Mailbag: What will the Heat do with its open standard roster spot?
The Miami Herald’s Heat mailbag is here to answer your offseason questions. If you weren’t able to ask this time, send your questions for future mailbags via X (@Anthony_Chiang). You can also email them to achiang@miamiherald.com.
@Jthefox101YT: Do you expect the Heat to do something with their open roster spot, potentially targeting a free agent like a backup center or using it for flexibility?
Anthony Chiang: Let’s set the table for where things stand first. The Heat is about $1.3 million above the luxury-tax threshold with one open spot on its 15-man standard roster for this upcoming season. The Heat is also about $4.2 million below the punitive first apron of $195.9 million that it’s hard-capped at and can’t cross until the end of this upcoming season.
Being hard-capped at the first apron isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that the Heat is currently a luxury tax team.
After finishing as a luxury tax team in each of the last two seasons, the Heat intends to escape the luxury tax for this upcoming season in order to avoid the onerous repeater tax that’s triggered when a team crosses the luxury tax threshold in four straight seasons or four times during a five-season period.
The Heat has until the end of the upcoming regular season to dip below the tax, as luxury tax bills are determined based on a team’s salary situation at the end of each regular season. I would be pretty surprised if the Heat ends up as a luxury tax team this upcoming season unless entering the tax is required to add a superstar to the roster.
So with that background, I think a trade to shed salary and get under the luxury tax is more likely than the Heat filling its 15th roster spot and adding to its tax bill.
The Heat has entered the season with 14 players — one short of the NBA regular-season maximum of 15 players on standard contracts — before. This is allowed, as NBA rules only prohibit teams from carrying fewer than 14 players on its standard roster for more than two consecutive weeks at a time and a total of 28 days during the regular season.
The Heat can move forward with 14 players on standard deals without a problem — if it chooses to — as it works to eventually dodge the luxury tax.
@HarveyJackalope: When will the Heat next win a playoff series? They are currently projected to have 37 wins this year after finishing eighth, eighth, and 10th in the East the last three years. Projected for 10th again this year, how long is a “retool” supposed to last? Wouldn’t it be faster to just tank?
Anthony: Tanking could be faster than a retool or it might actually be slower. There are examples on both ends of the spectrum like the Oklahoma City Thunder that went through some rough seasons and just won the NBA championship and the Philadelphia 76ers that endured “The Process” but still haven’t been to the conference finals since the 2000-01 season.
Would I have liked the Heat to pick a definitive direction this offseason? Yes. Is this the ideal season to lean on youth since the Heat own its 2026 first-round pick? Yes.
But the trade for veteran guard Norman Powell signaled that the Heat still wants to win as many games as possible this season, even though some will likely still project Miami to be in the middling play-in tournament for the fourth straight season. That’s simply who the Heat is — an organization that’s always going to try to compete, for better or worse.
By the way, there’s still the opportunity for the Heat to lean on its youth, with seven players on next season’s standard roster currently 25 years old or younger.
