How the Miami Heat Can Improve This Offseason and Jimmy Butler Extension Realities | Miami HEAT Pod

How the Miami Heat Can Improve This Offseason and Jimmy Butler Extension Realities | Miami HEAT Pod

with a lot of questions looming for Miami’s offseason we’re joined by salary cap expert Keith Smith to explain the nuances of Jimmy Butler’s contract extension what did he can do during free agency and if their future might indeed be a bleak one all that and more on today’s episode of Locked on [Music] heat you are locked on heat your daily Miami Heat podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday [Music] you are locked on heat your everyday podcast on the Miami Heat whether you’re tuning in on YouTube OB or your favorite podcast app thanks for making locked on heat your first listen every day Monday to Friday I’m West Goldberg editor at allou can heat.com here with David rill both of us credential heat media members and joined today by spot Trak salary cap expert Keith Smith to talk about what the heat can and can not do this off season before we get to free agency and trades and and all of that we have to start with Jimmy Butler who is up for a 2-year $113 million Max extension we’ve talked a ton about whether or not the heat should or shouldn’t offer the extension but I want to get to like the more practical sense of what it means for the Heat and that’s why we brought you on Keith because you’re the best at explaining these cap numbers kind of creating these explainers you know the ins and outs of all this stuff better than anybody else so if you’re I guess sitting in Andy ellsberg’s chair and crunching the numbers of what may be offering this Max extension would mean what does giving Jimmy Butler the max extension mean for Miami’s cap sheet going forward yeah it’s important to understand no change for this year uh this year’s already locked in he’s he’s going to be on on the number he’s going to be on what’s gonna be the change would be potentially next year and Beyond and and what happens is what they would do and I’m gonna work in a world because all the reporting is B it would be a Max extension that’s the only way you get up to that 212 number uh that’s been floated around and tossed out there so so a Max extension that essentially it replaces next year’s player option with a slightly increased uh salary not not by too much about $2 million more or so in that range and then that adds on a third year at you know over $50 million so what ultimately ends up happening in this position for the heat is really what you’re doing is instead of being in a spa where after this season you could really start to I I don’t want to say clean up the books they it’s not the exact right term because I don’t want to say they’re a mess because because I don’t think that’s the right way to phrase it but let’s just say you you can create some additional flexibility if if you were to just let it play out he opt it out and let’s say he moved on that you would have all kinds of flexibility and the ability to do all sorts of stuff with the roster but if you if you extend him or if he simply picks up the player option however he handles this what we would see this turn into would be a spa where now all of a sudden Jimmy Butler is in a place where if he signs this full extension you’re looking at locked into max money for him for the next few years Beyond this upcoming season as well as bam matab bio probably on a new contract here pretty soon I he’s extension eligible this summer but I think he’ll let it play out one more year um we can get into that if you want to why why I project that um but then you still have Tyler hero on the books and then of course you’ve got a couple other free agents to deal with and other guys that are still going to be on the books contractually as well so so you end up kind of in a position where you’re locked into max money for Jimmy Butler that roughly just to keep a round figure is 50 million a year for the next several years and that starts to get a little shaky because it’s his age his injury history those kind of things that’s where it gets really rough so I I think it really comes down to do you want to squeeze every bit of blood out of the stone of this group and we’re g to get everything we can out of them or do you want to maybe start moving into whatever the next iteration of the Miami Heat is I I think a lot of fans are probably a little concerned about that huge number it’s kind of daunting for especially a player of his age as you pointed out with injury and everything else like that but does the new TV right steel kind of make that number a little bit easier to swallow in terms of what Jimmy’s potential contract might be or does does it not really make an impact at all a little bit like it’s it’s the thing that’s hard is it’s still 50 plus million approaching 60 million by the end so what would happen in that situation is you would be if you’re Miami you have him starting at a 35% of the cap maximum salary now the good thing is Cap projection starting with 25 26 onward for at least probably about a four or maybe fiveyear window should be the maximum that it’s allowed to go up of 10% okay and his raises would only be 8% so 35% cap goes up 10% he his max salary can only go up 8% so it does start to give them a little bit but we’re talking a 2% savings and then you’d see it go from like 35 to probably like 34 to 32 to 31 and that that’s how it play out so it’s still going to be a big big number