2025 Offseason Thread Vol.4

[SA37]

22/23 - no trades in the offseason
23/24 - no trades in the offseason
24/25 - S&T Duncan for Pinocchio

Heat fans -> "they are going young and rebuilding"

They are not going young, rebuilding or tanking, what they are doing is giving their current roster a shot:

- Bam, Herro as leads
- Davion, Wiggins, Highsmith, Anderson as support players with experience
- Ware, Niko, Jaquez, KJ25, Pelle as projects

This is about evaluating their projects while staying competitive.
No bad contracts, no desperation moves, they're just staying flexible and waiting for the next real difference maker to hit the market
Wiggins can still be good in a limited role, although he didn't prove to be a good fit so far, there is no pressure to trade him
Rozier expires so nobody really cares, worst case you just let him

Miami could swap Rozier for Collins and it'd still be an expiring, and a much more useful one. He'll still only be 28 in September.

Miami's other target (according to some reports) is/was DeRozan, who is on one of the best contracts in the league (25-26 guaranteed and $10M guaranteed for 26-27).

The only guy Miami has been linked to that would almost 100% require a > 2 year commitment is Kuminga.

[greg4012]

22/23 - no trades in the offseason
23/24 - no trades in the offseason
24/25 - S&T Duncan for Pinocchio

Heat fans -> "they are going young and rebuilding"

They are not going young, rebuilding or tanking, what they are doing is giving their current roster a shot:

- Bam, Herro as leads
- Davion, Wiggins, Highsmith, Anderson as support players with experience
- Ware, Niko, Jaquez, KJ25, Pelle as projects

This is about evaluating their projects while staying competitive.
No bad contracts, no desperation moves, they're just staying flexible and waiting for the next real difference maker to hit the market
Wiggins can still be good in a limited role, although he didn't prove to be a good fit so far, there is no pressure to trade him
Rozier expires so nobody really cares, worst case you just let him

Miami could swap Rozier for Collins and it'd still be an expiring, and a much more useful one. He'll still only be 28 in September.

Miami's other target (according to some reports) is/was DeRozan, who is on one of the best contracts in the league (25-26 guaranteed and $10M guaranteed for 26-27).

The only guy Miami has been linked to that would almost 100% require a > 2 year commitment is Kuminga.

To be clear, $10M guaranteed for Derozan infers that Miami would waive Derozan by January and keep $10M in dead cap on the books. If that is not the action taken, then Derozan will remain on the books for his entire $26M salary for the season

[DayofMourning]

Theres lots of twitter talk about Knecht for Kessler.

Now that theyve signed Ayton, they can match our Wiggs request with Knecht added in.

[SA37]

Read on Twitter

a 1st + Knecht is worth accepting Vincent, Kleber, and Milton.

[SA37]

Spoiler:

22/23 - no trades in the offseason
23/24 - no trades in the offseason
24/25 - S&T Duncan for Pinocchio

Heat fans -> "they are going young and rebuilding"

They are not going young, rebuilding or tanking, what they are doing is giving their current roster a shot:

- Bam, Herro as leads
- Davion, Wiggins, Highsmith, Anderson as support players with experience
- Ware, Niko, Jaquez, KJ25, Pelle as projects

This is about evaluating their projects while staying competitive.
No bad contracts, no desperation moves, they're just staying flexible and waiting for the next real difference maker to hit the market
Wiggins can still be good in a limited role, although he didn't prove to be a good fit so far, there is no pressure to trade him
Rozier expires so nobody really cares, worst case you just let him

Miami could swap Rozier for Collins and it'd still be an expiring, and a much more useful one. He'll still only be 28 in September.

Miami's other target (according to some reports) is/was DeRozan, who is on one of the best contracts in the league (25-26 guaranteed and $10M guaranteed for 26-27).

The only guy Miami has been linked to that would almost 100% require a > 2 year commitment is Kuminga.

