Miami Heat: Yante Maten waived before guarantee date

Just days before his contract guarantee date, Yante Maten was waived by the Miami Heat. With Maten gone, the Heat roster currently has 13 players.

Perhaps coming as no surprise, the Miami Heat have waived Yante Maten ahead of his August 1st contract guarantee date. Maten is one of several players on non-guaranteed minimum contracts on the roster, but he’s likely the only one to be waived ahead of this August deadline.

Derrick Jones Jr.’s entire $1.6 million contract becomes guaranteed on August 1st, but the Heat balked at trading him in the four-team sign-and-trade deal that brought Jimmy Butler to South Beach, so it’s unlikely they will want to lose the super-athletic 22-year-old for nothing by waiving him.

Kendrick Nunn is also keeping a watchful eye on that date. He had by far the best Las Vegas Summer League of any player on the Heat roster and was named to the All-Summer League Team, however, and the Heat may want to keep him under team control.

Maten’s release saves them the additional $50,000 he would have made on his guarantee date and keeps them $2.59 million below the hard cap, as Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights explains:

The hard cap is a result of having acquired Butler via sign-and-trade, as such transactions automatically trigger the hard cap which is set at the $138 million luxury tax apron.

With Maten’s waiving, the Heat have enough space under the  hard cap to sign a veteran to a minimum contract, which means they will likely look to bring back Udonis Haslem who is still a free agent.

This would bring the roster back up to a total of 14 players which satisfies the league minimum.

Most likely, this waiving signals the end of the maneuvering being conducted with the core of players on minimum contracts, but Nunn and Jones will have to wait and see to be sure.