but what’s important for people to note is we get so lost in these massive massive salary numbers like like I I I was just working with some folks on some stuff with what Luca’s extension could look like when he signs his super max extension and we’re starting to approach in the final year of those deals it’s going to be well like almost a hundred million um and that starts to like sound crazy but the important thing to note is the starting number is still 35% of the cap 35% is 35% is 35% so a lot of this it’s just driven by the cap is going up up up mostly driven by this7 billion a year TV deal that’s coming in and just increase interest they found other revenue streams all sorts of stuff that goes into it really complicated some of it some of it’s very easy to understand but the the main takeaway is the League’s in great shape so all the teams are in G great shape so cap goes up and the players still get their chunk of that money which is 50% basically of the basketball money that comes in so that that’s where it all goes to so it sounds like huge numbers but it’s still 35% and then ultimately a little bit less as we go on and so if I’m hearing this right then if any any Heat fan that’s like well just give him the max because the TV money is coming in and we’ll be fine in 2026 2027 what you’re basically explaining is yeah well the savings if the if we get a big NBA media rights uh salary cap jump is maybe a couple million bucks it’s not as if we’re going to create some sort of huge gap there’s not going to be some sort of 2016 random cap Spike happening for these teams am I hearing that correct yeah you’re absolutely spot on with that so what they did in this CBA negotiation which grew out of the if we’re going to find any kind of Silver Linings in a global pandemic one of the things was the NBA and the nbpa worked together really well to get through that season and then the subsequent pandemic impacted seasons and and really came out on the other side in pretty good shape I would say as a league where everybody’s still making a ton of money and that grew that trust right between the league and the Players Association where now when they came forward compared to 2016 when they were like hey you know we probably shouldn’t let the cap go up 20 some odd million dollars in one year and the Players Association was like I don’t know what kind of you know trick you’re trying pull on us but no like salary cap is what it is it’s going to go up and that’s how we ended up with Tima mozgov and L alang and or if we want to go on the positive route for some I guess at least for warriors fans KD on the Warriors like that’s how how we ended up with all that stuff so what’s happened in this round was everybody was in agreement we don’t want that again and we did some very very loose back of the napkin math um over on spot track and one of the things we came up with was if there was no 10% cap on how much the salary cap could go up year toe cap likely would have gone up about 45% for the 25 26 Season and that would have been about a $60 million increase which basically means every team becomes a cap space team and every team has a max salary or not every but almost every team would have a Max salary slot and that’s just that that would have been Bonkers it’s quite frankly I’d like to visit that alternate universe and and live in it to see how it played out but that’s not going to be what it is so 10% cap growth is the the cap or then I’ll just real quickly because people say but then what happens to that other 35% that should have happened what they do is they spill that into the next year into the next year into the next year until we get caught up so you see yeah exactly yep yeah smoothing right that’s that’s what the so rather than this it becomes this so then for the heat so then for the so basically what to kind of put a on the Jimmy Butler part of this and I do want to talk about bam since he brought him up uh but the heat if they were to add on that extra because what we’re talking about essentially is one more year at a lot more money right we got because that second year if he takes extension is only basically worth a little bit more money so what we’re talking about with Jimmy is that 2026 27 season at a 5657 million cap number that otherwise wouldn’t exist and I’m looking at your spa track salary cap table here and it looks like the heat they wouldn’t have cap space that year necessarily unless I’m reading this wrong but um they would be a lot closer to creating that kind of flexibility as opposed to if they did sign Jimmy to that extension this summer then there would be zero opportunity for flexibility and everything that we’re about to talk about on the rest of the show in terms of Miami’s in flexibility this offseason would basically carry over next summer and then the summer after that they’d kind of be dealing in the same sort of world for two more Summers as opposed to maybe just one more summer if they were to give Jimmy that extension yeah I I I think that’s pretty pretty spot on I I would say what the difference would be is the way our numbers work right now as Jimmy Butler is is on the heat is is there so we we don’t move players unless it’s actually happened so what you’re seeing is that summer of 26 the the summer of 2026 he has like a 5960 million cap hold yeah uh that summer so what happens is that that combined with Bam’s Max cap hold because nothing has happened with him yet that basically eats into with hero salary