threes. Memphis is expected to sign him for about $10 million per year, Marc Stein reported.
Keep in mind that under the new labor agreement, a team can trade for a player using its exception, as long as the player’s salary doesn’t exceed the $14.4 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
Using the full $14.4 million mid-level would put the Heat about $3 million above a tax line that it prefers not to surpass. But the Heat would have nine months to get out of the tax, because tax bills are not set until the final day of the regular season.
With $11.6 million to work with under the luxury tax line (and the ability to exceed the tax line), the Heat could sign a free agent, re-sign Duncan Robinson or use that space to acquire a player in exchange for Robinson or anyone else on its roster.
Here are the unrestricted free agents, broken into categories, setting aside Indiana’s Myles Turner, who is expected to command well above the mid-level:
Options for large chunk of full mid-level: Malik Beasley (under investigation in a gambling probe, per ESPN), Bruce Brown, Nickel Alexander-Walker, Ty Jerome, D’Angelo Russell, Brook Lopez, Clint Capela, Luke Kornet, Spencer Dinwiddie; Guerschon Yabusele, Al Horford; Caris LeVert; Tim Hardaway Jr.; Dorian Finney-Smith, Gary Trent Jr., Russell Westbrook, Jordan Clarkson (bought out by Utah), DeAndre Ayton (bought out by Portland and linked to Lakers).
Minimums or part of mid-level: Malcolm Brogdon; Chris Boucher; Amir Coffey; Luke Kennard; Gary Payton Jr. and Dennis Schroder; Chris Paul (reportedly wants to play out West); Tyus Jones; Eric Gordon Jaxson Hayes; Tre Jones, Monte Morris; Kevin Porter Jr., Ben Simmons; Seth Curry; De’Anthony Melton; Talen-Horton Tucker; Cameron Payne; Kevon Looney ;Landy Shamet; Precious Achiuwa, Jake LaRavia, Tre Lyles, Doug McDermott, Larry Nance Jr., Taurean Prince, Alec Burks, Paul Reed, Mason Plumlee, Dalano Banton, Garrison Matthews, Kyle Lowry, Gary Harris, Trendon Watford, Javonte Green, Dante Exum; Marvin Bagley; Cam Reddish, Josh Richardson; Alex Len; Torrey Craig; James Wiseman.
Top restricted free agents: Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey, Santy Aldama, Cam Thomas, Quintin Grimes and Tre Mann.
Though Kuminga continues to be linked to the Heat by national reporters, Miami hasn’t set up a meeting with him or aggressively pursued him. NBA journalist Chris Haynes said he could end up accepting Golden State’s $8.7 million qualifying offer and hope for better luck in free agency next summer.
5:30 p.m.: The NBA formally set the salary cap at $154.647 million and the luxury-tax line at $187.895 million for this upcoming season. The first apron is at $195.945 million and the second apron is at $207.824 million.
These are the numbers that were already projected, so it does not change the salary-cap math for the Heat ahead of free agency.
4 p.m.: The Heat enters free agency with a current salary-cap breakdown that includes 14 players on standard contracts with partially guaranteed or fully guaranteed salaries for next season: Bam Adebayo ($37.1 million), Tyler Herro ($31 million), Andrew Wiggins ($28.2 million), Terry Rozier ($24.9 million of $26.6 million salary currently guaranteed), Davion Mitchell (estimated $11.5 million), Kyle Anderson ($9.2 million), Haywood Highsmith ($5.6 million), Nikola Jovic ($4.4 million), Kel’el Ware ($4.4 million), Kevin Love ($4.2 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.9 million), Kasparas Jakucionis ($3.7 million), Pelle Larsson ($978,000 of $2 million salary currently guaranteed) and Keshad Johnson ($2 million).
This leaves the Heat just one player short of the 15-man regular-season limit for an NBA standard roster.
When including the full salaries for Rozier, Robinson, Larsson but not including cap holds, the Heat has about $176.3 million in salaries committed to 14 players for next season. This includes the $2.5 million in “unlikely to be earned incentives” that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $33.5 million.
With the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season set at $154.6 million and the projected luxury tax set at $187.9 million, that means the Heat is about $11.6 million below the luxury-tax threshold for this upcoming season. The Heat also finds itself $19.6 million below the punitive first apron of $195.9 million and far from the dreaded second apron of $207.8 million.
The list of players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who are set to become free agents this summer includes Robinson (unrestricted free agent), guard Josh Christopher (unrestricted free agent), guard Alec Burks (unrestricted free agent), guard Dru Smith (restricted free agent) and guard Isaiah Stevens (unrestricted free agent). Mitchell was on this list as a restricted free agent before he reached an agreement to return to the Heat prior to Monday’s start of league-wide negotiations.
One option for the Heat to fill its final roster spot is to bring back Robinson on a contract that would pay him the $9.9 million he would have been guaranteed for next season (but opted out of) with additional season of guaranteed money tacked on. For example, a $33 million contract over three years that would give Robinson a significant amount of guaranteed money while also keeping his cap hit for this upcoming season at $9.9 million to keep the Heat under the luxury-tax threshold.
While Robinson could begin talking about a new deal with other teams when free agency opens around the league Monday at 6 p.m., returning to the Heat on a new contract also remains a possibility, according to a league source. Since the Heat has Robinson’s Bird rights, it can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to his maximum salary despite holding no salary-cap space.
Robinson could also be used in a sign-and-trade deal if he strikes a deal elsewhere and needs the Heat to help facilitate such an agreement. This could, in theory, net the Heat a few assets while also possibly getting Robinson’s salary completely off its books without getting any salary in return by dealing him into another team’s midlevel or trade exception. Such a move involving Robinson is also on the table, according to a league source.
If the Heat doesn’t bring back Robinson, it will have enough room under the luxury tax to use the $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception and/or the $5.1 million bi-annual exception to offer outside free agents without crossing the first apron.
This is important because using either the non-taxpayer midlevel exception or the bi-annual exception would hard cap the Heat at the first apron of $195.9 million.
The issue with using the full $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception is the Heat is only $11.6 million away from the luxury-tax line, which Miami is expected to try to avoid this upcoming season.
So, the Heat could instead choose to use the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception to add an outside free agent instead of the $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception and/or the $5.1 million bi-annual exception. The benefit in doing this is that using the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception would keep the Heat out of the luxury tax and only hard cap the Heat at the second apron of $207.8 million.
Midlevel exceptions can also now be used to trade for a player whose salary and contract length fit within the exception’s parameters.
In addition, the Heat has three trade exceptions at its disposal of $16.1 million (expires on Feb. 6, 2026), $3.1 million (expires on Feb. 6, 2026) and $2.1 million (expires on Dec. 15, 2025). But using a trade exception, which allows a team to acquire a player in a trade even if their salary would otherwise put the team over the salary cap or the team is already over the salary cap, hard caps teams at the first apron.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM.
