Miami Heat: Kevin Durant Trade Mechanics and More | 2025 Mock Offseason | Third Apron Salarycast

Miami Heat: Kevin Durant Trade Mechanics and More | 2025 Mock Offseason | Third Apron Salarycast

welcome to another third apron salary cast this is a mockoff season on the Miami Heat and this time I’m going to do it a little differently i got a special guest joining me if you’re not familiar with these I these are when I do some hypothetical trades uh free agent signings for teams in the upcoming offseason mainly for fun but also to show how they could accomplish certain moves that they’re rumored to do within the salary cap rules and joining me to do the Miami Heat he is the host of the Miami Beat Heat podcast Brian Goins brian how are you today doing good um no I’m happy you invited me on i know we’ve had you on our podcast a few times going over some of the you know heat potential trade possibilities during free agency and uh during the trade deadline i’m hoping this time around it’s different for them i feel like they keep being in the mix for some of these superstars something always happens where it just doesn’t pan out for them but in my honest opinion I think this season might be finally the year where they actually get their whale i think Kevin Durant’s probably going to be the one um they’ll probably finally eventually land i thought the same with David Lillard so don’t quote me on it but but uh let’s uh let’s let’s see what you got planned because I think um in terms of what Tahed’s offseason um like assets wise and what they can do with their contract it’s better there’s a better outlook for them in terms of what they can actually use to to make a deal happen yeah the Dame thing that was going to that was always a little farfetched because he had a lot of years left on his deal i agree as far as this year I think that they are in a pretty good position capwise and uh draft picks wise to get something done and they have like a pretty good amount of flexibility now after trading Jimmy Butler they can actually do a couple nice things to revamp the roster now and as far as Kevin Durant yeah I feel like you know all the rumors are suggesting it’s between them uh Minnesota maybe the Rockets i personally feel like the Heat will have the upper hand in that they have like the simplest way I think to make a deal done yeah I saw there was a report um they were talking about how Minnesota currently right now they obviously can’t make any deals happen because they’re a second April team like before the season starts until new leaguer starts they can’t aggregate salaries until July 1st and from what I understand Phoenix wants a deal done sooner than later because they’re hoping to maybe u reroute any picks potentially if they get like Miami’s you know 20 u you know pick from this year pick number 20 or whatever else they end up getting they want to try to maybe combine it with their pick that they have in this year’s um draft class and maybe go after somebody else so as far as the timing of it I don’t really feel a strongly that it’s going to be like a huge obstruction for a team like the Wolves to get a deal done we’ve seen last year the Nets traded Muel Bridges to the Knicks and that deal was agreed to on draft night and then they just waited until for agency to actually do it and they ended up modifying it with some signing trades uh as far as the Wolves I I think a lot of it just kind of comes down to will Randall uh pick up his player option number one obviously like Nazri that’s another factor he could be included but if at least Randall picks up his player option they’re already like you know 60% of the way there and they could figure out the rest it is more complicated still where the Heat they have these uh players that are expiring large expiring contracts they can be traded right now but also the Heat have more draft picks than the Wols and so all those factors combined I think the Heat probably have the upper hand all right so before we get into any moves that he might do uh any big transactions we’re going to talk about their cap sheet situation very quickly so a quick payroll analysis they’re heading into the off season with a 14-man roster so they could basically run it back if they want $182 million payroll which puts them about $5 million $5 and a half million dollars below the luxury tax so if they were to worst case scenario run it back they will need they’ll probably want to stay below the tax uh they tried to get below last year they almost did after the Jimmy Butler trade but if they’re running it this roster back I think we can agree that they’ll want to stay below the tax so there’s a couple ways they can go about it as you can see they’ve got uh couple players on non-g guaranteed salaries they might want to do something involving them so they could clear a little bit more space so they can bring back DaVon Mitchell he’s going to be their top restricted free agent this summer so let’s first talk about Terry Rosier so his is he’s his contract isn’t fully guaranteed but it’s like almost entirely guaranteed about $25 million of this $26 million salary is guaranteed so I don’t think it really makes any sense to wave him or stretch him can we agree that most likely they they keep him for trade purposes obviously there’s not that many teams