Where the Heat stand after re-signing Victor Oladipo, Dewayne Dedmon and planning a trade for Kevin Durant
Eight notes on Miami's moves on the first day of free agency.
A couple hours after Kevin Durant’s bombshell trade request from the Brooklyn Nets, the Miami Heat finalized terms to retain a pair of key free agents and let another leave for more money elsewhere.
These moves signal that, above all, Miami’s top priority is landing another star.
Here are some notes on where the Heat stand after an eventful first day of free agency, and where they go from here in terms of filling out the roster and making a push for Durant.
1.) Let’s start with P.J. Tucker, who agreed to a three-year, $33.2 million deal with the rival Philadelphia 76ers. The Heat wanted Tucker back. The public fawning by Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra accurately reflected the team’s private sentiments: they love Tucker. But these are the kind of cold calculations a team sometimes has to make.
It wasn’t about the money, per se, but rather the limitations that shelling out the full mid-level exception — as the Sixers did — would have produced. Using the full $10.5 million mid-level exception would have triggered the hard cap for the Heat.
The Sixers are comfortable doing that because they have their two tentpole stars and are seeking complementary pieces for a Finals push. The Heat are keeping the powder dry to make a run at a second star to pair with Jimmy Butler. Hard-capping themselves now would limit their ability to bring back a maximum-level salary.
If they could have given Tucker the same contract and avoid the hard cap, they would have done it. Paying Tucker a lot of money until he’s 40 is not the issue. But that’s not how the CBA works. Instead, they offered him a fully-guaranteed, three year deal starting at $8.4 million per season (the most they could offer with Tucker’s early-Bird rights). According to the Miami Herald, the front office enlisted Tucker’s teammates to try to convince him to return. They wanted Tucker back. Tucker chose more money on another contender. Sometimes it’s just that simple.
2.) Now the Heat have a glaring hole at power forward while the team they just beat in the second round got stronger. Options at the position are drying up. Bobby Portis, who I first reported was a Heat target should he leave Milwaukee, re-upped with the Bucks. Nic Batum re-signed with the Clippers. Thad Young resigned with the Raptors.
Kyle Anderson, a potential Heat target, signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a deal that will pay upwards of $9 million annually. The Heat don’t have that kind of cash. They are limited to the smaller $6.5 million mid-level exception that doesn’t trigger the hard cap. If Anderson is going for $9 million a season, there’s reason to believe Miami’s top remaining target — Otto Porter Jr. — will generate similar offers elsewhere.
Porter could return to Golden State, where he just won a title. With Gary Payton II signing a three-year, $28 million deal with the Trail Blazers, that could free up the TPMLE for the Warriors to use to retain Porter. If they do, it seems the Heat will be in competition with the Warriors, among any other offers, for Porter.
If Miami can’t land Porter, next on the list is TJ Warren. Warren isn’t as versatile a defender as Porter or Tucker, but he’s a three-level scorer who would add some needed offense to the starting lineup.
3.) Miami retained Victor Oladipo and Dewayne Dedmon by overpaying but, in doing so, also created new, moveable contracts.
Oladipo re-signed with the Heat on a one-year, $11 million deal. That number is not a coincidence. It’s slightly more than the full $10.5 million mid-level exception that some teams were offering Oladipo on a one-year, prove-it deal. Because the Heat have Oladipo’s Bird rights, they were able to offer more than any other team.
This is a win-win.
For Oladipo, he gets paid and gets to return to an organization he admires. For the first time since arriving in Miami, he’ll take advantage of a full training camp and be able to earn the defined role he was seeking as a free agent.
For the Heat, they keep a player that they paid to rehab for two years and have at least half a season to see if he can build on an encouraging playoff run.
In terms of financial flexibility, the Heat out-bid the market and maintained a key salary cap slot on their cap sheet that otherwise would have disappeared. Oladipo’s $11 million salary is very tradeable, and the Heat could stack his contract with others at the trade deadline in order to bring back a larger deal. Had Oladipo walked away for nothing, the Heat would have had no way to fit a similar salary on the books.
On a team with many top-heavy deals (Butler, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry) and more small ones (Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Omer Yurtseven, etc.), only Duncan Robinson’s $16.9 million deal representing the “middle class” of salaries. Now the Heat have Oladipo.
4.) Then there’s Dedmon. Many might be scratching their head as to why Miami re-signed Dedmon to a two-year, $9 million deal. It’s similar to the Oladipo situation. While Dedmon most likely could have been had for the veteran minimum, the Heat also had Dedmon’s Bird rights and saw an opportunity to create another stackable salary.
The first year of Dedmon’s deal is worth $4.3 million, while the second year is not fully guaranteed. That’s very tradeable.
Dedmon is a solid rotation big and is appreciated in the Heat locker room. Bringing him back, even only for a few months before the trade deadline, gives Miami a proven backup to Adebayo and buys Yurtseven some key developmental time rather than being thrust into a nightly backup role on opening night.
5.) Put it all together and the Heat now have roughly $32 million in moveable contracts between Robinson, Oladipo and Dedmon. For salary-matching purposes, that’s a good starting place to bring back a maximum-level salary at the trade deadline.
6.) Make no mistake, everything is about adding another star, and doing so during the current league calendar. Avoiding the hard cap, letting Tucker walk, overpaying for tradeable deals… Riley’s actions speak for themselves.
Whether it’s Durant or another star that shakes loose between now and the February trade deadline, the Heat are star chasing.
7.) As for Durant, the Heat cannot trade Adebayo to the Nets in a package because of the Designated Rookie Extension rule. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks explained, teams cannot carry two players acquired via trade that signed a designated rookie extension. Adebayo and Ben Simmons each signed that type of extension. So unless Brooklyn trades Simmons elsewhere, or the Heat send Adebayo to a third team in a trade, Adebayo cannot be involved in a potential Durant deal.
That same rule applies to Phoenix’s Devin Booker, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Denver’s Michael Porter Jr., among others.
The best the Heat can do in a two-team trade with the Nets, then, is packaging Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, other salary with three first round picks (provided they amend protections to the 2025 pick owed to Oklahoma City) and three pick swaps. Count on Riley to get creative.
8.) Sources indicate that the market is still developing for Heat restricted free agent Caleb Martin. The Heat extended a $2.1 million qualifying offer to Martin and if another team offers him more it will be difficult for Miami to retain him. Using the often-cited bi-annual exception also triggers the hard cap, which we know the Heat will not do.