still on the books that eats into almost any flexibility you would have had now how I would think of that is I think of it more if Jimmy Butler is not extended by by that point he’s probably no longer on the heat so now I would think of wipe that 5960 million away go ahead and plug in a max deal for bam and then you’re basically at BAM hero a couple smaller salaries and that’s kind of it now that’s oversimplifying it because two years from now they’ll have made other moves they’ll signed or traded for other guys but you you are in a position where in a couple years you could have a ton of flexibility I mean technically they’re in a position where they could have a good amount of flexibility next summer that’s how they wanted to play it out if it was hey we’re gonna just let’s play out the we’re going to trade Jimmy Butler scenario they were to trade him for expiring contracts you’re in a spot where you don’t have a have a like overwhelming amount of guaranteed money on next books a little harder because you got roier you have Duncan Robinson probably picking up an option and those kind of things but so you’re probably a little bit closer to this summer but you could be a little bit more flexible next summer too all right we’re going to touch on bam anab bios extension what’s at stake over there and then we’re going to get to what Miami can do this summer to improve the team if nothing major changes we’ll do that next here we’re joined by Keith Smith from spot track today’s episode is brought to you by better help look we all carry around lots of different stressors big or small you know we keep them all bottled up and it starts to affect us negatively but therapy is a safe space to get those things off your chest and to figure out how to work through whatever is weighing you down I know it’s one of the things that I’m trying to teach my son is how to handle stress you don’t tend to think of childhood as a difficult time but it can be very hard and so we have to set a better example and it’s one of the things that we’ve learned through the benefits of therapy and if you’re thinking about giving therapy a try then give better help a try it’s entirely online super convenient to be for you just flexible suited to your schedule you just fill out a brief questionnaire and you get match with a licensed therapist and if you need to switch therapist at any time you can do so for no additional charge it’s really easy to do so get it all off your chest with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com lockdown ba today and you get 10% off your first month that’s betterhelp hp.com lockdown NBA we’ll be right back thanks again for making lock on heat your first listen every day make sure you are subscribed on YouTube and on your favorite podcast app help us as we try to get to 14,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel hit the like button while you’re hitting that subscribe button five star ratings and reviews always appreciated on your podcast app uh Keith you mentioned the bamat bio extension I agree with you it just makes a lot of sense for him to sign that next summer uh can you just explain why yeah so what’s happened for him is he is not super max eligible is what people call it which is the 35% of the cap Max because because he didn’t qualify the qualifiers to get there are you have to win MVP you have to win defensive player of the year or you have to be named all NBA he didn’t get there so not eligible now what I would say if was representing bam and I think where his thought process is probably not going to win MVP but there’s a very real world where he could win defensive player of the year there’s a very real world where he could make all NBA so what I would do is I would say hey I’m gonna play out this year put it on myself to try to make one of those two qualifiers and then I’m super max eligible and if I’m Miami I’m day one that I’m able to which would be like midnight on July 1st a year from now if he’s made it here’s your 35% of the cap Max extension let’s go because what he’s eligible to do right now is he can do four years um at the um 30% Max and add that on but to me that that doesn’t that’s not going to move the needle enough I would rather play it out one more year and see if I make it and then there is a world where he could even say you know what I already didn’t make it I’m gonna play out my final Year too and try to qualify because you can also qualify for two sign then it’s not an EXT but it’s a a designated player contract and you could do it that way so that that’s certainly possible for him to do too that’s kind of what Jaylen Brown’s situation was with Boston a year ago and he had made it so he signed the extension but there was a thought process of he might play this out and try to you know get get there another way so the important thing to know too that’s only eligible for bam to get from the heat uh no other team could offer him that so even if there started to be trade rumors or whatever else if people started saying well could do it because maybe this other team will give it to him they can’t uh that’s only he’s only allowed to get that from Miami you can only get it from the team that drafts you or a team that acquires you while you’re on your rookie scale contract so play it out I think maybe next year either Defensive Player of the Year all NBA that seems fairly reasonable type goals for him and then then hit that 35% Max I I had a followup about Jimmy’s contract I know