Re: ~*~2014 NBA OffSeason Thread - Draft 6/26 ~*~
It's possible that the Heat could avoid the luxury tax...
As expected, Chris Bosh is opting out of the last two years and $42.6 million of his contract, agent Henry Thomas told The Herald earlier today.
That means the Heat has $55 million in cap space entering the start of free agency on Tuesday. As we noted last week, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade have discussed how much each of them would take but reached no definitive agreement regarding specific numbers over salads on Wednesday.
But they do want to stay together in Miami and are working toward that end. Discussions are ongoing. Udonis Haslem also plans to stay, with a multiyear contract including a first year salary expected to fall between $2 million and $3 million.
If they sacrifice a lot of money --- with James earning the most of the three next season --- they could clear the $8 million to $10 million needed to make a competitive offer for one of the high-end free agents, including Kyle Lowry, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol, Marcin Gortart and Luol Deng.
Under that scenario, the Heat also would have a $2.7 million room salary cap exception.
If they take only small cuts, the Heat instead could use its $5.3 million non taxpayers mid-level exception and a $2.2 million trade exception and a $2 million bi-annual exception OR limited cap space but would not be able to use cap space AND the three aforementioned exceptions.
Those mid-level, bi-annual and trade exceptions cannot be combined.
And if the Heat uses its mid-level exception, Miami could not use the room salary cap exception in that scenario and would have not nearly as good a chance of luring a high-level free agent.
For example, Deng's agent has said there is no chance Deng would consider coming to Miami for that $5.3 million mid-level amount, though he likes the Heat.
A player such as Darren Collison or Paul Pierce or Kirk Hinrich could come using some of the $5.3 million in that scenario, unless Gasol is willing to take the $5.3 million. But Gasol assuredly will get higher offers than that.
Under either scenario, the Heat could sign as many players as it wants to the league minimum. And if its uses the mid-level exception scenario, instead of using cap room, it could use its Bird Rights to re-sign Ray Allen and Chris Andersen to contracts above the minimum.
The Heat is positioned not to have to pay a luxury tax under either scenario.
Of Bosh's expected opt out, Pat Riley said: "Chris is one of the most versatile and dynamic big men in this league, and he has been an instrumental key to our championship success over the last four seasons. We looked forward to meeting with Chris and his agent in the coming days to discuss keeping him in Miami for many years to come."
How the Panthers gonna win it all with no offense around Cam?
