Miami Heat Offseason Playbook: Trades, Free Agency, and Extensions

Miami Heat Offseason Playbook: Trades, Free Agency, and Extensions

miami is facing a pivotal offseason but what are their options we’re joined by spot tracks Keith Smith to break down what they could do via free agency and much more on today’s episode of Locked on Heat [Music] you are Locked on Heat your daily Miami Heat podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day all right welcome to Locked on Heat your daily podcast on the Miami Heat whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day i’m Wes Goldberg here with David Rmill both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day for daily content on the Heat click that subscribe button on YouTube make sure you are following us on your podcast app today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the Game Time app create an account use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase really excited for today’s show we are here with Keith Smith of Spa Track to talk about the Heats off season we’re going to take a look at what they could do on the trade market what they could do in free agency uh we’ll take a look at how they can handle extensions for Tyler Herro Nicolovic but first Keith uh we know that the Heat are always trying to get involved in trades for big names we had you on last off season and you explained why it was going to be so tough for Miami to do anything to make any real major changes to the roster and you were right you were exactly right i remember talking for a while at least true until the train deadline very fair but during the offseason I remember D me and David getting on here and being a little bit depressed after like wow we’re just we’re going to cover the same exact team huh and they they they probably went even further they committed even further to the bit than maybe you even anticipated resigning like Thomas Bryant to a one year you’re like all right I guess we’re just we’re really going to run this thing back but um what kind of flexibility do you think the Heat are going to have this summer little bit more uh which is is you know hopefully good news uh for Heat fans they’re not they they’re not going to be a cap space team they’re not going to be a team that’s going to be out there you know spending hundred million dollar contracts on free agents and one there’s not anybody worth that anyway uh so that’s you know part of it but they they’ve got more flexibility now i think by the Jimmy Butler situation the way it played out unfortunate you know the way it all ended but they were able to take his contract break that up into multiple smaller contracts which just gives you more flexibility those 50 plus million dollar contracts are not impossible to acquire as we saw Butler did get traded but they they’re just harder to move in this new world they also have enough clearance I think under the first apron that they can do some stuff if if they have some interesting moves out there so the flexibility is there for a more active summer I think than uh than what we saw last summer’s relative inactivity i guess Alec Burks doesn’t move the needle for you not really no didn’t move much for Heat fans either so I mean that’s a bit of good news um I have a question about the Duncan Robinson contract because this is I think a big thing that we’re talking about here on this show and I I haven’t really heard it talked about a lot where his contract is 50% guaranteed up until basically the end of the month here so $20 million let’s call it $10 million of is guaranteed it’s not exactly that but those are the rounder figures um what kind of optionality does that give Miami in terms of you like you mentioned there’s not a lot of teams of cap space not a lot of salary dumping ground here and there’s going to be a lot of teams looking to clear some money and that Duncan Robinson contract could be helpful for Miami and for a team that receives it looking to clear some money yeah without a doubt so trading him while so let’s assume he’s picking up the the early termination or not exercising the early termination option and people ask like isn’t it a player option for all purposes it’s basically the same thing um there’s very specific reasons it matters but nothing to anybody that really cares um so when we get into it yeah he’s going to pick that up right because that guarantees him at least you know it’s like $9.8 million so so he gets gets that 9.8 million guarantee then with the Heat they could either trade him and move him now for the acquiring team important to note they’re going to acquire him at that like $19 million number because you have to bring in the full salary um at the Heat number on their side it’s whatever his guarantee amount is but the nice thing is let’s say the other team is like “Yeah we’re gonna let’s just say it was the Nets.” Because they’re going to be the team I’ll probably reference a few times because they’re the only team that has meaningful cap space this summer they’re like “Yeah we’ll take it on and in order to make whatever trade we’re making work you need to guarantee it to 14 million whatever fine you can make it 14 million guaranteed