Live updates: Heat news on Day 5 of free agency. And Fontecchio on Giannis trade
Welcome to Day 5 of the Miami Herald’s free agency live blog.
The Heat has been in a holding pattern of sorts the past two days, waiting to see if an appealing free agent takes a minimum deal or an appealing player under contract shakes free.
Please keep checking back. We’ll add updates on the top.
A word from Simone Fontecchio
In a Zoom session with reporters on Friday morning, Heat forward Simone Fontecchio said he’s excited about playing with Giannis Antetokounmpo and said it was an easy decision to return to Miami, even on a minimum deal that will pay him $2.6 million next season.
Fontecchio, who became the second person in the organization to speak extensively about the not-yet-announced Antetokounmpo trade, said the two-time MVP “can make life for other people around me so much easier. I know people who play with him in previous teams. As a shooter that’s something you look for. [There will be] more room [for shooters]: It’s going to make my life so much easier. I hope to make his life easier too.”
Per league rules, the trade sending Antetokounmpo to Miami cannot be announced before July 6. Forward Nikola Jovic is the only other person in the organization who has commented publicly about the trade.
Of the Antetokounmpo/Bam Adebayo frontcourt partnership, Fontecchio said: “They might be the best frontcourt in the NBA defensively. Offensively with the force they play with, it’s going to super interesting. We are going to find a way and [Erik Spoelstra] will find a way to make it work as he did last year with a completely new offense. We’ll definitely find a way.”
On the flip side, he said he’s going to “miss” the four players traded - Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakucionis, Kel’el Ware and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“We traded four players we shared moments with,” Fontecchio said.
Speaking of his own decision to re-sign, he said: “I always wanted to stay in Miami. Last week, they said, ‘Listen we don’t have much room to operate.’ [But] my thought process was I want to stay here. I want to put some continuity to what I was doing here. There is a real big opportunity for the Heat with the Giannis trade and what it’s going to mean for the franchise and city.”
He said he spoke to Spoelstra before re-signing at the minimum.
“I wanted to talk to him directly,” Fontecchio said. “We had a great conversation. I wanted to ask him a couple things. It wasn’t like he had to convince me. I was pretty much convinced. Hearing his voice, hearing his thought process and wanting me to stay helped me.”
He said he “didn’t want to ask” about whether he would be a rotation player: “I’m not the type of guy that asks for reassurance. It’s dumb for me to ask for a guarantee. I know my role last year [as an occasional rotation player].
“I’m always ready, [a guy who] doesn’t complain, always positive in the locker room.”
Fontecchio, 30, averaged 8.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 41.2% from the field and 37.5% on 4.7 three-point attempts in 70 appearances (nine starts) during his first season with the Heat last regular season. He made five or more threes in six games last season.
Undrafted out of Italy in 2017, Fontecchio has shot 36.7% on 4.1 three-point attempts during his four-year NBA career. He played for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz before initially joining the Heat in free agency last summer.
He’s vulnerable to shooting droughts, but when his shot is falling, he’s an effective floor spacer on a team that will need shooting around Antetokounmpo and Adebayo.
This story was originally published July 3, 2026 at 11:18 AM.
