The Heat opted not to use the waive-and-stretch provision ahead of Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
The stretch provision allows for a team to create salary-cap relief by waiving a player and stretching his remaining salary on the salary cap twice the number of years remaining on the player’s contract plus one year.
For example, waiving and stretching guard Terry Rozier would have reduced his cap hit from the $26.7 million he’s due this upcoming season in the final year of his contract to an $8.9 million cap hit in each of the next three seasons. The downside of using the stretch provision is that a player’s salary remains on a team’s books beyond the initially scheduled year.
With the Heat already under the luxury tax threshold after dumping Haywood Highsmith’s salary in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets earlier this month, that eliminated any sense of urgency Miami might have felt to use the stretch provision if it still needed to get under the luxury tax line.
After finishing as a luxury tax team in each of the past two seasons, the Heat was determined to escape the luxury tax for 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.
The Heat currently has 14 players on standard contracts for this upcoming season — one below the NBA regular-season limit of 15 players on standard deals.
The Heat stands about $1.7 million under the luxury tax threshold and about $7.2 million below the punitive first apron of $195.9 million that it can’t cross until the end of this upcoming season following last month’s trade for guard Norman Powell.
The Heat doesn’t currently have enough space under the luxury tax threshold to add a 15th player to a standard contract before the start of the season while still avoiding the luxury tax.
Using waive-and-stretch provision is no longer an option, but the Heat could still create enough room below the luxury tax line to sign another player to a standard contract before the start of the season while still remaining out of tax territory by making a trade to shed salary or just waiving Rozier to open an additional $1.7 million of room below the tax line because only $24.9 million of Rozier’s $26.6 million salary for this upcoming season is currently guaranteed.
While 18 players (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way contracts) is the regular-season limit, NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players during the offseason and preseason (including up to three two-way contract players).
The Heat currently has 17 players to signed to contracts.
The 14 players who the Heat has signed to standard contracts are Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Rozier, Powell, Davion Mitchell, Simone Fontecchio, Nikola Jovic, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, Pelle Larsson, Dru Smith and Keshad Johnson.
The two players who the Heat has signed to two-way contracts are Myron Gardner and Vlad Goldin.
The only player the Heat currently has signed to an Exhibit 10 contract is guard Ethan Thompson. Exhibit 10 deals essentially represent an invite to training camp and provide a financial incentive for that player to join the organization’s G League affiliate.
The Heat is scheduled to hold its annual Media Day on Sept. 29 before opening training camp on Sept. 30 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to kick off the 2025-26 NBA season.