they’ll eat that amount and go.” So there’s a little bit of flexibility in there there’s also just the reality that if Miami really said you know what we we just want out of it they could wave him and save 10 million bucks um even that’s even after he picks up up the option so once he opts in for next year if Miami is like we’re just done in the Duncan Robinson business wave him save $10 million i don’t think that’s how it’ll go because I think he’s still a more valuable piece of salary matching in a trade um even at that number um I’m not too you know overly concerned about that for a lot of teams so so I think um they they’ll probably just keep them on the books but that’s the flexibility they have i’m just going to ask you the thing I keep thinking about then um if they were to try to trade for Kevin Durant and they include the Duncan Robinson contract in there then Phoenix could absorb that salary at $20 million and then wave it right after the trade and then save $10 million and then that could be useful for a team like Phoenix that’s trying to get under an apron yeah whatever number it’s guaranteed at is the number that that he would end up landing at his guarantee amount now to be clear players have to they would have to when there is a non-G guarantee if you’re going to up the guarantee amount the player does need to say yes I’m I’m agreeing to that i’ve never ever heard of a player say no I don’t want more money guaranteed to me right because even if they’re going to be waved they don’t really care because then you take take your money and you move on to the next destination so yeah if they’re if they were going to get involved in a Durant trade that’s very likely how that could play out what are you hearing about the Durant trades is there anything there that you think is I mean we’ve hearing about the different possibilities and everything else like that but is there anything else that you can shed some light on in terms of like a team that might be better poised even just from a salary cap perspective you haven’t heard anything as far as like teams beyond what’s just generally been reported out there it seems like it seems like a lot of people are putting the Spurs as maybe the landing spot the one thing that gives me a little bit of caution with that is every time we hear about the Spurs doing anything it turns out to not happen more often than not because they’re just so tight lipped in San Antonio nothing really gets out of there but every once in a while the connecting of the dots is just so obvious that it makes sense what I am hearing though on the Durant trade is that it’s very likely to go down at some point like during draft week and that includes like up to the draft itself and that maybe is an executed draft draft night or draft week but agreed to at least because for Phoenix Phoenix is trying to acquire draft capital in that trade not necessarily because they want to draft somebody but it may be we can then use that in whatever the next move we make is we we want to be able to have a couple picks to throw in a trade offer and go out and do it that way so I think we’re in a spot where it’s I mean and the draft is only a couple weeks away so I think we’re in a spot where I think a Durant trade could go down sooner rather than later and I also the last thing I’ll say and this just kind of matching up with some of the reporting that came out today i talked to a couple teams that are like if Giannis doesn’t ask out like that just changes the market because all of a sudden it’s now Durant is the biggest best name that’s known to be available out there in teams who maybe were like all right we’re going to make a run at Giannis all right maybe we’ll pivot and make a run at Durant instead when you look at what Miami can offer for Durant Giannis superstar XYZ where do you think their assets are now compared to some of the other stuff in the league i mean obviously teams like San Antonio Houston they could just overwhelm teams with uh draft picks and and young players and things like that but compared to the rest of the league where does Miami stand in terms of their competitiveness what they what kind of offers they can build little bit better than where they were in previous years because things have just freed up a bit we got a little bit more clarity with that pick going out to Oklahoma City that would have I I per personally felt keeping that pick would have been almost kind of worse for for Miami in a way because it would have just then the Hornets pick definitely would have become non-G guaranteed and would have gone out at least now there’s a chance maybe you keep that one and I I think you’re kind of hoping you don’t cuz in a couple years I don’t think they really want to be a lottery team but they’ve got a couple picks that they can put in the trades now um which is there you you got to get a little creative with the language on one of them where it’s like if the Hornets pick goes if not then this but but those are things that teams deal with and then as far as the talent on the roster I think the challenge is a year ago Hakez looked like this guy who hey maybe we can plug this guy in as a starter just about anywhere and