Asking and answering 10 questions about what the Heat can do this offseason

Beyond the ongoing trade pursuit of Portland guard Damian Lillard, what to know about 10 other key Heat offseason questions, as Friday’s 6 p.m. start of free agency approaches:

▪ Can the Heat get in the mix to acquire any of the top free agents, such as Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Brook Lopez, Kyle Kuzma or Jerami Grant?

No, unless Miami can dump a ton of salary while taking back little in return — a scenario that appears unlikely.

With $178.5 million in payroll commitments, the Heat is well above the $136 million salary cap and $165 million luxury tax line.

Miami cannot use the $12.2 million midlevel exception because using that hard caps a team at $172 million this season (a figure known as the first apron).

Acquiring a free agent in a sign-and-trade also hard caps a team at $172 million.

And a team with a payroll at the second apron ($182.5 million) cannot use the taxpayer midlevel exception of $5 million - a figure that would be too low to lure any of the top free agents anyway.

So from this free agent class, the Heat likely will be able sign outside free agents only at the minimum.

▪ With the Heat well over the cap, what can Miami pay its five free agents — Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Omer Yurtseven, Kevin Love and Cody Zeller?

Love is eligible to sign for as much as $3.8 million, Zeller slightly less than that.

Yurtseven — the only restricted free agent among the five — can be retained for as little as $2.3 million if Miami extends a qualifying offer by Thursday’s deadline, and if no team offers more than that. If a qualifying offer is extended and signed, Yurtseven would be guaranteed that amount next season.

Vincent and Strus can sign for virtually any amount, because they have Bird Rights. But signing either would put Miami deeper into the tax.

▪ With the current roster construction, how much would it cost to keep Vincent?

ESPN analyst and former Nets executive Bobby Marks said he expects Vincent to command around $12 million annually.

If the Heat maintained its current payroll, re-signed Vincent to that amount and filled the other five roster spots with a mix of veterans and undrafted rookies at the league minimum, Miami’s payroll would be about $200 million, with a tax of about $108 million. For perspective, the Heat has paid $53 million in taxes combined over its history.

▪ With the current roster construction, how much would it cost to keep Vincent and Strus?

Giving $10 million or so to Strus — in addition to signing Vincent at $12 million — would push the payroll to about $208 million, with a tax of about $140 million. That’s not realistic.

By contrast, if the Heat kept its current nine players and surrounded those players with minimum salaries, Miami’s payroll would be about $182 million (just below the second apron) if Miami signed mostly rookies or as high as $188 million if Miami signed older players. That would result in a tax bill between $35 million and $56 million.

So between tax and salary, signing Vincent or Strus would cost more than $50 million.

But also keep in mind that a team’s tax for 2023-24 is based on its roster on the final day of the regular season, not this summer. So Miami can continue efforts to shed salary well into next season.

▪ So how can the Heat cut payroll?

By finding a team with the cap space to absorb the salaries of one of its pricey players — potentially Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million) or Duncan Robinson ($18.1 million) — while sending the Heat significantly less money back.

That will be difficult to achieve, because the teams with the most cap space — Houston ($61 million), San Antonio ($39 million), Sacramento ($36 million) — have little incentive to help Miami when they can bid for better players in free agency.

And the Heat has been reluctant to attach first-round picks as carrots to offload big contracts.

▪ If the Heat doesn’t trade for Lillard, would Chicago’s Zach LaVine be an option?

That’s questionable, because LaVine is due between $11 million and $16 million more than Tyler Herro each of the next four seasons, and replacing LaVine with Herro could cost the Heat well over $100 million between salary and taxes over the next four seasons, compared with keeping Herro.

What’s more, the Bulls apparently would want far more than, say, Herro.

Bulls writer K.C. Johnson said “one league source said the Bulls would be focused on getting a good young player, multiple first-round picks and salary filler if they decide to trade LaVine. Another said one first-round pick and an established, high-end player might be sufficiently intriguing.”

That’s a steep price to pay for a player with defensive deficiencies and injury issues.

▪ What can the Heat do with Victor Oladipo?

Oladipo, who is expected to miss much of next season after another major knee injury sustained during the playoffs, assuredly will exercise his $9.5 million player option on his contract by Thursday’s deadline.

At that point, the Heat will have three options: 1). keep him into next season; 2). use his contract as salary cap ballast in a trade this summer; 3). waive and stretch him, which would result in $3.1 million hits on the Heat’s salary cap each of the next three seasons instead of $9.5 million next season and nothing after that.

Teams have until Sept. 1 to decide whether to waive and stretch a player.

▪ So what free agents could the Heat add at the minimum, which tops out at about $3 million for 10-year veterans, but with a tax hit closer to the $2 million range?

That must play out, but bigs who could potentially end up signing for the minimum include Georges Niang, Montrezl Harrell, Thomas Bryant, Andre Drummond, DeAndre Jordan, Willie Cauley-Stein, Bismack Biyombo, Robin Lopez, Boban Marjanovic, Alex Len, Frank Kaminsky, Tristan Thompson and Meyers Leonard.

Stretch power forwards who could end settling for the minimum include Jae Crowder, Jeff Green, Blake Griffin, Markieff Morris and Dario Saric.

And guards potentially in that price range include Russell Westbrook, Terrence Ross, Denis Schroder, Patty Mills, Aaron Holiday, Patrick Beverley, Reggie Jackson, Josh Richardson, Austin Rivers, George Hill, Danny Green, Ish Smith, Cory Joseph, Rodney McGruder, Goran Dragic, Wesley Matthews, Derrick Rose and Kendrick Nunn.

Those players all will hope to lure part of a full mid-level exception ($12.2 million) or the taxpayer midlevel exception ($5 million).

▪ The Heat has two available first-round picks that can be traded. What does the Heat need to do to free up a third?

Convince, or entice, Oklahoma City to allow Miami to change its conditional 2025 pick owed the Thunder to a 2026 unconditional pick. Perhaps that could be done by offering the Thunder a future second-round pick.

In that scenario, the Heat could trade first-rounders in 2024, 2028 and 2030. Draft picks cannot be traded more than seven years out, and teams cannot trade their own future first-round picks in two consecutive years.

▪ Can the Heat sign a buyout player next summer?

Teams at or above the second apron (projected to be $182.5 million in 2023-24) cannot sign players whose salary entering that season had been as high as, or higher than, the mid-level exception (which is $12.2 million this upcoming season).

So if the Heat ends up at $182.5 million or above that, signing a pricey player who was bought out — such as Love this past season — would be impossible, even with a minimum contract.

▪ What can the Heat do this week that it cannot do after July 1?

This week, teams over either apron can take back 125 percent of the salary they trade out. That changes to 110 percent after July 1.

Because Herro cannot be trade until July 6, completing a blockbuster deal would be difficult to achieve this week.

LILLARD UPDATE

Portland’s Lillard and agent Aaron Goodwin were expected to meet with Trail Blazers management on Monday to discuss his future, according to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. Some expect he will ask for a trade.

Lillard has said publicly that the Heat and Nets would appeal to him if he asks for a trade. The Athletic reiterated on Monday that “Lillard indeed has serious interest in joining the Heat, who would surely love to pair him with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo … Lillard’s wishes would matter a great deal because of the enormity of his contract.”