Brian Roberts was acquired by the Miami Heat in a deal that saw the team get rid of some salary in an attempt to get under the luxury tax and avoid paying millions of dollars. They dealt out Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen in the Courtney Lee deal, traded Jarnell Stokes earlier today and now it appears that Brian Roberts, who hasn’t even played a game with the team, will be getting sent to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Following from Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo! Sports.
MIami has traded guard Brian Roberts and a second-round pick to Portland, league source tells @TheVertical
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 18, 2016
With the Roberts deal, Miami drops under the luxury tax, saving $6M.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 18, 2016
This is a move by the Heat to save some money and avoid getting hit with the luxury repeater tax. Miami has been doing all it could to avoid getting hit with millions of dollars in tax and with this move, the Heat are right where they want to be, salary-wise. On the flipside, the Blazers hit the salary cap floor and avoid having to spend millions elsewhere on other players to hit that bare minimum of spending.