feel really good about it and I think he backslid enough this year that there’s at least some questions of what happened you know why you know not even I mean yes there’s questions about the play but like what happened that caused him to just fall out of the rotation for large chunks of time um you know where where did that go you know w with him and in that and those are questions that need to be answered and maybe they’re as simple as it just it wasn’t right it wasn’t working because of this another team might be like “All right we’re good we can make it work ourselves and kind of go down that road.” And then it sounds crazy to say it because everybody’s like I know he fans are like “Get Terry Roier as far away from this team as they can.” But the good news is he’s an expiring contract now or will be in another few weeks so as soon as you flip to being an expiring contract that kind of changes everything because those have some level of value like like you mentioned to a team like Phoenix and I know people are probably like we don’t really want to get in the Bradley Beal business but for a team like Phoenix yeah we’ll take Terry Roier if you’re taking Bradley Beal assuming Bill agrees because then we’re out of it you know a year earlier than we would have been so that’s and that’s I’m not saying that’s anything Miami should do by any means i see David shaking his head over there i’m just using it as an example of why a Roier’s deal may have some value same thing with a guy like Duncan Robinson expiring deal worth nearly 20 million th those have value again in the league because it used to always be we want those because we’re trying to create cap space now it’s give me those expiring deals because it might help me get out of my apron issues earlier than than I might have been able to otherwise so if you’re a team or if you’re a Heat fan looking on the spot track machine trying to figure out where can we where can we send Rosier the first thing you should be looking at are what are the teams that need to get out of the apron next summer and then start lining up their longerterm salaries and see how that math works but uh we have so much more to ask Keith here uh including what the Heat can do in free agency what kind of players can they sign a bunch more stuff to get to here coming up next here on Locked on Heat today’s episode is brought to you by Wayfair there’s nothing like stepping into your own outdoor space and feeling like you’ve escaped to a personal oasis if you’re wanting to update your patio this season well Wayfair has made it so easy to turn into a space that feels like yours comfortable stylish and ready for summer Wayfair has everything you need to level up your outdoor space whether it’s a conversation set outdoor bar fire pit hot tub gazeos and yes even the perfect string lights to set the vibe it’s like giving your backyard that resort feel without the resort price tag so whenever you want to redesign something in your home you can just pick up the new outdoor dining set maybe you get some modern lounge chairs they completely transform your patio and outdoor space there’s so many options to choose from that’s what makes it so convenient so don’t wait make your outdoor space your dream oasis today with Wayfair and enjoy it all summer long head to wayfair.com right now to shop a huge outdoor selection that’s wyfir.com wayfair every style every home we’ll be right back [Music] david before we get into uh free agency talk and some extension stuff anything else on the trade front that you had for Keith no not particularly i think um I think the Terry Rosier question is maybe the biggest one there you know you mentioned the Nets what would what would Miami have to do to unload a contract like Rosier and what teams could realistically poise themselves in a position to acquire a salary like that yeah I mean Brooklyn’s the easy one there’s they’re going to be somewhere in the range of 60 million in cap space there’s not 60 million worth of free agents to spend it on um we’re going to get to I know we’ll get to Dave Mitchell um and that’s where Shawn Marks could play the you know spoiler role again and throw out offer sheets to restricted free agents and force teams to match and well we’ll see but I think they’re going to be they’re going to I’ve been jokingly saying Shawn Mark should open free agency at 6:00 on June 30th standing in front of Barlay Center with a sign that says “Bring me your tired you’re hungry your huddle masses your bad contracts just attach a draft pick to them.” Um because that’s where they’re going right i think we’re in a spot where for for the um the the Nets they’re the big one that can take on bad money other teams they’re it though if you’re talking straight dumping grounds but there are other teams that maybe are lining up the 2026 free agent class looks like it could maybe be okay um we’ll see how extensions impact that but it looks like it could maybe be all right there’s also going to be more teams uh with cap space in that summer as of right now what it looks like so if you’re one of those teams that’s like man we have 25 million in cap space but boy I’d like to get off this $25 million contract and