Heat live blog: Lillard update, Zeller leaves, summer league notes. And Richardson, Bryant

Welcome to Day 3 of the Miami Herald’s Miami Heat free agency live blog.

The Heat, this weekend, is continuing efforts to trade for Portland guard Damian Lillard, who has informed the Blazers that he wants to be traded specifically to Miami.

The Blazers, reportedly, are not limiting their options only to Miami. They’re also exploring finding a third team that could help facilitate a Lillard trade to the Heat, with Brooklyn in play.

The purpose of exploring third team options is to determine if a deal involving Heat is viable in Portland’s eyes. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks said, there doesn’t seem a path to two team Blazers-Heat deal that appeases Portland.

So there remains some drama and twists and turns to play out in this saga.

Keep checking back for updates:

6 p.m. update: The Heat formally announced the Josh Richardson and Thomas Bryant signings; nobody was quoted in the press release. Richardson will make the minimum $2.9 million next season and has a player option at $3 million for 2024-25.

Bryant will make the minimum $2.5 million next season and also has a player option, at $2.9 million, for 2024-25. (For more on both players, see below.)

Minimum salaries vary depending on a player’s number of years of experience.

4 p.m. update: Center Cody Zeller, who backed up Bam Adebayo after signing with Miami during last year’s All Star break, agreed to a one-year, $3.1 million contract with New Orleans, his agent told ESPN.

Thomas Bryant is the Heat’s new backup center. (See below for more on Bryant.)

Of the Heat’s five veteran free agents aside from the retiring Udonis Haslem, Kevin Love was the only one to re-sign. Gabe Vincent (Lakers), Max Strus (Cavs), Zeller (New Orleans) and Omer Yurtseven (who’s unsigned) are all moving on.

Vincent declined a four-year, $34 million offer from the Heat to take a three-year, $33 million deal with the Lakers.

The Heat never countered the four-year, $64 million deal that Strus got from Cleveland.

3 p.m. update: Heat assistant coach Caron Butler, who is coaching the Heat’s summer league team, said first round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. “has done a remarkable job” during practices in Sacramento the past few days.

Butler also mentioned undrafted Southern California forward Drew Peterson and Northwestern guard Chase Audige.

The Heat added several skilled three-point shooters; Butler mentioned Peterson and Utah State forward Taylor Funk as players who have been “finding themselves open” and hitting shots.

“Our player development has been off the charts the past couple days,” Butler said. ...

Butler said Nikola Jovic “has added on a ton of muscle, look like he grew a little bit as well. Communication has been a point of emphasis with his growth. Nikola is probably not going to always be scoring, but his ability to make plays, especially with his high basketball IQ, is something you just can’t teach.”...

Guard Dru Smith, who signed a two-way contract with the Heat on Saturday, joined the Heat’s summer league team in California. Miami opens play against the Lakers at 6 p.m. Monday, on ESPN2, at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center.

Noon update: The Portland Trail Blazers have not conveyed to Damian Lillard if they plan to honor his request to be traded specifically to the Heat, according to a source.

Publicly, the Blazers have made no such promises.

In fact, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday that Portland is not trying to accommodate Lillard’s Heat request and thus “Miami does not have any advantage” over the rest of the league.

The Blazers are “open for business everywhere in the league,” Woj said.

But Lillard holds one big leverage card: Other potential suitors know that he wants to play in Miami. So would anyone make a serious offer knowing their team is not his preference, especially considering the money that Lillard is due (four years, $216 million)? That’s highly questionable.

While Philadelphia could make an offer built around Tyrese Maxey, the 76ers are reportedly not inclined to do that.

San Antonio and Utah have been floated as teams with interest, but both are in the midst of rebuilding projects and Lillard wants to be traded to a contender.

The Clippers have been mentioned as a suitor but have limited draft inventory. And again, Lillard prefers Miami.

Though Lillard told Brian Custer previously that the Heat and Nets would appeal to him, the Heat has emerged as Lillard’s clear preference of the two.