we talked about in the previous segment but I was wondering you one of the things that we’ve kind of bandied about here on the show is whether or not they could include certain Clauses that would guarantee uh that he plays a certain number of games or that he takes him to a certain point because again the expectation with Jimmy is like you know what we’re kind of okay as a front office that you play 60 games understanding that typically you raise your game to another level and have carried us either to the Eastern Conference Finals to the finals are those realistic Clauses that they could include and How likely is that that you think Jimmy might agree to something that that like where he’d have to play a minimum of 70 games or you know I guess in theory take them to at least to the Eastern Conference Finals or something like that is that something that they could include in his contract so he could get his quote unquote Max money yeah and before I answer that I think I misspoke and said 212 million yeah when we’re talking about it’s 112 million so I’m just I’m already in the the Mega numbers there with that so it’s 112 million I want to be very clear giving away $100 million like that’s it it’s not my money I don’t care build another cruise ship you’re good um so think um you know with Jimmy Butler so there’s a there’s two different ways you could do things like that the the the more typical way is uh what they would do is they’ give him a lower base salary and then they would give him incentives on top of that incentives though can only be a a they’re capped at 15% of a given year so we’re talk let’s just keep it round numbers let’s say it’s 50 million was his base salary you could only have five million or like seven and a half million in incentives so that getss a little tricky there but you can do that some teams have put those in there like like I you guys will hear and see me write a lot about Desmond Baines extension what I call it it’s a near Max extension because what the Grizzlies did was rather than give him the full Max they gave him a base salary plus incentives that can get him to the max in his extension um and that that’s how that that comes together for him so slightly different um approach but in Jimmy Butler’s case they could do that the other way they could do it which has been a more common tactic with older players becomes you either you you make a the contract partially guaranteed so let’s again let’s just say 50 million to keep it easy you would say hey you’re getting 25 million guaranteed but we’ll give you the other uh you know we’ll give you five million more if you are playing 70 games or 60 games and the team makes it to this second round and then five million more on top of that if we make it to the third round and you can just keep building it up that way I don’t think he goes for either one of those because I think his leverage point is I’ve got other teams that’ll probably just do this so why do I need to mess around with this kind of stuff with with with you guys with giving you all this stuff and everybody likes to think guys will give all kinds of Hometown discounts and all sorts of stuff I I don’t this is not a case of hey if you do this we can go sign I don’t know we we we could go sign Paul George I’m just making it up because he’s one of the top free agents then maybe that would be a case where all right turn some of my money into incentives and free up cap space they’re not living in that world so there’s no real benefit to his side to give anything up but it is technically possible to structure it’s slightly different I want to look at what the heat can do this off season they’ve got four contracts over the $20 million Mark two you know you got Jimmy at 49 million bam at 35 Tyler’s making 29 you got roier on the books for 25 and then you got Duncan Robinson right there at 19.4 million they have one of the highest payrolls in the league I’m a little confused by where the heat are in terms of the second tax apron and what is available to them from what I understand like now I guess once the new league year starts and and everybody kind of gets their incremental raises they’re basically a second tap uh apron team do I have that right uh they’re they’re super close because so here’s here if we just do it the way I always think through these things as I look at it and I say all right what’s your guaranteed money on the books so if you took let’s say every player with an option and they’ve got four guys with player option let’s say they were all the all topped out um and leave and then let’s just say they waved Orlando Robinson with the players on the books plus their draft pick they’re at about6 $67 million in guaranteed money on the books for eight players so that’s only half a roster that that has them under that second apron number but by 22 million that sounds like a lot until you start figuring well some of those guys aren’t going to decline their options so that starts eating into it and you have to still fill out the roster you still have to sign a minimum of six more guys even six guys at a minimum contract if that’s the way it went that would be 12 12 13 14 million in that range so now we’re down to like8 million under the apron and that’s probably not going to be how it goes either because they’re probably going to want to try to resign a guy like Caleb Martin I think Kevin Love probably opts in Josh Richardson so functionally the way I think about the heat is even if you add up all