forward 26 27 and I’ll take Roier right now if you’ll take that deal for me that extends another year because I really want to be 50 million in cap space let’s say it’s like the Jazz or like we’re just done with Li marketing right like we’re we’re moving in a different direction then maybe that that’s where you could see a team like that get involved or like we said those apron teams uh for like Roger but even with even if you look a little further down the roster like Kyle Anderson’s effectively an expiring contract um Haywood Highmith $5 million expiring contract good team value right now uh for the Heat but not really a deal you’re gonna have I don’t know how far you’d have to go to resign him anyway but a little challenging you know with that if you know where you’re going into next year and beyond so now what we start looking at is like well that’s 14 million more in money and that’s how Miami can get themselves involved if any big name becomes you know lands on the market because they’ve got all this expiring money that they could kind of pile up in deals and that’s something not a lot of other uh teams that they’re making a play for a starter right or allar level guy you’re trying to be a playoff team and not a lot of other playoff teams can offer that in terms of expiring money to get off of it’s why I keep cautioning Heat fans to say to uh to prepare for Rosier to be back on the roster next year because that expiring contract also has value to Miami because they’re not a team that necessarily wants to take on all that extra money because of what you were just talking about in 2026 so it might just be a situation Rosier’s just sitting there and they’re not going to attach first round draft capital to get off of them not when that thing is expiring in a year that would be ridiculous so yeah you should not dude that would be a horrendous move if they did that i’d be ripping them up and down let’s talk about another point guard on Miami’s roster DaVon Mitchell restricted free agent you wrote that a deal in the range of $12 million annually could make sense for Mitchell and for Miami what are you hearing about the market for DaVon Mitchell and why did you kind of come to that $12 million number and do you expect something to get done between Mitchell and Miami yeah really really tough summer to be a restricted free agent it you’re kind of looking at Brooklyn and that’s it right because you need you need the offer sheet from them now like I mentioned before Sean Marks did it to the Heat with Tyler Johnson maybe he’s like “You know what if I can go to 15 16 18 million for Dave Mitchell and the Heat are like man we really can’t lose him we like him that’s an o little bit of an overpay but we got to go there.” Well that takes six million more off off the market next time Miami has cap space so that’s where Shawn Marx could jump in there and start throwing around these offer sheets again now the funny thing is I always say and then a year later he trades for the guys anyway because that’s what he did with Crab and Johnson and ultimately I think even Auto Porter Jr might have filtered through there at some point i don’t remember fully but he that that’s that’s the one team you have to watch out for people keep saying Detroit can create like 17 million in cap space they can but that would be to to resign Malik Beasley to a bigger number than what the non- taxpayer allows for the only other team that can reasonably get to cap space unless we see some major moves made at the draft is Memphis and Memphis can only get to about 7 million and that whole thing is they would do that to then put that in a renegotiation for Jiren Jackson Jr to bump his number up to be able to extend it so we’re really in a spot where there’s there’s just not a lot of teams that I think are going to mess with Miami with with uh Mitchell so now if you’re the Heat one well now we kind of have control right because why are we going to give you anything more than the mid-level exception and I think with Mitchell as well as he played for Miami we have seen the offense still just kind of comes and goes um the defense is good but I don’t know that it’s the otherworldly defense that you know we thought it might be when he came into the league it’s still very good so that all has value but you have to be smart right if if yeah if you have to go up to the 14 million amount that the MLE allows it’s not going to kill you it’s 2 million bucks whatever but I I would I would you know if you can get him at 12 million annual value that to me it really locks in at the very least a very good bench that you can kind of play in a lot of different lineup combinations uh just because of his ability to defend david do you have anything no no no no sorry sorry no worries um in terms of other free agents that they can they can sign players to the veteran minimum mid-level extension uh mid-level exception rather um that’s really what they have in terms of being able to sign unrestricted free agents they also have some trade exceptions can you explain a little bit what’s going on with that and what kind of optionality they may or may not have yeah so pretty big trade exception for Jimmy Butler about 