The Miami Heat are putting themselves in a tough situation. They don’t have a willingness to go too deep into the luxury tax next year but unfortunately, they might have too.
With Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic electing to re-sign with the team, Miami will be going into the luxury tax to keep these guys. Keeping their top guys on the team but also unwilling to have a high luxury tax number to do so might mean the Heat will look to dump some contracts to avoid a big tax number.
Following from Zach Lowe of Grantland.
In the meantime, bringing Wade back on a one-year, $20 million deal puts the Heat about $13 million over the projected tax line, and Miami wants no part of the harsh repeater penalties that would come with paying the tax for a fourth time in five seasons. Mario Chalmers and Chris Andersen are available for nothing, per several league sources, and the Heat have even put out Shabazz Napier feelers with an eye on carving out extra cap room next summer.
Both Mario Chalmers and Chris Andersen are well beyond their primes so moving them might be difficult along with their contracts at a combined $9.3 million next season. Adding a player like Shabazz Napier could sweeten the deal but still, that might not be enough for a team looking to possibly help the Heat out.
While Chalmers and Andersen can be replaced, the issue for Miami would be their bench depth. Dropping two veterans for nothing could hurt the Heat when some of their starters might need a break. Their starting five of Dragic, Wade, Luol Deng, Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside could be enough to win a bunch of games but how good is their bench? If they move Napier, Chalmers and ‘Birdman’, rookie Justise Winslow is probably their most skilled talent off the bench followed by Josh McRoberts and then Tyler Johnson.
The talent will drop tremendously but will the Heat really sacrifice depth for monetary purposes or will they follow in the footsteps of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State and dip into the luxury tax to keep their guys for at least one more season?
