Heat brings back Thomas Bryant and adds Alec Burks in free agency. What it means for the roster

The Miami Heat is bringing back another familiar face and adding a new face to next season’s roster.

After striking a deal to retain veteran center Kevin Love just minutes after the leaguewide free agent negotiating period began Sunday evening, the Heat also reached an agreement to re-sign veteran center Thomas Bryant on Wednesday.

Just days after bypassing the $2.8 million player option in his contract with the Heat to become an unrestricted free agent, league sources confirmed to the Miami Herald on Wednesday that Bryant has agreed to return to the Heat on a one-year veteran minimum contract worth about the same amount of $2.8 million.

In addition, the Heat added veteran guard Alec Burks in free agency on a one-year veteran minimum contract worth about $3.3 million, a league source confirmed on Wednesday.

Day 4 Free agency tracker: Heat adds Burks, keeps Bryant. And Martin, Highsmith unsigned

Burks, who turns 33 on July 20, is entering his 14th NBA season after being drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 12th overall pick in 2011. Because he signed a one-year minimum contract, his cap hit is just $2.1 million despite his $3.3 million salary for next season because of NBA rules that lower the cap hit on most one-year minimum deals.

Bryant comes with the same cap hit, as he helped the Heat save some money and create more room under the ultrapunitive second apron by not opting in and instead signing with the Heat for the same salary on a new one-year minimum contract in free agency

If Bryant would have exercised his player option, his salary would have counted as $2.8 million against the salary cap, luxury tax and aprons.

But because Bryant became a free agent and then returned to the Heat on a new one-year minimum contract, NBA rules shrink his cap hit for this upcoming season to just $2.1 million despite still having an actual salary of $2.8 million.

The return of Bryant and Love along with the Heat’s first-round selection of Indiana center Kel’el Ware makes the return of center Orlando Robinson less likely. The Heat has until July 15 to guarantee Robinson’s full $2.1 million salary for this upcoming season or allow him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Bryant, who turns 27 on July 31, played in just 38 games in his first regular season with the Heat after initially joining the team as a free agent last summer. While being held out of half the regular-season schedule (41 games) by coach’s decision, Bryant averaged 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game this season.

“For me, overall, I thought the year was a learning experience,” Bryant said in May of his first season with the Heat. “It was a really big learning experience coming in from different organizations to the Heat organization and Heat culture. I think it was a great big learning curve for me, and I felt like I improved day in and day out since the start of training camp all the way until now.

“The opportunities were not there all the time, but I believed it was things that coach had to do. He was dealing with other things, as well. We had injuries and there were opportunities there for me, as well. I tried to capitalize as much as I could in those in as many I had. But overall, I thought it was a great time.”

Burks (6-foot-5 and 214 pounds) began last season with the Detroit Pistons before being traded to the New York Knicks in February. He averaged 10.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game while shooting 36.9 percent from the field and 37.6 percent on five three-point attempts per game in 66 appearances (one start) last regular season.

Burks has shot an impressive 39.7 percent from three-point range on 4.8 attempts per game over the last five regular seasons. Last season, he scored more than 30 points twice and made five or more threes in seven games.

With Love and Bryant returning and Delon Wright departing to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency, that leaves six players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who remain free agents: Jamal Cain (unrestricted free agent), Haywood Highsmith (unrestricted free agent), Caleb Martin (unrestricted free agent), Patty Mills (unrestricted free agent), Cole Swider (restricted free agent) and Alondes Williams (restricted free agent).

While Martin is exploring other options after bypassing the $7.1 million player option in his contract with the Heat for next season to become an unrestricted free agent, a return to the Heat shouldn’t be ruled out. The Heat made a push to retain Martin ahead of the start of free agency and continues to have interest in bringing him back, according to league sources, but Miami is limited in what it can offer him.

The Heat remains in contention to re-sign Highsmith, but his return is far from guaranteed at this point.

WHERE HEAT’S ROSTER STANDS

With Bryant returning and Burks committing, the Heat’s roster is almost at the NBA regular-season limit of 15 players on standard deals. Miami currently has 13 players on standard contracts for next season: Jimmy Butler ($48.8 million cap hit), Bam Adebayo ($34.8 million), Tyler Herro ($29 million), Terry Rozier ($24.9 million), Duncan Robinson ($19.4 million), Ware ($4.2 million), Love ($3.8 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.7 million), Josh Richardson ($3.1 million), Nikola Jovic ($2.5 million), Bryant ($2.1 million), Burks ($2.1 million), and Pelle Larsson ($1.2 million).

Not including cap holds, the Heat has about $182.1 million committed to salaries for 13 players, including the $2.5 million in “unlikely to be earned incentives” that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $31.5 million.

With the salary cap for the 2024-25 season set at $140.6 million and the luxury tax threshold set at $170.8 million, this means the Heat is already in luxury-tax territory.

The Heat has also already exceeded the first apron that’s set at $178.1 million and is not far from the dreaded second apron that’s set at $188.9 million.

This salary-cap position limits who the Heat can add and/or re-sign in free agency this summer, especially considering that Miami does not intend to pass the second apron because of the roster-building restrictions that come with it.

The Heat only has the $5.2 million taxpayer midlevel exception and minimum contracts left to offer outside free agents this offseason. But using any part of the $5.2 taxpayer midlevel exception would hard cap the Heat at the second apron for the entire season.

Also, unless salary is shed in a trade, the Heat now stands just about $6.8 million from the second apron. So the most that the Heat can currently offer Martin or Highsmith while staying below the second apron is a contract with a starting salary of about $6.8 million with a maximum of 8 percent raises each season.

NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players under contract in the offseason and preseason, a total that does not include those on summer league contracts. Rosters must be cut to a maximum total of 18 players (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way contracts) by the start of the regular season.

The Heat’s three two-way slots are filled with Dru Smith, Zyon Pullin and Keshad Johnson. While Smith is a familiar face who has been in the Heat’s development program for the last few years, Pullin and Johnson signed two-way deals with the Heat after going undrafted last week.

Two-way contracts do not count toward the salary cap, luxury tax or apron and allow for players to be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games, with other playing time needing to come in the G League. NBA teams can have as many as three players on two-way contracts at any one time and two-way deals can be swapped out whenever.

Free agent negotiations were allowed to begin Sunday evening, but most free agents can’t formally sign their new contracts until Saturday at noon.