Heat loses Strus, adds Bryant on Day 2 of free agency. Where roster stands amid Lillard pursuit

Less than three weeks ago, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus started an NBA Finals game for the Miami Heat. They’re now off to new teams, as the Heat’s roster could undergo a major makeover this summer.

After Vincent agreed to join the Los Angeles Lakers on the opening night of free agency Friday, a three-team sign-and-trade transaction was finalized Saturday that landed Strus with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a league source confirmed to the Miami Herald.

As undrafted success stories who got their first real NBA opportunity with the Heat, Vincent and Strus both played on minimum salaries of $1.8 million this past season. And they both earned big pay raises in free agency this year, as Vincent will sign a three-year contract worth $33 million with the Lakers and Strus will sign a four-year contract worth $63 million with the Cavaliers.

Day 2 free agency tracker: Lillard requests trade. Heat adds Bryant, promotes Robinson, loses Strus

While the Heat lost Strus and Vincent, it agreed to deals to bring back Josh Richardson for a second stint with the organization and retain forward Kevin Love on the first night of free agency.

And on the second day of free agency Saturday, the Heat added center Thomas Bryant, who will compete to be Miami’s backup center. Bryant averaged 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while shooting 65.4 percent from the field and 22 of 50 (44 percent) from three-point range in 41 games (25 starts) with the Los Angeles Lakers last season before he was traded to the Denver Nuggets in February.

Bryant (6-10 and 248 pounds), who is entering his seventh NBA season, turns 26 on July 31. He has averaged 10.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game while shooting 59.8 percent from the field and 118 of 322 (36.6 percent) on threes during his NBA career.

The Heat is also moving developmental center Orlando Robinson to a standard NBA contract at a minimum salary to make him part of its 15-man roster for next season. The 22-year-old Robinson, who went undrafted last year out of Fresno State, closed this past season on a two-way deal with the Heat.

All the while, the Heat is working to acquire seven-time All-Star guard Damian Lillard, who requested a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. Lillard has made it clear to the Trail Blazers that the Heat is his preferred trade destination, according to multiple league sources.

As for Strus, the Heat didn’t lose him for nothing. Miami got back a trade exception that’s worth about $7.3 million and a future second-round pick from the Cavaliers in the sign-and-trade deal, according to a league source.

Strus, 27, went undrafted out of DePaul in 2019 before earning a two-way contract from the Heat in the 2020 offseason and then being promoted to the Heat’s 15-man roster in the 2021 offseason. Along the way, Strus established himself as a quality NBA three-point shooter who also developed other areas of his game.

Strus spent the last three seasons with the Heat. He averaged 10.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three-point range in 187 regular-season games (49 starts) during his time with Miami.

This past regular season, Strus averaged career-highs in points (11.5 per game), rebounds (3.2 per game) and assists (2.1 per game) while shooting 41 percent from the field and 35 percent on seven three-point attempts per game in 80 appearances (33 starts).

Strus then started in each of the Heat’s 23 games during its playoff run to the NBA Finals.

Strus played in just two NBA regular-season games before joining the Heat.

Bryant will sign a two-year deal at the minimum worth about $5.4 million to join the Heat. The contract includes a starting salary of $2.5 million and a player option in the second season.

Richardson will sign a two-year-deal at the minimum worth about $5.9 million to return to the Heat. The contract includes a starting salary of $2.9 million and a player option in the second season.

Love will sign a two-year deal with a starting salary of about $3.7 million to stay with the Heat. The contract includes a player option in the second year, as the Heat used non-Bird rights to give Love a bit more than the minimum salary.

WHERE HEAT ROSTER STANDS

The Heat’s current salary-cap breakdown for next season now 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), Love ($3.7 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.5 million), Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million), Richardson ($2 million cap hit despite higher actual salary), Bryant ($2 million cap hit despite higher actual salary), Orlando Robinson ($1.8 million), and Haywood Highsmith ($1.9 million nonguaranteed salary).

The Heat also agreed to sign guards Dru Smith and Jamaree Bouyea to two-way contracts on Saturday, but those deals do not count against the salary cap.

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 with roster spots still to fill for next season.

The Heat entered free agency with full Bird rights for both Strus and Vincent, which allowed Miami to exceed the salary cap to re-sign them up to their maximum salary despite being over the cap. But bringing them back would have come at a price since the Heat is already deep into the tax.

With the Heat’s current payroll, signing Strus or Vincent to a contract with a starting salary of about $12 million would have cost the Heat more than $40 million because it would have added more than $30 million to the team’s tax bill.

The problem is the Heat doesn’t have cap space and does not currently have the full $5 million taxpayer mid-level exception to replace Strus and Vincent. The new CBA penalizes teams above the second apron, which Miami is on track to approach and possible exceed when it fills out its roster, by not allowing them to use a mid-level exception.

The Heat also isn’t in position to acquire an outside free agent through a sign-and-trade because such a move hard caps a team at $172 million — a line Miami is already beyond.

Because of the Heat’s salary-cap situation and the new collective bargaining agreement’s punitive rules, Miami only has minimum contracts to offer outside free agents.

But the Heat has been able to shed some salary since free agency began, trading injured guard Victor Oladipo’s expiring $9.5 million salary into the Oklahoma City Thunder’s cap space. The Heat took nothing back in the deal but did send two second-round picks to the Thunder as part of a move that allowed Miami to open a roster spot, shed $9.5 million in salary and create a trade exception worth about $9.5 million.

The lottery protections remain on the 2025 first-round pick that the Heat owes to the Thunder, which means Miami is still currently only eligible to trade unprotected first-round selections in 2028 and 2030.

The Heat has already added two trade exceptions in the first few days of free agency — the $9.5 million trade exception acquired in the deal that sent Oladipo to the Thunder and the $7.3 million trade exception acquired in the sign-and-trade deal that sent Strus to the Cavaliers.

The Heat also has a third trade exception worth about $4.7 million that it acquired in the deal that sent center Dewayne Dedmon to the Spurs in February.

Trade exceptions, which are valid for one full year, allow teams to trade for a player whose salary fits or players whose salaries combine to fit into the exception without having to send back salary to match. Chunks of the exception can also be used to acquire different players split up between multiple trades.

Trade exceptions can’t be combined with a player or other exceptions to acquire a more expensive salary, with the Heat only able to absorb a player whose salary is equal to or lower than the single trade exception. The Heat could include a player in the deal, but the player doesn’t need to earn a specific salary to satisfy salary-cap rules to complete the trade because of the exception.

NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players under contract in the offseason and preseason, a total that does not include those on summer league contracts. Rosters must be cut to a maximum total of 18 players (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way contracts) by the start of the regular season.

While negotiations were allowed to begin Friday evening, free agents can’t formally sign their new contracts until Thursday at noon.