with cat space that can just absorb his contract outright and give Miami you know a lot more flexibility in terms of what they can do to get under the first apron and then obviously play around with like the full mid level but overall I think his contract is better used in a trade i think they’ll most likely trade him and that means that they’ll have to look to save money another way so the other one would be Duncan Robinson so his situation it’s pretty complex i’ve not seen a lot of discussion on what can happen with him so he’s got an early termination option pretty rare to have those over a player option now nowadays uh for 19.9 million so the way it would work is that he can just you know pick it up or decline it uh so choose to get that option picked up or he can enter free agency if he picks it up it’s not going to be fully guaranteed only uh 9.88 million of it is guaranteed so if he picks it up very good chance that the Heat or whichever team he they they trade him to will want to wave him to save about $10 million uh right off the bat so just to show an example that and it could be even more right yeah so just to show as an example of how that could work let’s say they wave him uh outright you’re going to put Duncan Robinson in here so here’s his partial guarantee you go from You save $10 million right there uh the other thing that he could do is wave and stretch him since he has one year left on his cons contract they can divide that $9.88 million over three years in which case that would come out to 3.3 million that would be that the cap hit over the next three seasons so yeah now you’ve got a lot of luxury tax room over here now there’s another option that I haven’t seen anybody talk about and as I did this exercise and try to figure out how that he can put their team together I’m starting to like this option the best which is not uh waving him but trying to work a restructured contract how about you decline your early termination option become a free agent they still have his bird rights and then they resign him to a new deal with an average starting salary at above his partial guaranteed amount i think it’s interesting obviously for Miami um you know he is a contract that they could use in that Kevin Durant trade but I think for Miami if they were to keep him to me that’s the best route for them because you still end up keeping the asset you’re not you’re not taking the the dead cat space for a player that still is productable i mean he’s been with the team for the last I want to say it’s eight years now seven or eight years um you know one of the still best three-point shooters in the league obviously his production uh wasn’t as great as it was starting off but you know he has a perfect two-man game with with Bam Adabio they they’ve you know worked on that relentlessly over the last few years and it’s honestly one of the best uh twoman actions that they have on the team um obviously they don’t have strips anymore so like keeping Duncan I think is important so I think keeping Duncan if they can you know work out a way to bring him back at much lower than $20 million yeah I’m all for it i think uh a $10 million salary probably would be like the range I would want to bring him back if that’s possible and then yeah if you end up doing over the next two three years if we had any player team options on that cool if not I’m still fine with it i agree and especially because like I mentioned earlier look how much money you’ve got to get trades done with Wiggins Rosier even some of the role players like Kyle Anderson Haywood Highmith they can get so much done so many big trades done with these salaries that there’s a good chance they won’t even need to involve Duncan Robinson in which case why not have that depth because there’s a good chance that whatever they do they might be a little depleted of depth so if they can bring him back at a number that makes much more sense uh for someone who’s probably going to come off the bench I think that’s a no-brainer then the other thing to mention about the Heat is that whether or not they finish over the tax they’re probably going to operate as an under the first apron team and that’s going to open up more flexibility they’ll have a lot more options for for building out the roster uh they would be able to use the expanded trade exception so they could increase their payroll and trades uh they could send out less money than they’re taking in uh they can use the full non-t taxpayer mid-level exception they’d have access to all these trade exceptions that they created last year and they would also be able to sign players that bought out mid-season who had a salary above this $14.1 million amount maybe they finish over the tax maybe they’re in a position to get below but either way they’re going I think that the very least they’re going to have the flexibility needed to maximize their spending and make this roster as strong as possible um no I totally agree i think that’s what Miami has always done in the past they always try to give themselves the most flexibility as possible and you know actually one of the things that you know has helped them out in the past is like getting guys off the buyout market for them for them I think it’s easier to pitch you know like a veteran player to come to Miami especially if