the salaries and they’re below the second apron they’re they’re probably not going they’re going to have to operate like a second apron team in bing you know if they trade Butler way and bring back half the salary that changes the math entirely but as it stands right now just with the players on the roster you have to think of it as we’re goingon to operate like a second apron team because there’s two things that happen is one you are probably gonna get there by the time you fill out the roster and two even if you don’t get there if you do any of the things that hard cap you at the second apron now that becomes that’s your limit you cannot go over that at all so then that’s thing things like uh aggregate salaries together in a trade take back a certain amount of money and those kind of things that’s where it gets really kind of tricky so that’s what their their I think their approach will be we’re operating like we’re a second apron team here’s a great wait wait David sorry I got sorry we gotta tease it we have a very important followup for Keith after this today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel it’s winner take all time in the NBA and NHL go cats and fanduels giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now you customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money Lin playoff props and so much more visit fanduel.com lockon and make every playoff shout that’s fanduel.com lockon FanDuel America’s number one we’ll be right back David go ahead with your followup well I I just uh wanted to know about the the possibility of trading Jimmy to Philadelphia which has been talked about a lot and one of the ideas is well you can just they can accept Jimmy into their salary cap space and Miami would not have to take back the requisite amount of salary is that correct how would that work like a number of draft picks possibly Paul Reed what would Miami have to accept back in a trade of Jimmy Butler to say the Philadelphia 76ers if that’s the route that winds up happening yeah I mean in theory they could in this is not clear as not going to happen otherwise they he need to start thinking about the unthinkable of whoa our front office lost it but they could just say have him and give us back a top 55 protected second round pick that’ll never convey um or unlikely to convey that that’s like the ultimate giveaway of a player right or give us back the minimum amount of cash or draft rights to some dude who’s never coming over something like that that that wouldn’t be how it plays out but in theory yes they could trade his entire what what it 49 million and change salary into or I guess almost 49 million I apologize um to uh to to Philly into their cap space then Philly would it would my guess is at that point it would be do you want any of our non-g garanteed players back do do you even want do you want Paul Reed do you want uh Ricky council do you want Jeff dton they there there are ways they could work maybe a sign in trade um where like hey do you you really want like Tobias Harris like let’s let’s talk you know I don’t think so but let’s let’s have a conversation if you want to do that and we could they could say yeah we’ll sign and trade you Tobias Harris for 25 million or whatever and then there there you go you’ve kind of cut Butler’s salary in half and and off it goes so there’s ways you could do that but I I assume if it was a trade to be primarily draft pick compensation and maybe one or two of the the uh like non maybe a Paul Reed to to to your point that could be a guy basically that’s somebody that Miami likes like hey we really want Paul Reed as our backup center foram and then Philadelphia cool we don’t really care about Paul Reed we want Jimmy Butler exactly yeah that would be exactly it Philly would be like yeah fine we’re because the reality is probably gonna have to wave them anyway to fit in Jimmy Butler’s contract so if you just want to take them back sure if you you’re happy to have them go go ahead and we we’ll go and that’s or or that’s where you could get a third team in there that says hey you guys want Paul Reed and yeah we’ll take him on or something like that and that would not create that would not create Max cap space for the Heat this Summer that would basically get them well below the second apron but they would still be operating as a nonap space team so any Heat fan that says well TR trade Jimmy into cap space and then sign LeBron or something like that’s not an option no yeah so what would happen so let’s say we’re we’re in a world where Jimmy Butler comes off the books and then then let’s wipe away the the salaries the rest of like the free agent salaries um I’m just going to do some quick math here uh they could get to a world where they’re at maybe 15 to 20 million in cap space but it’s important to remember you you’re carrying three I’m going to just round it and call it 320 plus million dollar salaries plus bam at 35 million so well once you’re carrying those salaries even if even if I don’t see any of those as bad contracts individually they just all add up up and that that’s how you end up without having cap space because there’s there is a wide margin between having cap space and being an apron team or a second apron team like that’s a huge variance there between those two and that that’s where I think sometimes people think well well but if it get us out of the apron shouldn’t it have got us there but like the apron is first apron’s 178 million second apron’s 