To be clear, $10M guaranteed for Derozan infers that Miami would waive Derozan by January and keep $10M in dead cap on the books. If that is not the action taken, then Derozan will remain on the books for his entire $26M salary for the season

Here is what is says on Spotrac:

"2026-27: $10,000,000 guaranteed, $12,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 OR 2026, $14,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 AND 2026, fully guaranteed if team makes 2025 or 2026 NBA Finals and player plays in at least 60 regular season games, or fully guaranteed 1/10/27"

So my understanding is Miami (or any team) would have the option to cut DeRozan by January of 2027. The most important thing to me is it gives Miami a lot of options: keep a good player, cut him, trade his expiring to a team that may need the savings to get under the 2nd apron/luxury tax...etc.

[Kobewade11]

a 1st + Knecht is worth accepting Vincent, Kleber, and Milton.

We’ve got 15 guys, LA needs to find a third team

[CrossOver]

Read on Twitter

[twix2500]

I dont buy the aggregated report that we have any sort of hardline request for Knecht, Rui and a 1st. I also dont know why the Lakers would be so punch drunk after Wiggins, to me not a great fit with the old guy and not sure he has the makeup for the LA circus.

The biggest problem is there needs to be a third team and more players involved and likely the Heat are putting the onus on the Lakers to find the third team. This the part where the Heat says they will listen to trade offers for Wiggins but not determined to trade him. So the team who wants Wiggins gotta do the leg work

[SA37]

Read on Twitter

If this is accurate, I wonder if a pick swap isn't the compromise.

[greg4012]

Spoiler:

Miami could swap Rozier for Collins and it'd still be an expiring, and a much more useful one. He'll still only be 28 in September.

Miami's other target (according to some reports) is/was DeRozan, who is on one of the best contracts in the league (25-26 guaranteed and $10M guaranteed for 26-27).

The only guy Miami has been linked to that would almost 100% require a > 2 year commitment is Kuminga.

To be clear, $10M guaranteed for Derozan infers that Miami would waive Derozan by January and keep $10M in dead cap on the books. If that is not the action taken, then Derozan will remain on the books for his entire $26M salary for the season

Here is what is says on Spotrac:

"2026-27: $10,000,000 guaranteed, $12,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 OR 2026, $14,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 AND 2026, fully guaranteed if team makes 2025 or 2026 NBA Finals and player plays in at least 60 regular season games, or fully guaranteed 1/10/27"

So my understanding is Miami (or any team) would have the option to cut DeRozan by January of 2027. The most important thing to me is it gives Miami a lot of options: keep a good player, cut him, trade his expiring to a team that may need the savings to get under the 2nd apron/luxury tax...etc.

Generally correct. It has a narrow path to value in the 2nd year if a team has messy books and wants to turn $25M in cap allocation for a player into $10M in cap allocation without the benefit of a contributing player.

Definitely a hindrance for options for next offseason. Juice not worth the squeeze for me (unless its part of a larger all-in on now move like the KD move). But, we've already done our back and forth on this.

[greg4012]

Read on Twitter

Nick Arison needs more of the attention here

[carnageta]

It's funny how much perceived value Dalton Knecht has just because he's a Laker. The dude averages the same stats as Jaime, plays worse defence, and has one year less experience despite being the same age, and yet Jaime has no value around the league and Dalton is a 'sought' after asset

[unowen85]

Lakers can have Wiggins for peanuts, just need Silver to guarantee us a top three pick if we’re in the lottery next year.

[MiamiLoyal926]

Would be great if we could get Knecht soon and thrown him into summer league to log minutes with the rest of our guys.

[EMC5466]

The Heat aren’t done making moves yet, imo.

[lastb1ckman]

Read on Twitter

a 1st + Knecht is worth accepting Vincent, Kleber, and Milton.

Finally media downplaying a trade package to us, rather than the other way around for once lol

[BBallFreak]

It's funny how much perceived value Dalton Knecht has just because he's a Laker. The dude averages the same stats as Jaime, plays worse defence, and has one year less experience despite being the same age, and yet Jaime has no value around the league and Dalton is a 'sought' after asset

Yeah, his three point percentages aren't even that impressive. I agree though, Jaime has shown more by a significant margin. I'm not sure if it's just that he's a Laker or it's that he's the only asset they have so how name gets brought up more.