you’re going to get a guy like Kevin Durant if that’s the route that they end up going with this team and they end up bringing him in to be able to get a guy that you know probably is making that $14 million below to come join Miami like that’s going to be a lot easier bring him on you know towards the trade deadline they’ve never really been a team that uses their trade exceptions i’d be curious to see if that’s something they end up doing i’ve seen some scenarios in trades where maybe they could help a team like Phoenix you know take back a Royce O’Neal into that Jimmy Butler trade exception um I’d be curious to see if that’s a route they end up taking in any of their trade discussions because they do have three that they could use um and then uh yeah obviously overall like yeah the mid-level exception stuff that they end up using you can use that now on trades which is also pretty cool so you it’s basically almost like an extra trade exception that you could use so there’s lots of flexibility options that they could do right now because they’re below the first and I think they want to try to keep it that way at all possible i think for the most part the thing the aspect that they’ll need the most is being able to send out less salary than they’re taken in i think that will be a little more important for them so first before we do any moves any trades we got to restructure some contracts and resign some players uh so first let’s start with Duncan Robinson why don’t they try to get him to sign a contract with an annual salary at around his $10 million partial guaranteed amount and give him multiple guaranteed years on top of that i don’t see a robust market for Duncan Robinson at or above his partial guaranteed amount so the idea is okay why don’t we play you at this amount and then just build off that and I guess it’ll just kind of come down to well how many years do we need to give you for that to be worth it something I could see happening why not give him like a $10 million starting salary with the 8% raises tops out about 32.4 over three years yeah i mean obviously you want to give him 8% raises with his full rights he’s earned it so as long as you know he’s him and his agent are willing to work with Miami on a on a deal because obviously you’re you’re opting out only because you’re trying to make sure you capitalize on getting future earnings you’re not opting out of a guaranteed 10 million in hopes that another team’s going to you know want you has not made teens with cat space like I was saying earlier so I mean he can basically opt out at any point um before his u his trigger date and then obviously if Miami can come up with an agreement before the start of the season that gives them more clarity in terms of how much you know they have to work with on their cap sheet so if they can you know if they can figure out Duncan’s situation beforehand great whether that’s a trade or if they bring him back in like our scenario where they just bring him back on a three-year deal um kind of like an extension in a way even though it’s not technically um then yeah I think that that helps Miami out a lot um and also it helps out Duncan all right so Duncan you are back on a $10 million starting salary all right next up is ressigning DaVon Mitchell so he has an $8 million qualifying offer that the Heat are expected to tender him and if they do he will become a restricted free agent uh so I think based on how he played especially in the playin tournament I would imagine people are maybe considering him to be like maybe if not the full mid-level something kind of close to it i’m I’m a little skeptical it’ll get to that uh mainly because the nature of restricted free agency uh yes just a lot of teams don’t have that much money to spend number one but also with restricted free agency the the team with the with the players rights usually have so much leverage they have so much control that it kind of discourages teams from even making an offer just feels like they’re wasting their time that it’s just going to get matched i kind of see it and you can push back if you disagree i kind of feel like this is going to play out similar to Haywood Heismith’s free agency last season with the Heat uh I think the heater are going to hold a firm line and for I feel like something that he might just offer something at around his qualifying offer and then just build off of that so if you’re DaVon and that’s all you can get try to keep the deal short uh but at the same time it took him a little while to find a team where he can thrive in this is a great situation i’ve seen some people project him closer to about $12 million annual average salary so if he can get him at you know whatever it is with this um average up probably eight to 8.5 I think or just under nine i mean that’s a steal for Miami obviously i think um if they can get it at that amount you know he does fill a role that they need right now in terms of a point of attack defender they haven’t had you want you want to try to make sure you have a person that can fit in the back court with Tyler Herro and I think Mitchell really gave them some of their best lineups when they kind of play together in the back court definitely over a guy like Terry Rosier um so I think if that’s the case if they can bring him back at this