MIAMI — If the Miami Heat are to further address their position against the salary cap and luxury tax, it won’t come at an immediate cost to their future.
As expected, the Heat did not make a move by Friday’s 5 p.m. NBA stretch-provision deadline, meaning any salary currently on the team’s books will remain on the team’s books unless there is a trade or contract buyout.
Friday stood as the deadline to waive a contract and divide the remaining salary over future seasons.
The most likely candidates to have been under consideration were Terry Rozier and newcomer Simone Fontecchio, with each in the final year of their contract.
Under the stretch provision, salary waived can then be split over the remaining seasons on a contract times two plus one additional season. With Rozier and Fontecchio entering the final seasons of their contracts, it would have meant spreading their remaining 2025-26 salaries equally between this upcoming season and the two ensuing seasons.
The downside of such an approach was that one third of each salary would then have remained on the Heat’s books for 2025-26 as well as the next two cap calendars.
With the Heat potentially to operate with cap space as soon as next summer, the stretch option was therefore bypassed at Friday’s deadline.
Rozier is due $26.6 million this season, with Fontecchio due $8.3 million.
The stretch provision initially had stood as a Heat option to move below the punitive luxury tax and stop the clock on the even more onerous repeater tax. However, with the Aug. 15 trade of Haywood Highsmith to the Brooklyn Nets, the Heat were able to get below the 2025-26 tax line with that single move, taking no salary back in the deal.
With some of that tax savings, the Heat then re-signed guard Dru Smith the following day.
The Heat’s current position against the tax has them short of the $2.3 million required to add another player at the league minimum. Instead, the Heat are expected to operate with 14 players under standard contract, one shy of the NBA regular-season maximum, until midseason, when a prorated share of the minimum can be slotted below the tax line.
Friday’s deadline does not mean the Heat still cannot waive a player with a buyout to create additional room under the tax.
Such an option remains possible with Rozier, who does not appear to have a place in Erik Spoelstra’s rotation after last season’s dramatic dropoff in productivity.
Fontecchio, acquired for tax savings in the deal that sent Duncan Robinson to the Detroit Pistons, would not appear to be a buyout option with his nominal 2025-26 salary.
In a buyout, a player returns an agreed-upon portion of his salary in order to move on to another team.
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A tax team the past two seasons — which produced the sum total of one playoff-game win — the Heat have indicated intent to remain below the tax. A team moves into the repeater tax when it is in the tax for four consecutive years or four times in a five-year period.
The Heat previously have utilized the stretch provision on the contracts of A.J. Hammons in 2018 and Ryan Anderson in 2019.
The stretch provision is the mechanism the Milwaukee Bucks utilized this summer to waive Damian Lillard as a means to create the needed salary-cap space to sign Indiana Pacers free-agent center Myles Turner. It also is the mechanism the Phoenix Suns utilized in buying out and waiving Bradley Beal in order to alleviate their position against the tax aprons.
The Heat open training camp Sept. 30 at Florida Atlantic University.
EuroBasket update
Nikola Jovic converted all six of his shots Friday, including a pair of 3-pointers, with the Heat forward scoring 18 points to help push Serbia past Portugal 80-68 and move to 2-0 at EuroBasket. Next up for Serbia is Latvia on Saturday.
Earlier, Heat guard Pelle Larsson was held out due to illness in Sweden’s 105-83 loss Friday to Germany at EuroBasket, as Sweden fell to 0-2 in the competition. Sweden next plays Great Britain on Saturday.
On Thursday, Fontecchio closed 1 of 11 for Italy in a 75-66 loss to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece. Fontecchio was 0 for 10 before a late 3-pointer. He had five rebounds, three steals in his 34:03. Italy next plays Georgia on Saturday.
