Deadlines now loom for Heat amid uncertain NBA offseason calendar

The unusual and atypical for the Miami Heat did not end with the end of basketball in a bubble.

Typically, the days after the close of the NBA Finals are a whirlwind for the teams involved, with the draft often following within a week and personnel decisions frequently required within hours.

But in a season delayed four months by a pandemic, requiring the completion in a quarantine setting at Disney World, it is back to a waiting game for the league, with a timetable unclear about what, beyond the draft, comes next.

The only date established to this point on the league’s offseason schedule is the NBA draft on Nov. 18. But even that element of the equation comes with the league noting, “The date remains subject to change as circumstances warrant.”

Otherwise, no set dates for the opening of free agency, the formal setting of the 2020-21 salary cap, the start of the offseason signing period, or some type of summer/fall/winter league.

For that matter, the Heat, after coming up two victories shy of a championship in falling to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in the NBA Finals, don’t know if they will have weeks or months off before training camp, with the 2020-21 schedule still an abstract at this stage, forecasts for the start of the regular season ranging from early January to some point in March.

Against that backdrop, Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg, Adam Simon and Nick Arison return from Disney World without championship hardware, but ample work ahead both immediately and deep into coming weeks or months.

So what’s next? Here’s what:

— NBA Draft: The Heat hold the No. 20 pick in the first round.

By rule, because teams cannot trade successive future first-round picks, the Heat must exercise a selection, with their 2021 first-round choice having been dealt to the Phoenix Suns in the 2015 trade for Goran Dragic.

The Heat, however, can make a pre-arranged deal to select a player and then immediately flip him elsewhere.

The Heat do not hold a second-round pick, having dealt their 2020 choice in 2015 to the Boston Celtics in the salary-cap dump of the contract of Zoran Dragic, Goran’s brother.

The Heat already have begun their draft preparations.

— Options, qualifying offers: Center Kelly Olynyk must decide by the day before the start of free agency (a date yet to be established) whether to pick up his $12.2 million player option for 2020-21. Based on the league’s uncertain economics amid the pandemic, he is expected to do so.

The Heat also must decide before the start of free agency whether to extend qualifying offers to two-way-contract players Gabe Vincent and Kyle Alexander, in order to retain the right to match outside offers.

— Free agency: Jae Crowder, Goran Dragic, Udonis Haslem, Solomon Hill, Derrick Jones Jr. and Meyers Leonard all are impending unrestricted free agents.

The Heat hold Bird Rights with all six, able to exceed the salary cap to retain each.

— Cap space: The Heat could have up to $21 million in salary-cap space, depending on the approach with the aforementioned free agents, if projected salary-cap projections hold.

The Heat also retain what is expected to be a $9.3 million mid-level salary-cap exception, should they opt to operate above the 2020-21 salary cap, as well as a $3.6 million biannual exception. There also is a $7.5 million trade exception available from the February deal of James Johnson to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Utilizing those exceptions, however, could come with luxury-tax implications.

— Guarantee dates: Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn hold non-guaranteed contracts for 2020-21.

Robinson is due $1 million of his $1.7 million 2020-21 contract if he is on the roster two weeks after the start of free agency, with the balance to be guaranteed if he is on the roster the first day of the 2020-21 season.

Nunn is due $300,000 of his $1.7 million 2020-21 contract is he is on the roster the first day of the 2020-21 season, with the balance due at the 2021 league-wide guarantee date that has yet to be established.

— Extension deadlines: The Heat can extend the rookie-scale contract of center Bam Adebayo until the start of the regular season.

Olynyk, Robinson and Nunn also are eligible for extensions, which, in their case, can be negotiated into the 2020-21 season.

The Heat are not expected to make such offers, in order to maximize potential future salary-cap space.

The Heat also will have a deadline at the start of next season to pick up Tyler Herro’s $4 million 2021-22 rookie-scale option.

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