amount you’re getting a potential starter at much less um annual salary than what a starter probably should go for in today’s league uh especially with the rising cap amounts and everything um I obviously I think if you’re Mitchell you want to try to put a player option that third year because you want to try to test for agency as soon as possible but yeah obviously with his restricted free agency and and Miami you know being able to match um any outside offers I I give Miami definitely the upper hand in terms of his the control of the situation and bringing him back all right so for now let’s just go with this amount and maybe he gets more but for what we’re going to do uh we’re going to have a tight squeeze under the first apron all right so before we get into any trades we need to go over the Miami Heat draft pick situation because a very good chance that some of these will be involved as the primary assets in any trade especially for Kevin Durant uh so it’s a little messy but they have almost all their own first round picks uh between 2025 and 2032 the biggest thing is that they traded they still owe a 2027 first to the Hornets that’s lottery protected and the protection rolls over into 2028 where if they still didn’t convey the pick in 2027 then they would owe an unprotected to the Hornets in 2028 the maximum amount of picks they can trade right now was three they can trade their 2025 first uh on draft night after selection is made uh because they traded that 2027 they cannot trade 26 or 28 they could kind of trade 2029 but conditionally but basically they can trade the 2025 and either 2029 conditionally in 2031 or a little more simply 2030 or and 2032 uh cuz it just you know they could just trade those outright right now they don’t have to add any conditions uh so knowing that these picks are probably going to be in play what are your thoughts on the Heat’s overall track record recently on trading draft picks um so Pat Riley has been quoted saying he’s fine having a draft pick every other year um this is actually going to be if they end up keeping the pick and making it this would be one of the rare instances where they’ve made four straight first round picks uh yeah it looks a lot better than it has in years past um and then obviously they have this pick from Golden State that I do I I actually do think they’ll probably will trade it um in all honesty there’s been a lot of reports where they haven’t really brought back um a lot of like these draft prospects that are first round targets like they’ve only really worked out two or three um which is very rare in terms of like what gets leaked out they usually work out a lot more of these like first round talents if they have a first round pick in years past um so in my opinion I think they’re working under the condition where they might be picking for somebody else do I think they’re going to move all three in one deal no uh but I do think they can move all three maybe like separate deals so a couple things the Wolves can only trade their first round pick this year the 17th overall from Detroit so the Heat have the advantage where one they have more clear players that they can send out in the trade right now but they also have two up to two future first round picks in a trade they can trade uh and that is going to probably be necessary to at least include one not necessarily just to uh satisfy what the Suns would want in a return but very strong chance that a third team’s going to have to be involved in the actual trade maybe they got to satisfy that team somehow now then the other thing is I don’t feel too great about the possibility of even including one let alone two of these future first round picks the Heat are really good at making draft selections not exactly the strongest recently when it comes to trading them but despite all that I just I see I think they’re going to be pretty aggressive and I get the feeling they just might say screw it let’s just trade as many picks it’s Kevin Freak and Durant let’s just bring them in worry about it later where the Kings at finding players uh in undrafted free agency in the second round anyways miami doesn’t want to put themselves in position by doing it for just one player they’re fine like trading one or two firsts and they haven’t there’s not really much like I was looking back at like the history like the only few times where they traded multiple firsts for for a player i think the last time was Goran Dragage it’s been that long since they’ve done a deal where they’ve traded multiple firsts in one move yeah and that’s interesting you brought up Goran Dragage might be the the next trade they end up doing that involves multiple picks might also involve the Suns all right Brian so let’s get to the actual trade and here’s what we put together uh three-way involving the Nets the Nets are already heavily rumored as a potential 13 in a Kevin Durant trade but as far as what the Heat are sending out I’ve got the actual three-way trade out here and then the Heat perspective in terms of salary cap uh the salary cap component so I’ll just start with that so since they’re bringing in uh Kevin Durant and Royce O’Neal in this trade uh they need to send out a minimum of 51.2 million to get within the uh expand the 125% expanded trade exception and the deal we came up