Miami Heat: An early look at Heat offseason in the summer of 2020

While the summer of 2021 is primary in the minds of the Miami Heat and team president Pat Riley, they’ll have to get through next summer first. We’ll take an early look at the 2020 offseason.

It’s well-known that the summer of 2021 is when the NBA’s big fish will be available, with players like Kawhi Leonard and Paul George potentially getting out on the open market. While 2021 is the offseason premiere destination teams like the Miami Heat are keeping an eye on, there’s a whole summer in between now and then that must be navigated.

The Heat will be operating with different constraints next summer than they have been this summer. Thanks to the sign-and-trade that brought Jimmy Butler to Miami, they have been forced to operate under the hard cap which is set at the luxury tax apron of $138 million.

While they could find them hard capped again next summer, they would have to trigger it in some way like using more than the taxpayer mid-level exception, using the bi-annual exception or participating in another sign-and-trade.

As things stand now, the Miami Heat have about $99 million on the books for next season, well below the projected salary cap of $116 million. With almost $17 million in space, they may be able to attract a mid-level free agent, but the free agent market for 2020-21 is likely not one they will want to splurge during and risk missing out on 2021-22.

With free agents like Kyle Lowry, Paul Millsap, Marc Gasol, Danilo Gallinari and Jeff Teague leading the class (unless players like Andre Drummond and DeMar DeRozan decline their player options and join the fray), it shouldn’t be hard for the Miami Heat to politely pass on the big splash free agents of 2020.

Why is the summer of 2021 worth waiting for?

That free agent class is a true who’s who with Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Otto Porter Jr., Bradley Beal, Rudy Gobert, Victor Oladipo and more. For a free agent destination like the city of Miami, it would be wise to keep the powder as clean as possible and not add multi-year commitments if it can be avoided next summer.

Next season the Heat have Goran Dragic, Meyers Leonard and Derrick Jones Jr. coming off the books, and in the summer of 2021 have only Jimmy Butler, KZ Okpala and Tyler Herro‘s rookie option still under contract from this roster as it stands now. They will also have Justise Winslow‘s $13 million team option on the books.

The path is clear for the Miami Heat to make a big splash in two years, provided they don’t complicate things in the meantime.