LeBron James is now officially a Philadelphia 76er, and the paperwork closed the book on the Miami Heat’s monthlong pursuit in the most final way possible. James’ two-year, $8 million contract — which includes a player option for the second season and a full 15 percent trade kicker — was completed Sunday.
The deal appeared on the NBA’s transactions log Sunday alongside Philadelphia’s move to waive Dalen Terry, and the Sixers are expected to formally announce the signing Monday morning. For a player who earned nearly $53 million from the Los Angeles Lakers last season, the number attached to James’ final act is striking.
But there is a second $8 million figure that matters far more in Miami, because it is roughly what the Heat have left on their mid-level exception — and how the front office chooses to spend it will define the rest of this offseason.
While the Heat’s roster search entered a new phase the moment James chose Philadelphia on Friday, the days since have revealed something more specific than a list of names. What has emerged is a strategy, and it is built on patience that some fans may find maddening.
Miami is sitting on its $8 million by choice
The Miami Herald‘s Barry Jackson reported Saturday night that the Heat have spoken with DeMar DeRozan’s camp since James made his decision, but that no agreement is in place and it remains uncertain whether one will come together at all. The explanation is not a lack of interest in the six-time All-Star, whose game the organization genuinely likes.
Instead, at least one Heat official prefers to “wait out the market” before committing any of the team’s three open roster spots. The financial logic runs through the exception money.
Any competitive offer to DeRozan would eat into the roughly $8 million Miami has remaining, and the front office appears reluctant to spend it on anyone while a bigger target stays on the board. There is also a mechanical wrinkle attached to that spending, because using the exception would require the Heat to open the season with 14 players in order to stay beneath their $209 million hard cap, with a 15th addition possible later in the year.
In other words, the quiet is not indecision. Miami has effectively parked its remaining flexibility in front of one door and is betting that door eventually opens.
The Klay Thompson problem
That door belongs to Klay Thompson, the front office’s clear preference even though the sharpshooter remains under contract in Dallas. Miami’s interest is not new — the Heat were reported to have significant interest in Thompson weeks before James ever made his choice — but the obstacle has not moved either.
“Thompson remains the Heat priority, even though there’s no indication when or if he will shake free from Dallas,” wrote Jackson.
The Mavericks owe Thompson $17.5 million in the final season of his three-year deal, and because Dallas sits comfortably below the luxury tax, the team faces no financial pressure to let him walk for nothing. The Mavericks would apparently rather trade Thompson than negotiate a buyout, and no workable trade framework between Dallas and Miami has surfaced publicly.
If a buyout ever does materialize, Thompson would have to surrender real money to get free, which is precisely why the Heat may be preserving the exception — that $8 million could offset most of what a buyout would cost him.
The basketball case explains the stubbornness. Thompson averaged 11.7 points per game across 69 appearances for Dallas last season while hitting 38.3 percent of his 7.6 three-point attempts per game, and his 2,899 career three-pointers rank fourth in NBA history behind only Stephen Curry, James Harden and Ray Allen.
On a roster whose two stars, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, do the bulk of their damage inside the arc, that specific skill is not a luxury. It is the missing structural piece, and the front office is treating it that way.
DeRozan’s clock is ticking — and the double-dip scenario
The risk is that Thompson’s situation resolves slowly, or never resolves at all, while the rest of the market moves. Multiple teams have contacted DeRozan, including some with exception money of their own, which means the 36-year-old is under no pressure to accept a minimum deal anywhere — and under even less pressure to sit around waiting on Miami.
DeRozan’s production makes him arguably the best realistic add still available. He averaged 18.4 points, 4.1 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game on 49.7 percent shooting across 77 starts for Sacramento last season, and outside of Harden, no remaining unrestricted free agent produced more.
The fit question is real, though, because DeRozan has connected on just 30.2 percent of his career three-point attempts, and adding a third interior-leaning scorer to the Antetokounmpo-Adebayo core would make the shooting hunt more urgent rather than less. That tension is exactly why the target board Miami assembled after James’ decision listed shooters first.
And yet the league does not seem to believe Miami will walk away empty-handed.
Brett Siegel wrote that in league circles “the Heat are viewed as the top landing spot for both DeRozan and Beal,” with rival teams believing Miami has a genuine chance to sign the two veterans.
Bradley Beal, who became a free agent by declining his $5.6 million player option with the Clippers after a hip injury wiped out most of his season, has already heard from Miami this summer. The Heat spoke with Beal’s camp earlier in the offseason but were still prioritizing the Thompson pursuit as the week closed.
Splitting the exception between DeRozan and Beal, rather than spending it all bridging a Thompson buyout, is the alternate ending here — two former All-Stars for the price of one wait.
What patience could cost
There are holes this strategy does not address. Miami would still like another big man behind Adebayo, and the free agent shelf at that position is close to bare — a problem made sharper by the fact that the trade package that delivered Antetokounmpo sent Kel’el Ware to Milwaukee.
Every week spent waiting on Dallas is a week the remaining role-player market thins out too. But the Heat’s read on their own situation is coherent. Pat Riley has said roster decisions are made collectively within the organization, and the collective has decided that three open roster spots and $8 million in flexibility are worth more as leverage than as a headline.
With James now officially signed and the last domino down, the frozen portion of the market finally starts to move. Miami is wagering that when it does, the player it actually wants shakes loose — and if he doesn’t, that DeRozan, Beal or both will still be reachable.
The waiting, in other words, is the plan. Whether it still looks like a plan in two weeks depends on Dallas.