with it goes above that this is a 100% match they’re sending out Wiggins to the Suns at 28.2 million terry Rosier to the Nets at his 26.6 million and Yoic to the Suns at his 4.4 million so pretty simple as far as the salary cap mechanics go over there uh then the other thing is they are sending out both of their future first round picks they’re sending uh one of them to the Suns and then the other one to the Nets and for the Suns they are taking back Wiggins Claxton Yovic uh as we mentioned one first and then the Nets for their troubles they’re sending out Claxton in exchange taking on Rosier Kyle Anderson and a 2031 first round pick nets basically still don’t really lose any cap space in this deal since they’re going from Claxon to those guys for the Suns this is not aggregation yes they’re sending out two players in the trade but the way it’s going to work is they’d be trading Kevin Durant for Wiggins and Claxton and then Royce O’Neal for Yovic just basically two separate trades in one so in case you’re wondering if this trade’s even legal if that’s aggregation it’s not look I don’t This isn’t a sexy return at all but I think just based on uh his age and the limited market right now I feel like this is kind of the return that they’re looking at realistically I don’t think the Wolves one would be that much better i I mean I kind of counter otherwise i think the Suns make out a lot better than I see in some other trade packages um you know if they can get two starting caliber you know players and then Jovich is the wild card like for Miami i think there’s a lot of untapped potential there that I just think in terms of like playing time and role he doesn’t have really with Miami i I I really don’t feel like Miami is going to be able to crack what they can you know bring out of him um so that’s three starters and then a potential future first you don’t have to pay Terry Rosier um and have him sit on your bench like Miami does so if you can get a team like Brooklyn to take him on that’s great um obviously they have the cap space to kind of absorb a lot more salary and then also on top of it it does get them under the second apron which also helps them out a lot in terms of you know their future flexibility so yeah I like it for them i like it for Miami um Roy Sil also fits a need for them as well in terms of a 3 and D player um you can’t have enough of those in the NBA in today’s day and age uh I think for Miami really the next move that they need to find is like now that you’re getting rid of Terry Rosier you need to try to find another point guard on the team as David Mitchell’s good but you need at least two starting caliber point guards I think or at least two starting caliber guards that can play the backboard with Tyler Herro i think Mitchell’s good but I think he’s more of a reserve role type of player and like a spot starter i think you need more of a definitive point guard to play and I think we’re going to get into that next and yes I agree with you Brian that the Heat still need another ball handler they still need a little more creation and so we identify Colin Ston as another as a guard that they could pursue um and for this trade the first one the Kevin Durant trade since they did a 100% match or more that did not hard cap into the first apron so this one will the way this one works is Colin Saxon’s got that $18.97 million salary so all the Heat need to do is get within 8.5 million of it in which case all they got to do is send out 10.5 million so we uh cheated a little bit with this one uh we sent out Kevin Love uh and then we signed and traded Alec Burks and Josh Christopher uh so they have uh nonbird rights on those players so the idea is we’re going to give them their minimum salaries uh it’s a three-year contract that’s required in a sign and trade but only the first year needs to be guaranteed and to get up to that 10.5 million they get like each like an additional 150k I think after minimum to get exactly to that $10.4 million amount so that this trade is legal the uh Jazz also get the 20th overall pick for the all the trouble can the Heat get another uh third guard who can really give them a scoring boost yeah no I think for Miami you know taking in the additional 8.5 million salary is worth it obviously you’re not really giving up much of value besides a 20th overall selection and with that 20th overall pick you’re probably not going to find anyone better than Colin Ston that’s at least going to contribute right away because right now you’re in a win win win now move if you’re getting Kevin Durant to me he he is a heat type of player um I I really do like the the greyness that he has um and I think obviously right now he’s not in a winning situation but I do think he can be that type of winning uh type player the only issue with him is he’s had some injuries in the past so that’s really the question mark with him and obviously like this he be coming in an expiring deal so Miami has a full year of him on the roster they have to make a decision whether or not they want to bring him back as a free agent or if they end up wanting to do an extension in season um I yeah honestly I think it’s it’s great for Miami the only maybe other loss is Kevin Love because he was a good locker room presence for them but at the same time like he’s not