16 uh million or so there that’s that’s helpful now here’s the important thing because this always comes up where somebody be like “Well put that with Roier’s contract and go get a $40 million player you can’t combine it with outgoing salary you can’t combine it with other trade exceptions.” Has to be used as its own thing so now as we get into into that trade exception here’s the challenge though under the new apron rules when you are using a trade exception that was created in the prior league year that will hard cap you and that’ll hardcap you at the second apron not really the end of the world for Miami we’re not talking about a team that has a million roster spots to fill they’ve got actually a fairly full roster we assume most guys are going to be back and under the second apron I’ve got them with let’s call it roughly $18 million in clearance so you could use some or all of that exception and figure it out on a way to kind of fit somebody in there and where that has value is I’m not saying Miami would do this because they’ve already kind of got the the uh original prototype version of the shooter with size in Duncan Robinson but like Boston we’re pretty certain is looking to get off Sam Hower’s contract because a really good bench shooter for a team that’s not going to be a contender is like having a really great closer on a bad baseball team it’s just a luxury you don’t need it so for the Celtics Sam Hower’s $10 million that fits inside any number of trade exceptions as well as the mid-level exception so if you’re Miami you can even go a little higher than that right you could go to a $15 million player bring them in into that exception and move forward and it could also be used to just man for the other side to make a deal work we have to like let’s say it’s a Suns deal and it’s like we’re so close but we got to get off Royce O’Neal’s contract too you could just use it because you could bring a Royce O’Neal in via that that exception and just keep things moving that way that’s that’s another way you can kind of offer that up as a way to make make other deals happen so So it’s it’s a pretty good pretty good tool I guess to have um the one caution it does hard cap you at the second apron and then I should say in free agency if they use the full mid-level amount that’s 14 million that would hard cap them at the first apron they’re only about six million or so under that first apron so they’d have to have to do a little bit of finagling to be able to fit in a full mid-level signing but they could probably get there if they need to and with that Jimmy Butler trade exception that expires a year after it’s created right so they essentially have until the trade deadline to use it yep yep so you’ve got got quite a while uh to go you really got I like to think of it as transaction cycles you have the offseason cycle then you have the trade deadline cycle to use that uh well we got some extensions that we need to talk about tyler Hiro eligible for a big extension keith you recently wrote that you don’t expect him to sign one this summer we’ll ask him why after this today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time there’s nothing like the NBA playoffs the intensity the buzzer beaters the fans losing their minds it’s the kind of atmosphere that you’ve got to experience live and this year’s matchups are already delivering the finals has been a great one so far and it’s only going to continue to get better if you want in game time makes it fast and easy to get seeds even for the biggest playoff games prices on the app actually drop closer to tip up and with killer last minute deals panoramic seat views and no surprise fe freeze excuse me game time is a total game changer uh I was just on the app looking at a concert that’s coming up soon and I wanted to see you know what they might be offering well guess what they’ve got zone deals that are now offering up to 60% off in certain sections i love that you can see the exact view of any seat that you’re going to get and any bed you maybe you’re not 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it would they not become they would have to clear something before they would become a taxpaying team correct not a taxpaying so these are the worst named exceptions in the world now especially with the advent of the first and second aprons you can be a taxpayer and use the non- tax it just hardcaps you at the first apron you can go into the tax taxpayer hard caps you at the second apron so it’s funny i actually was talking to someone the other day and I said “Can we just do a quick side amendment and just call first apron second apron and be done or just call it the big midlevel and the small mid level?” Like it’s just it’s just stupid but anyway that’s just me complaining and being on a soap box so yeah so Miami is by my projection right now they are about six million under the first apron so they’d need to clear 8 million in order to use that full uh non-t taxpayer um amount of 14 million otherwise you know they they wouldn’t be able to use it but 8 million of it or so they could use that you know right out of the gate oh I see okay that makes more sense all right and then uh in terms