[SA37]

Spoiler:

To be clear, $10M guaranteed for Derozan infers that Miami would waive Derozan by January and keep $10M in dead cap on the books. If that is not the action taken, then Derozan will remain on the books for his entire $26M salary for the season

Here is what is says on Spotrac:

"2026-27: $10,000,000 guaranteed, $12,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 OR 2026, $14,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 AND 2026, fully guaranteed if team makes 2025 or 2026 NBA Finals and player plays in at least 60 regular season games, or fully guaranteed 1/10/27"

So my understanding is Miami (or any team) would have the option to cut DeRozan by January of 2027. The most important thing to me is it gives Miami a lot of options: keep a good player, cut him, trade his expiring to a team that may need the savings to get under the 2nd apron/luxury tax...etc.

Generally correct. It has a narrow path to value in the 2nd year if a team has messy books and wants to turn $25M in cap allocation for a player into $10M in cap allocation without the benefit of a contributing player.

Definitely a hindrance for options for next offseason. Juice not worth the squeeze for me (unless its part of a larger all-in on now move like the KD move). But, we've already done our back and forth on this.

The thing is, who is Miami targeting in 2026? Seems like the best available will be LeBron. Fox and Luka are 99.9999% sure to sign extensions this summer. No one else is worth anywhere close to a max deal.

The salary cap is $154M this year, a 10% increase next year would put it at $170. According to hoopshype, Miami has $140M in committed salary, so ~$30M in space. The only path to max-player cap space would be if Miami trades Wiggins for an expiring or if Wiggins opted out and Miami renounced his rights. On top of that, Miami will have to make decisions on Herro and Jovic's extensions and whether to re-sign Highsmith.

If Miami swapped Rozier and Anderson for DeRozan, Miami would basically be in the same spot cap-wise, owing $1-$3M more (depending on if DeRozan made his bonus) in a guarantee to DeRozan v Anderson, but Miami would still dependent on a Wiggins exit for max cap space in 2026.

Honestly, after looking at this, it seems like Miami is shooting more for max cap space in 2027, but that could be brought forward if Miami can get assets + expirings from the Lakers for Wiggins.

[batterybro42]

Dalton can give you a lot of what we lost with Duncan in time. He’s a plus shooter.

I would not mind seeing Jamie get run as the standalone 3

The issue will become spacing, because it’s tough when you got 3 guys on the floor in Jamie, Bam, and Ware who other teams will allow to shoot all they want from 3. Jamie has got to at least be able to punish teams that leave him wide open. 32% from 3 isn’t going to cut it, and if he can’t fix that then you can’t run him with Bam and Ware on the floor.

[greg4012]

Here is what is says on Spotrac:

"2026-27: $10,000,000 guaranteed, $12,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 OR 2026, $14,000,000 guaranteed if makes All-Star in 2025 AND 2026, fully guaranteed if team makes 2025 or 2026 NBA Finals and player plays in at least 60 regular season games, or fully guaranteed 1/10/27"

So my understanding is Miami (or any team) would have the option to cut DeRozan by January of 2027. The most important thing to me is it gives Miami a lot of options: keep a good player, cut him, trade his expiring to a team that may need the savings to get under the 2nd apron/luxury tax...etc.

Generally correct. It has a narrow path to value in the 2nd year if a team has messy books and wants to turn $25M in cap allocation for a player into $10M in cap allocation without the benefit of a contributing player.

Definitely a hindrance for options for next offseason. Juice not worth the squeeze for me (unless its part of a larger all-in on now move like the KD move). But, we've already done our back and forth on this.

The thing is, who is Miami targeting in 2026? Seems like the best available will be LeBron. Fox and Luka are 99.9999% sure to sign extensions this summer. No one else is worth anywhere close to a max deal.

The salary cap is $154M this year, a 10% increase next year would put it at $170. According to hoopshype, Miami has $140M in committed salary, so ~$30M in space. The only path to max-player cap space would be if Miami trades Wiggins for an expiring or if Wiggins opted out and Miami renounced his rights.

On top of that, Miami will have to make decisions on Herro and Jovic's extensions and whether to re-sign Highsmith.

you're getting there. Miami seems to be moving TOWARDS maximizing flexibility. Tying themselves to 36 and 37 year old Derozan for the sake of less flexibility is the exact opposite direction. BONUS: a worse draft pick and a 1st round exit. Woo hoo!