playing for you that’s $4 million in in essentially what is like a locker room presence i I rather use that and cash it in towards you know a player that can you know give you a lot more minutes on the main roster and maybe they could find another veteran who can uh fill that role for Love so I really like the idea of them going after Sexon because the alternative is they could use their mid-level exception to try to pursue a guard like Dennis Rutder uh Tai Jones uh Malcolm Brogden but Malcolm Brog and and maybe there’s still a way they can add him on top of this but then the back court starts to get a little crowded but uh if they can get Colin Sex football handling creations in today’s NBA but if if you can get Colin Sex in for like essentially not really any value in terms of the player you’re just giving up straight uh salary matching and then that 20th overall pick i think that’s pretty good value for the Heat to bring in Sexton and also I forgot to mention that I have the Jazz providing the 53rd overall pick in this trade to the Heat and that’s mainly because one the Jazz are going to have then three first and a second so they’re not going to need all those picks but also the Heat are going to need a second round pick uh in order to help stay below the first apron as you’re about to see all right and here is the final roster that we put together i’ve got Kevin Durant and Royce O’Neal in for Terry Rosier Andrew Wiggins uh Nicola Yovic and the 20th overall pick i’ve got Duncan Robinson DaVon Mitchell in on those salary projections we gave them colin Saxon in as well for Kevin Love uh and then to get the 14 players I’ve got them getting the uh 53rd overall pick in this year’s draft and they have to sign one more veteran minimum salary and that leaves them just slightly over the luxury tax so the they’re in the first level the payment is identical to how much they are above the line uh there’s a couple incentives for Royce O’Neal and Colin Sexton that count against the apron and that leaves them just about $900,000 below the first apron so they do have some flexibility later uh in the season that they need to make uh do a 15th signing or do some trades later but yeah because they did that trade for Colton where they uh took back more money than they were sending out they are now hard caps to the first apron and because of that I needed them to get a second round pick so they can give them that rookie minimum and that helps play into just being able to stay below the first apron uh Brian how are you feeling about this team i like it a lot and obviously if it ends up happening this way I think Miami has a good shot of being a top four you know you know team in the East obviously next year’s uh in the East it’s going to be uh it’s going to be not as loaded as it is in the West that’s for sure so I think for Miami you know making a push for Durant is kind of like them signaling that they have an actual major shot of contending out of the East it’s a little bit of a different roster that they’ve been into NBA Finals in years past you’re you’re kind of banking on some of the youth talent you know taking a step you know more in reserve roles but then you also have that balance of now having you know a three a three-level score in Chem to have you know a a couple three and D players on the roster between Haywood Highmith and Boyce O’Neal you still have the spacing of Duncan Robinson like I was mentioning earlier is really important to still keep on on this type of team and then like if you’re adding Colin Saxon as well to this mix like that gives you another ball creator that that can play next to Tally Hero um obviously you’re hoping Hero and Bam can still maybe take some some steps in in terms of their development as well and yeah I mean I mean you’re also relying on Klo where also as a as a front court player next to B like I think this fit works for them and honestly like if it ends up tapping this way I give Miami a good shot of making Audi East all right and then really quick I want to talk about Kevin Durant’s extension option so he is going to be eligible to extend for an additional two years with the Suns or with another team his uh the ex so there’s a two different types of extensions but they’re pretty much identical so if he gets traded then he has that 6 months trade restriction he would only be able to extend for this which is uh 120% raise off his previous salary but it cannot exceed the 35% max so it would start at this and then he can get a 5% raise which would go up to 62.5 million for a total of two for 122 uh the alternative is an 8% raise on the second year which only bumps it up up to a total of two years 124 so uh if you’re Kevin Durant and you know that this offer is on the table I think you just take it uh you know no point in waiting 6 months i wonder if there’s maybe a possibility he might be willing to take less than this to help the Heat out a little more in the future but as I’m gonna show uh the Heat will be able to give him this extension uh and be able to uh fill the competitive roster in the following season at this amount um I’m cool with it obviously if Miami if you’re getting up two future first round picks you want to lock up Kevin Durant as soon as possible you don’t want to wait it out you want him you know signed that