Ira Winderman: Nothing percolating at moment, but Heat positioned to brew a trade

As he spoke last weekend about navigating the luxury-tax aprons in the NBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement , a recurrent theme from Miami Heat General Manager Andy Elisburg was the balance between filling out a payroll at the moment and maintaining future trade flexibility.

Stay below the payroll limit of the first apron ($178.132 million team payroll), and you can take back more in a trade than you send out.

Stay below the payroll limit of the second apron ($188.931 million team payroll), and you can aggregate salaries in a trade (send out multiple players for one, two for three, etc.)

Operate above the second apron, and there is the almost impossible limitation of not being able to aggregate contracts or take back a single dollar in salary more than sent out.

The Heat have settled in at about $1.5 million below that second apron.

Based on the Heat approach both with the contracts offered this offseason and the current level of the team’s payroll , it appears trade flexibility has been prioritized.

But . . . patience, people.

By rule, players signed during free agency cannot be traded until Dec. 15, at the earliest. For the Heat, that goes for Haywood Highsmith, Kevin Love, Thomas Bryant, Alec Burks and those on two-way contracts.

The Heat, in fact, protected their trade options by having Bryant include a contract waiver allowing a trade without his consent, consent otherwise granted to players with Bird Rights (two or more seasons with a team) who sign one-year contracts.

In the end, that made this summer, with a roster essentially locked into place at the moment, about what could come next.

Because if things do get sideways with Jimmy Butler, there are pieces to package to potentially fill out a trade.

Because if Tyler Herro-Terry Rozier doesn’t work as a backcourt, there would be elements available to possibly fill out a trade permutation involving one of the two.

And if there is the opportunity or desire to move off of Duncan Robinson’s salary, the flexibility is there to aggregate his salary with one of the smaller pieces re-signed this summer or retained (Josh Richardson?).

“I think you make a choice and understand if you’re over the apron, the thing that the CBA does, it gives you choices and if you do something, it creates another implication,” Elisburg said of the Heat machinations to this point and the current goal to remain below the second apron. “So it’s not a hard cap, because you can go over it, you can go into it. But once you do that, you will be unable to aggregate contracts, and I think you feel that that ties your hands a bit of what you’re able to do.

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“And so I think we don’t want to have our hands tied. I think we want to still be flexible, so if there’s an opportunity to make an improvement to the team, so you have a little bit more flexibility to do that.”

That doesn’t mean the Heat are diametrically opposed to surpassing the second apron, as they are allowed. And, in fact, if there is a trade, there would be the very real possibility of going over that apron.

“Each team has to make their own decision of kind of where you are, from your point in time in team building, in saying you’re willing to go above the apron and that you’re going to live with the choices that come from it,” Elisburg said, “the same way that we made choice that said we’re willing to be above the first apron. That means there are choices of things we couldn’t do.”

So, for now, the Heat are nestled snugly below the second apron, with 14 players under standard contract, one shy of the NBA regular-season maximum.

“I think we felt at this point in time, we wanted to maintain our flexibility, having the opportunity from a trade perspective to be able to maximize the flexibility,” Elisburg continued. “If you go above the second apron, that takes away some of that flexibility. And we’re not ready to do that.

“It doesn’t mean we won’t at some point down in the future. But at this point in time, we’re not ready to have our hands tied in that way.”

So, for now, roster construction on hold.

But . . . to be continued?

The optionality is there, which seemingly was the entire point of the Heat’s moves to this point.