of the extension part of this Tyler Hero eligible to sign a three-year let’s call it $150 million it’s a hair under that uh extension uh starting October 1st uh what do you think happens there yeah I don’t know that he’s going to extend right now i don’t know that that’s the best move for Miami or for Tyler Hero because he has two years left there’s not a lot of urgency and when I say two years left I want to clarify I’m already living in 25 26 as the league year when we talk all this stuff cuz nothing’s happening contractually this year so he’s got two years left on his deal so one that takes a little bit of pressure off right and there’s no option on that second year so So you’re in a in a spot where okay we don’t need to do it today we have we can see how next year goes for Tyler Hero there’s a world where Tyler Herro is an allNBA guy next season if the Heat are good enough he plays well enough and if we’re being completely fair a handful of guys miss out because they don’t play enough games all of a sudden Tyler Herro sneaks in a third team AllNBA and then he’s eligible to sign up to the supermax that doesn’t mean he has to get all the way up to the super max but that’s how he gets eligible to do that let’s say he says “I’m going to roll it over even one more year.” He could roll it over one more year and be eligible to sign the supermax as a contract versus an extension um that’s kind of where Jaylen Brown was a few years back with the Celtics where it was all right if he makes it now you can give it to him if he doesn’t he gets one more shot at making it so he’s kind of got a got a two-year window here to play himself into it and I think if he if he plays himself into super max or even in that range let’s go right like like that means he was really good and we were probably pretty good so then then we can have that conversation if he doesn’t everything’s still the same next summer and and you can add on a fourth year because you could go up to five total years on the contract with the year left plus the four years of an extension so I think for him and the Heat it just it doesn’t make a lot of sense to lock in right now um unless there was a real concern of he’s going to become a problem or anything like that and I don’t think you guys would know better than me but I don’t think there’s any concern of anything like that happening with him no and based on what Pat Riley and even Tyler Herro were saying in their exit interviews it sounds like there’s already been sort of a wink wink agreement of “Nah we don’t need to do this next summer or this summer let’s just wait until next summer.” Part of me does wonder if they do make some sort of big trade for a superstar player and they say “Yeah now we’ve got let’s say it’s Kevin Durant and they say we feel really good about Durant Bam and Hero as our big three kind of going forward.” Do you then at least approach Tyler Herro about some kind of extension and do you go up to that big number of $50 million a year understanding that you’ve got BAM with that big extension coming in soon and then the big Durant money that you’re probably going to have to sign him to um since he’ll be a free agent in 2026 i just wonder what you would what Hero would say if they came in something under the full basically $50 million annual average value of of that max contract extension say they offered him something like 40 million a year he could just be like “No I’m good.” Or maybe he takes the long-term security that’s just the part I’m curious about um but I I think there’s one other thing too to consider with him is there’s a world where they say “Hey we’re going to do this number and they all agree to it but it becomes only a three-year extension.” Um whether that’s right now or even next year um where it is then what that does is if you give him a player option on that last year he can opt out and become a free agent where then he’s for free agent when he’s at the 10 years of service amount and that opens up all the way up to the 35% of the cap max if he was to play himself into that level that’s what we saw Donovan Mitchell do in his extension with the with the Cavs where he basically said “All right you can no longer give me the supermax because of when I was traded so here’s how I’m going to kind of get myself there as early as I can that’s also for what it’s worth the exact path I think Luca Donuch takes with the Lakers where he does a shorter extension that allows him to get back on the market when he’s got 10 years of service and can get the 35% with a guy like Hero clearly Mitchell and and Donic are at their 35% of the cap max guys i think Hero is a little less likely to be there but at least it would give him the ability to hey even if it’s a little bit more let’s say we do see multiple years of 10% cap growth you know four or five years out you know it might he that may outpace what his current contract is on or even a new extension then he’s able to do that but I I think this is a bigger conversation to have a year from now so there’s a few other extension candidates on on the roster duncan Robinson Andrew Wiggins Terry Rosier i’d be surprised if there was any extensions done with those i’ll go you