extension similar to what Jimmy Butler did with with Golden State you make that trade and like moments later Dax extensions announced and so here is the Heat’s projected payroll for 2627 if they give Kevin Durant his 2-year max which would start him at 59 a.5 million we’ve got Bam also set to begin his max extension at 30% of the max uh we’ve got Duncan Robinson DaVon Mitchell on the second year salaries we projected them with and we gave just slight raises to Colin Saxon on and Haywood Highmith on their next deals uh they have their 2026 pick and once they get to 14 players they would have a pretty expensive roster if they finish the upcoming season in the tax they’ll enter the repeater tax which would mean they would have much higher rates in 2026 27 and so just being 16.5 million over the tax gives them about a $61 million tax penalty they’ll be in the repeater tax they’d have like roughly like a you know close to a 280 $290 million roster yeah but that’s okay because if you bring in Kevin Durant you real you realistically have like a two-year window uh so I think they’d be willing to pay what it takes i think the biggest thing would be just trying to stay below that second apron and here so here they’re way above the tax they’re well above the first apron but when filling up the roster they’re able to just stay below the second apron i think that’s a realistic goal for them as far as how deep they want to go with their spending yeah in terms of trying to get below the tax this season like the obvious candidate that’s still remaining as an expiring contract would be Haywood Highmith so maybe they don’t bring him back maybe they just straight into a team and try to you know get some of that savings so that they they get below the first the first they get below the luxury tax line so that next season they don’t they don’t trigger the repeater tax so they can still go over the luxury tax and not have to worry about paying a repeater tax penalty i think that’s very likely a possibility for them it’s something they’ve done in years past now after this season things start to get a lot more challenging mainly because this is the last year of Tyler Hero’s uh four-year extension that he signed in 2022 and he’s probably looking at a substantial raise there’s rumors that the Heat might be prepared to extend him this summer to a threeyear $150 million deal so in which case we’re looking at the Heat having uh Duran making over 60 million Bam making over 50 million and hero making close to 50 million so things could change by then obviously if Kevin Durant takes less that would help a lot towards keeping this core intact but just knowing the nature of the league very good chance things could have changed by then uh maybe they’ll have made some moves to retrench the payroll a little bit uh but as far as these up these two upcoming seasons they can have a roster this deep and expensive and yeah I think with Heroes extension like I don’t foresee anything happening this off seasonason i think that relates to be next season all right so that was the mock off season thank you Brian for assisting me in this one everyone let us know what we how we did in the comments is this a is this team worth trading the rest of the picks for do you guys like the idea of Kevin Durant especially if he has to take that max extension let me know what you think make sure you guys are following Brian on Twitter at Bri by Briancoins and listen to him regularly talk about the heat on his podcast Miami Heat and make sure you’re following me on Twitter Blue Sky my name is Gossin i’m going to be reacting to all the transactions with instant salary cap analysis subscribe to Third Apron wherever you get your podcasts and the newsletter on Substack and check the link in the description below about sports business classroom we still have more spots available for that

In this mock offseason, Brian Goins joins me to build out the Miami Heat. We restructure Duncan Robinson’s contract and re-sign Davion Mitchell to a team-friendly contract. Then we make our big moves: trading for Kevin Durant and Collin Sexton. Watch as we show how they could acquire these players within the salary cap rules.

Heat offseason preview: https://www.thirdapron.com/p/detroit-pistons-2025-offseason-priorities
Heat offseason discussion: https://youtube.com/live/kBp0cftgB80

You can follow Brian on:
Twitter: https://x.com/byBrianGoins
And hear him talk about the Heat regularly on the Miami Heat Beat podcast.

I’ll be a Salary Cap instructor at Sports Business Classroom (SBC) this summer. It’s a weeklong educational and networking program that has helped many young people break into the industry over the past decade. There are still spots available. It’ll be from July 13-19 this year. If you sign up with the code THIRDAPRON, you will receive a lifetime subscription to my Third Apron newsletter.

SBC registration: https://www.sportsbusinessclassroom.com/business-of-basketball-registration/#register

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You can follow me on:
Third Apron newsletter: https://thirdapron.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/YossiGozlan
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/yossigozlan.bsky.social
Salary cap sheets: www.capsheets.com
Links: https://linktr.ee/yossigozlan