The Nets and Blazers reportedly have spoken about Brooklyn helping facilitate a trade with Miami, Ian Begley reported.

Tyler Herro’s names have come up in those discussions, according to a source. He would be a possibility to go to Brooklyn in a three-team Heat/Blazers/Nets trade, if those talks advance.

11:50 a.m. update: Here’s where the Heat’s roster stands on Day 3 of free agency ...

The Heat’s current salary-cap breakdown for next season includes Jimmy Butler ($45.2 million), Bam Adebayo ($32.6 million), Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million), Tyler Herro ($27 million), Duncan Robinson ($18.2 million), Caleb Martin ($6.8 million), Kevin Love ($3.7 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.5 million), Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million), Josh Richardson ($2 million cap hit despite higher actual salary), Thomas Bryant ($2 million cap hit despite higher actual salary), Orlando Robinson ($1.8 million), and Haywood Highsmith ($1.9 million nonguaranteed salary).

Not including cap holds, the Heat has about $179.3 million committed to salaries for 13 players, including “unlikely to be earned incentives” that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $29.5 million.

With the 2023-24 salary cap set at $136 million, the luxury tax at $165.2 million, the first tax apron at $172.3 million and the second tax apron at $182.7 million, the Heat is well above the luxury-tax threshold and is close to crossing the newly instituted and punitive second apron.

The Heat still has two open spots on its 15-man roster. Because of Miami’s salary-cap situation, it only has minimum contracts to offer outside free agents.

The Heat also signed guards Dru Smith and Jamaree Bouyea to two-way contracts on Saturday, but those deals do not count against the salary cap. This leaves Miami with one open two-way contract slot.

Of course, a trade for Lillard would bring major changes to the Heat’s roster.

10 a.m. update: If the Heat lands Lillard, they’ll be acquiring one of the league’s most gifted offensive players.

But on a less grand scale, the Heat’s two free agent additions so far -- center Thomas Bryant and swingman Josh Richardson -- should help the Heat’s offense, if recent career production can be sustained.

Bryant, 6-10, has always been an efficient offensive player. He’s a career 59.8 percent shooter from the field. Last season, he shot 62.3 percent (230 for 369), which would have ranked 10th in the league among all players if he had enough attempts to qualify.

What’s more, Bryant made 26 of his 59 three-point attempts (44.1 percent). Al Horford (44.6 percent) was the only other NBA center who hit at least 25 threes and shot 40 percent or better on those threes.

Yes, last year’s three-point sample size for Bryant was fairly limited, but he’s a career 36.6 percent three point shooter (118 for 322).

For spacing reasons, Erik Spoelstra always has preferred to pair Bam Adebayo with a power rotation player whose outside shot would be respected by opponents.

In Bryant, he has a player who cannot be completely ignored when he’s on the perimeter, even though he’s not a heavy volume three-point shooter.

For spacing reasons, Spoelstra generally could not play Adebayo with Cody Zeller.

But if the Heat is being pounded on the glass, and if Spoelstra wants to go big, an Adebayo/Bryant pairing, used selectively, wouldn’t create a spacing nightmare.

Beyond the strong three-point numbers last season, Bryant shot 48.6 percent (18 for 37) from 10 to 15 feet and 47.8 percent (11 for 23) from 16 feet to the three-point line.

Incidentally, he shot 53.6 percent (52 for 97) from 3 to 9 feet.

As for Richardson, his three-point shooting has been good the past two seasons.

After shooting just 33 percent on threes for Dallas in 2020-21, he hit 41.5 percent for Boston and San Antonio in 2021-22.

And he hit 36.5 percent for San Antonio and New Orleans in 2022-23. That would have ranked second on the Heat last season, behind Tyler Herro’s 37.8.

What’s more, Richardson hit 44.5 percent on wide open threes last season.

Miami shot just 34.4 percent on threes during the regular season, which was fourth worst in the league.