can go ahead and aggregate this people they’re not going to extend Terry Rosier i think we’re pretty good on that one um give him the full max i think he’s right there why not um Nico Yoic what do you think happens with him because this is the rookie scale extension and you see teams that like their rookies tend to extend their rookies uh the rookie scale guys rather what do you think the market would be for somebody like Nico or or maybe not the market uh but what do you think that they could negotiate there with Nico and you know what yeah what is what is sort of the outside perspective on somebody like Yoic yeah so major improvement made over the last couple of seasons looks really good just can’t stay healthy right it feels like every time we’re at a point where it’s like all right he’s really he’s he’s going now right he’s in a good rhythm feels good he picks up another injury and then he’s out for several weeks or even a couple months and I do think it was important that he got back at the end of the year i think that was good i don’t know that he is somebody who milks injuries i don’t think that’s the case i I just look at the fact how hard he trained to try to play for the national team when you know he was injured so I I think it’s just he just he just picked up these weird injuries and then that makes it a little bit harder to tag a real value on him because you do have to with some guys some guys just get hurt and it’s not I don’t mean this as a criticism but he does play a little reckless like out there like he kind of throws his body around he does some stuff and guys like that are going to pick up injuries more like even if it’s just of the bump and bruise variety but every once in a while you’re gonna break a wrist and that’s going to cost you you know a month of action or whatever so I think if you’re Miami you know better than anybody else does with this medical stuff so you’re in a spot where it’s yeah we’re not worried about any of these things they’re all they happened but you know they’re not likely to repeat so then if you’re the Heat you can kind of get into a spot where all right let’s you know look at this i would not go higher than next year’s midlevel amount meaning not the upcoming season which is like 14 million but 15 and a half i would not do a starting salary higher than that because I just don’t know that unless he has a massive breakout season that anyone’s going to come in with an offer bigger than that but I would try to start a little lower kind of like Mitchell but even he’s got we have less of a book on Yoic i would say let’s try to do 10 million starting let’s go 40 million you know total over four years that’s kind of the compromise of we’ll let you get back on the market four years in versus versus five which is what a lot of teams do but we’re only going to give you 10 million that kind of protects Miami where man this didn’t quite go the way we hoped it would that’s not going to kill us it’s not the end of the world the other option would be kind of do what Robinson did which is we’ll go a little bit bigger but then that last year is only going to be partially guaranteed that gives them a little bit of team control on that side but we have seen guys like Cory Kispert sign a pretty good value extension in a similar type place where good player but not a shorefire star kind of guy because I think what teams are seeing the value in is at the very least locking these guys up they become a nice piece of salary matching in a trade if we need to do something down the line um but I tend to be a little more conservative if it’s not a no-brainer Max then I want it to be a little more team friendly and from the player side I have no problem at all he’s like “That’s not enough i’m going to go out there and show you.” And then if you’re Miami like “Okay well we’ll still have restricted free agency we’ll still control the process again next summer.” Keith Smith does terrific work you can find his stuff over at Spa Track the Front Office Show uh it’s podcast YouTube channel thanks so much for jumping on man this is great thanks so much for having me i really appreciate it thank you for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down the MIAMI HEAT’s offseason strategy with Spotrac.com’s cap expert Keith Smith. The trio explores the HEAT’s financial flexibility, potential trades involving Duncan Robinson, and the strategic use of trade exceptions.

They analyze free agency options, Tyler Herro’s extension possibilities, and Nikola Jovic’s future with the team. Smith offers insider perspectives on how Miami can navigate the salary cap to build a contender. The discussion covers potential moves for stars like Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and how the HEAT stack up against rivals offers.

0:00 Miami’s pivotal offseason options
5:48 Durant trade possibilities and salary implications
11:41 Analyzing Terry Rozier’s contract value
16:44 Davion Mitchell’s restricted free agency outlook
20:04 Heat’s trade exceptions and salary cap situation
26:22 Tyler Herro’s extension eligibility and options
32:02 Jovic’s potential rookie scale extension

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