NBA free agency is here.
While NBA teams were allowed to begin negotiating with their own impending free agents on June 23 after the NBA Finals ended, free agents can begin negotiating with every team in the league on Monday at 6 p.m. It’s worth noting that most free agent signings aren’t eligible to become official until the league’s moratorium is lifted at noon on July 6.
In the wake of three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson’s decision to exercise the early-termination in his contract for next season to become an unrestricted free agent, the Miami Heat enters free agency with a bit of flexibility to improve its roster despite nearly having a full roster.
What will happen when free agent negotiations open Monday evening? Heat updates will be posted here throughout Day 1 of free agency.
4 p.m.: The Heat enters free agency with a current salary-cap breakdown that includes 14 players on standard contracts with partially guaranteed or fully guaranteed salaries for next season: Bam Adebayo ($37.1 million), Tyler Herro ($31 million), Andrew Wiggins ($28.2 million), Terry Rozier ($24.9 million of $26.6 million salary currently guaranteed), Davion Mitchell (estimated $11.5 million), Kyle Anderson ($9.2 million), Haywood Highsmith ($5.6 million), Nikola Jovic ($4.4 million), Kel’el Ware ($4.4 million), Kevin Love ($4.2 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.9 million), Kasparas Jakucionis ($3.7 million), Pelle Larsson ($978,000 of $2 million salary currently guaranteed) and Keshad Johnson ($2 million).
This leaves the Heat just one player short of the 15-man regular-season limit for an NBA standard roster.
When including the full salaries for Rozier, Robinson, Larsson but not including cap holds, the Heat has about $176.3 million in salaries committed to 14 players for next season. This includes the $2.5 million in “unlikely to be earned incentives” that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $33.5 million.
With the projected salary cap for the 2025-26 season set at $154.6 million and the projected luxury tax set at $187.9 million, that means the Heat is about $11.6 million below the luxury-tax threshold for this upcoming season. The Heat also finds itself $19.6 million below the punitive first apron of $195.9 million and far from the dreaded second apron of $207.8 million.
The list of players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who are set to become free agents this summer includes Robinson (unrestricted free agent), guard Josh Christopher (unrestricted free agent), guard Alec Burks (unrestricted free agent), guard Dru Smith (restricted free agent) and guard Isaiah Stevens (unrestricted free agent). Mitchell was on this list as a restricted free agent before he reached an agreement to return to the Heat prior to Monday’s start of league-wide negotiations.
One option for the Heat to fill its final roster spot is to bring back Robinson on a contract that would pay him the $9.9 million he would have been guaranteed for next season (but opted out of) with additional season of guaranteed money tacked on. For example, a $33 million contract over three years that would give Robinson a significant amount of guaranteed money while also keeping his cap hit for this upcoming season at $9.9 million to keep the Heat under the luxury-tax threshold.
While Robinson could begin talking about a new deal with other teams when free agency opens around the league Monday at 6 p.m., returning to the Heat on a new contract also remains a possibility, according to a league source. Since the Heat has Robinson’s Bird rights, it can exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to his maximum salary despite holding no salary-cap space.
Robinson could also be used in a sign-and-trade deal if he strikes a deal elsewhere and needs the Heat to help facilitate such an agreement. This could, in theory, net the Heat a few assets while also possibly getting Robinson’s salary completely off its books without getting any salary in return by dealing him into another team’s midlevel or trade exception. Such a move involving Robinson is also on the table, according to a league source.
If the Heat doesn’t bring back Robinson, it will have enough room under the luxury tax to use the $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception and/or the $5.1 million bi-annual exception to offer outside free agents without crossing the first apron.
This is important because using either the non-taxpayer midlevel exception or the bi-annual exception would hard cap the Heat at the first apron of $195.9 million.
The issue with using the full $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception is the Heat is only $11.6 million away from the luxury-tax line, which Miami is expected to try to avoid this upcoming season.
So, the Heat could instead choose to use the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception to add an outside free agent instead of the $14.1 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception and/or the $5.1 million bi-annual exception. The benefit in doing this is that using the $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception would keep the Heat out of the luxury tax and only hard cap the Heat at the second apron of $207.8 million.
Midlevel exceptions can also now be used to trade for a player whose salary and contract length fit within the exception’s parameters.
In addition, the Heat has three trade exceptions at its disposal of $16.1 million (expires on Feb. 6, 2026), $3.1 million (expires on Feb. 6, 2026) and $2.1 million (expires on Dec. 15, 2025). But using a trade exception, which allows a team to acquire a player in a trade even if their salary would otherwise put the team over the salary cap or the team is already over the salary cap, hard caps teams at the first apron.