The Miami Heat’s roster for next season is now full, but that doesn’t the roster is necessarily set yet.
The Heat made its first move of free agency since league-wide negotiations began Monday at 6 p.m., helping to facilitate three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson’s move to the Detroit Pistons through a sign-and-trade agreement, multiple league sources confirmed to the Miami Herald.
With Robinson agreeing to a three-year contract worth $48 million to join the Pistons, Detroit is sending forward Simone Fontecchio to the Heat to complete the transaction. Fontecchio is the only piece going to the Heat as part of the sign-and-trade.
While the Heat is losing the most prolific three-point shooter in franchise history in Robinson, the move preserved a bit of salary-cap flexibility for the Heat moving forward. Fontecchio is on an expiring contract with an $8.3 million salary for this upcoming season, which is cheaper than the $9.9 million Robinson was guaranteed with the Heat for this season if he hadn’t exercised the early-termination option in his contract to become an unrestricted free agent.
After the addition of Fontecchio, the Heat’s roster is now at the NBA regular-season maximum of 15 players on standard contracts: 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), Fontecchio ($8.3 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).
But there remains the possibility of trades that can bring changes to Miami’s roster. Rozier and Wiggins are two players who the Heat has explored trades for this offseason, according to league sources.
When including the full salaries for Rozier and Larsson but not including cap holds, the Heat has about $182.1 million in salaries committed to 15 players for next season.
With the salary cap for the 2025-26 season set at $154.6 million and the luxury tax set at $187.9 million, the Heat is about $5.7 million below the luxury-tax threshold for this upcoming season. After finishing as a luxury tax team in each of the last two seasons, the expectation is the Heat will try to find a way to get below the luxury tax threshold this upcoming season in order to avoid the onerous repeater tax that’s triggered when a team crosses the luxury tax threshold in four straight seasons or four times during a five-season period.
When including the $2.5 million in “unlikely to be earned incentives” (are added to calculate where teams are against the aprons) that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $33.5 million, the Heat has about $184.6 million in salaries committed to 14 players for next season. This has Miami about $11.3 million below the punitive first apron of $195.9 million and far from the dreaded second apron of $207.8 million.
Robinson’s departure marks the end of his productive Heat tenure, as he developed into one of the organization’s undrafted success stories.
After going undrafted out of Michigan in 2018, Robinson became the franchise leader for the most career three-pointers made by a Heat player.
Robinson made 1,202 three-pointers while shooting an impressive 39.7 percent from behind the arc during his seven regular seasons with the Heat. He’s one of only nine NBA players who has made more than 1,000 threes while shooting better than 39 percent from three-point range since the 2018-19 season, along with Stephen Curry, Buddy Hield, Malik Beasley, CJ McCollum, Paul George, Zach LaVine, Klay Thompson and Gary Trent Jr.
But Robinson’s role has diminished over the years. After starting in 209 of his 239 regular-season appearances over his first four NBA seasons with the Heat, he has started in 74 of his 184 regular-season appearances over the last three seasons.
Robinson,31, averaged 11 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 43.7 percent from the field and 39.3 percent on 6.5 three-point attempts per game last regular season.
The addition of Fontecchio helps fill the three-point shooting void Robinson leaves behind, as Fontecchio shot 40.1 percent on 5.1 three-point attempts per game during the 2023-24 regular season before his efficiency dipped to 33.5 percent three three-point attempts per game last regular season.
Fontecchio, who is from Italy, is listed at 6-foot-7 and 209 pounds and is 29 years old. He’s entering his fourth NBA season after averaging 5.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.4 steals and 0.2 blocks per game in 75 appearances last regular season with the Pistons.
This breaking news story will be updated.