IN THE LANE

IN MEMORIAM: Pat Williams was like no other in the NBA, a commitment to the game that included helping build the Orlando Magic from the ground up, but also the compassion and humor to appreciate it only was a game. We lost a good one this week at the age of 84. And we also lost a piece of Heat history. Because for all he was to the Magic and their front office, Williams also seemingly delighted in nothing more than teasing Lewis Schaffel , the Heat’s initial lead executive who took a business-first approach. So when the Magic entered the NBA in 1989, a year after the Heat, Williams invented “The Schaf,” a trophy for the winner of the teams’ season series, a trophy  Schaffel wanted no part of. “It’s an ugly, ugly trophy,” Williams said at the time. “It cures hiccups, it’s so ugly.” And on it went, the constant jabs and barbs that added levity to the in-state rivalry, even if Schaffel wasn’t smiling. “I came up with what I thought were pithy one-liners,” Williams once said of getting under the skin of the rival that was first to arrive in Florida. “One of them was, ‘They say crime is down in Miami. Well, sure, it is. They’ve run out of victims.'” He then showed up at a summer-league game in Miami wearing Groucho Marx glasses, fake nose and all. All with the appreciation that it was, in the end, just a game. He laughed because he cared, right through to the end, even as he battled cancer for over a decade. And, yes, along the way he even managed to make Lewis Schaffel smile.

CONTEXT MATTERS: Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren clearly has had enough of the social-media aggregation machine. Asked about NBA arenas on the Road Trippin’ Show podcast that is co-hosted by ESPN’s Richard Jefferson , Holmgren found his response recorded by an aggregation site as, “I like Miami, because it’s just like empty. …  As the away team, you just got to build that lead in the first three quarters and then it just stays quiet for the fourth.” Um, not exactly the context intended. That had Holmgren responding back, “Y’all get mad when NBA players never have anything to say to media, but then chop our quotes up to get reactions. I was saying the seats r empty until the 4th quarter when fans come back from the lounges after a few drinks and the atmosphere is great for close games. It’s actually a compliment.” Holmgren has made one career appearance at Kaseya Center, the Thunder’s 128-120 victory on Jan. 10, when Holmgren went for 23 points and nine rebounds, in a game recorded as a sellout at 19,636. By contrast, the attendance when the Heat lost March 8 in Oklahoma City was 18,203 at Paycom Center.

STILL FIGHTING: With the Heat’s decision to bypass the guarantee of his 2024-25 salary, Orlando Robinson ‘s search for an NBA home took him to the Houston Rockets’ summer roster, without a guarantee of what comes next. Not only are the Rockets’ at the roster limit of 15 players, but also have Alperen Şengün, Steven Adams and Jock Landale at center, with Jabari Smith Jr. an option in the middle, as well. So despite solid numbers with the summer Rockets, it could be back to a two-way contract, which was his entry means to the NBA with the Heat when he went undrafted out of Fresno State in 2022. “If that’s where my path takes me, that’s where it does,” Robinson told the Houston Chronicle . “But my whole goal here coming to summer league is to show what I can do, to show teams that I can play at the next level efficiently.” Included in Robinson’s summer outings was a 22-point, 15-rebound performance against the Washington Wizards.

BACK AT IT: Having relocated to his Philadelphia 76ers after being dealt by the Heat in January, Kyle Lowry said it only made sense to re-up with his hometown team, albeit now at the veteran minimum of $3.3 million with the 76ers. “To play for Coach (Nick) Nurse again, represent my city, and also get an opportunity to play for a championship with a good group,” Lowry told the Philadelphia Inquirer . “I just think we’ve got a great opportunity to get better, and I felt like it was the best place for me at this moment.” Lowry and the 76ers defeated the Heat in the play-in round last season before losing to the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

HE’S A LIFER: Despite moving on to the Brooklyn Nets as an assistant after an uneven tenure as coach at Michigan, former Heat forward and assistant coach Juwan Howard said his Heat culture still burns. “As we know, my heart is always with the Heat,” Howard told NBA-TV during the Las Vegas summer league. “I’m a Heat lifer, but at the same token being with the Brooklyn Nets, this is going to be a new chapter and we’re going to build something special there.” With new Nets coach Jordi Fernandez tied up leading Canada’s Olympic effort, Howard spent time in Vegas mentoring the Nets’ youth. The assignment also allowed Howard to watch his son Jett Howard compete with the Magic’s summer roster.

NUMBER

$1.2 million. Bonus in the free-agency contract former Heat forward Caleb Martin signed with the 76ers if he plays at least 67 games and the 76ers win at least 49 games and make the second round of the playoffs. Martin appeared in 64 games last season with the Heat, with Philadelphia last season winning 47 games and losing in the first round. Martin’s base salary without the incentives is $8.1 million for next season.