How new NBA rules will affect what Heat can do with trades, signings in coming months

The NBA’s new labor deal will complicate what high-payroll teams like the Heat can do in the months ahead. But with its current payroll, the Heat won’t face the most onerous of restrictions that could await teams like the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns next summer.

Asking and answering questions about what the Heat can and cannot do, from a transaction standpoint, in the months ahead:

▪ Can the Heat sign veterans who are bought out during the season?

Only those who weren’t earning big money by NBA standards, and that could severely limit the Heat’s buyout market options.

Under terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, beginning this season, teams that are $7 million above the $165.2 million luxury tax threshold cannot sign players who are waived during the regular season and have a pre-waiver salary exceeding this season’s full midlevel exception ($12.4 million).

The Heat’s payroll stands at just about $181 million, which is above that $172.3 million “first apron” but less than the even more onerous $182.7 million “second apron.”

With the current Heat payroll, the Heat — under these new rules — would not have been permitted to sign Kevin Love in the buyout market in February. Love earned $28.9 million last season before agreeing to a buyout with the Cavaliers and signing with Miami during the All Star break.

Under this rule, the Heat also would not have been able to sign Russell Westbrook even if it wanted to last February; Westbrook signed with the Los Angeles Clippers after his buyout from the Utah Jazz.

▪ Is there any other way that being above the first apron will restrict the Heat this season?

Trades will be a bit more difficult. As a team well above the first apron, the Heat can match salaries up to 110 percent of the players involved in a trade, rather than the traditional 125 percent.

Beginning next offseason, teams above the first apron but below the second apron will still be able to aggregate salaries in a trade but will not be able to take back more money in a trade than they send out.

▪ Will the Heat be a second apron team when it signs a 14th player to a standard contract in the coming days? And what are the consequences?

New NBA rules require teams to carry a 14th player for most of the season. And whether the Heat signs a young player such as Jamal Cain or a veteran player such as Goran Dragic, that player will push Miami above the second apron because the tax hit will be about $2.1 million regardless of the experience level of the player.

The most onerous rules involving the second apron don’t begin until after this season. So being a second apron team won’t restrict Miami’s ability to make moves during the season and before the Feb. 8 trade deadline, any more than the restrictions created by being over the first apron.

But one thing that does begin this season: Teams above the second apron no longer have access to the taxpayer midlevel exception.

That means the Heat was/is not able to use this season’s $12.4 million taxpayer midlevel exception on an outside free agent because doing so would take it over the second apron. The Heat currently only has minimum contracts to offer outside free agents.

▪ The Heat likely won’t be a second apron team entering the NBA’s 2024-25 calendar. But would being above the second apron this season affect Miami’s offseason business?

It will on transactions made between the end of this season and before July 1, but the Heat can circumvent that by delaying the completion of trades until that date or beyond.

Among the onerous consequences of surpassing the second apron: Teams above the second apron cannot aggregate player salaries in a trade for one player making more money, cannot deal one of its own players in a sign-and-trade and cannot sweeten trades with cash, among other impediments.

Those restrictions will affect the Heat only until July 1 when next season’s salary cap numbers take effect, and this could come into play on draft night trades. For example, on draft night on June 27, the Heat won’t be able to package Duncan Robinson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. for a player earning a salary making their combined $23 million salary in 2024-25. But they could make such a trade after July 1 if their roster for next season is still below the second apron at that point.

If a draft pick is involved in such a transaction, the Heat could draft a player on behalf of another team next June with the intent of including that player in a trade to be announced in July. That is still permitted in the new labor deal. Miami has a first-round pick in next June’s draft but is not permitted to trade the pick, in advance, unless Oklahoma City agrees to amend protections on the pick that the Heat must send the Thunder in either 2025 or 2026.

It’s important to note that if the Heat aggregates salary in a trade next season, it will be immediately hard-capped at the second apron.