5 Heat players who won’t be back next season after playoff defeat
By Wes Goldberg
Caleb Martin
The pro of Miami’s vaunted development program: Finding high-level contributors for cheap. The con? You gotta pay them at some point.
This happened with Gabe Vincent and Max Strus last season and the Heat couldn’t match what the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers were offering. The same could happen with Caleb Martin, who is expected to decline his $7.1 million player option and sign a more lucrative contract as a free agent.
Martin’s side surely took note of the contracts Vincent and Strus signed last summer. Somewhere in that range ($11 million-$15.5 million annually) feels like an appropriate landing spot.
No doubt the Heat value Martin and would love to bring him back, but they enter next season less than $5 million away from entering the punitive second luxury tax apron – something the Heat are unwilling to do because of the roster-building limitations that come with it. Doubling Martin’s salary would mean crossing that line unless the Heat find a way to trim payroll.