189 million salary caps 141 million so right you’re you’re talking 35 to 40 five million in in difference there so I’m going to assume let’s just say either way no matter what happens with Jimmy as long as he’s on the roster he’s making that $49 million I think we all agree Kevin Love’s Gonna opt in Josh richon is gonna opt in we all believe that Thomas Bryant at 2.8 we’ll see uh but that’s I I Caleb Martin will opt out they are going to have to pay him to resign him hey with high Smith it looks he’s in line for raay to as a frent so we don’t know if they’re coming back so let’s not include them on the books but we’re going to include love and Josh Richardson and obviously Jimmy Butler he has not been traded do the Heat have a not a do they have the taxpayer mid level exception available to them or is basically their options in free agency veteran minimum contracts yeah so here’s the challenge this is where where things have changed qu quite a bit in the old world they would have had the non-t the uh they they may have had the taxpayer ml available to them if they were just like at the first apron or just below in the new world what happens is if you’re over the first apron you can still use that taxpayer mle but what happens is you hard cap yourself at the second apron so if you’re if if you don’t have the clearance under to use it obviously you can’t use it and then even if you do and that taxpayer em is a little over $5 million about 5.2 million if you used it let’s say you had 6 million in clearance now you only have 800,000 in clearance in Miami they’ve done this dance several times where it’s dancing around a hard cap right it’s we we we did signing trades one year I think to get there one year it was they used the the non-t taxpayer ml to sign guys so it’s they they’ve gotten pretty good at dancing around the hard cap and the apron but I know I think it might even been with you guys where we talked about like hey why can’t they sign a guy to a rest of the season contract until like the the end of feu AR and they have to wait and all these things and it was because they didn’t have the clearance under the hard cap so they had to hold on those kind of things so that’s where it becomes you’re you’re basically creating a problem for yourself here’s the other thing $5 million yeah I mean it’s a lot of money but a veteran minimum guy if it’s a like eight nine 10 year veteran minimum guy their actual pay their their cap hit is a little over two million but their actual salar is going to be closer to three and a lot of times what you do is you kind of have that convers ation of hey do you really need two million more bucks because we might not be able to sign two or three of you guys then if you need that and sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes the answer is all right we want the guy bad enough so we’re going to do it but that’s where the challenge comes in that’s why I say I think they operate with the mindset of we are a second apron team just to avoid hard capping themselves at that second apron so they will basically if they do approach it that way hey we’ve got minimum salaries that’s it this summer and then um you mentioned sign and trade before and I think I got this right that they they could sign and trade a player out and it would not hard cap them but if they were to sign and trade a player and acquire that player then that would hard cap them at that second apron number that we were talking about that actually hard caps you at the first apron so it’s even more they so they can’t sign and trade and bring in unless something crazy happens with their roster but they can sign and trade out just fine yep you can sign and trade out what you can’t do is um the the probably the best example of this remember when the Celtics signed and traded Gordon Hayward to the Hornets and they created the at the time it was the largest trade exception in NBA history and then they use that to acquire fornier and Josh Richardson with the rest of it later down the line if you sign and trade let’s just say Caleb Martin I’ll use him as an example let’s say they signed and traded him out to a team for let’s just say $25 million in first year salary and that created a 25 million trade exception they can’t then use that trade exception to bring in other guys so you couldn’t do that as like step one and then say all right now we’re going to go trade for a guy who makes 20 million and put him in the trade exception once you’re up over the aprons you’re not allowed to do that anymore they’ve kind of closed that loophole in this new CBA with the creation of the second aprons the easiest way you can explain it if you’re a second apron team here’s the things you’re you’re allowed to do you can resign your own free agents do whatever you want to do with whatever rights you have available for them you can sign your own draft picks so there’s that doesn’t no issue with signing your first round pick or second round picks or anything like that you’re allowed to use the second round pick exception whatever you need to do to sign those guys you can sign players to minimum contracts so whether it be veteran minimum or rookie minimum deals or whatever uh you could do that the other thing you can do you can still make trades but trades are extremely restrictive you cannot make a trade where you um aggregate guys together so they couldn’t like take uh Duncan Robinson and Terry roier and go trade for somebody that makes they’d roughly make 45 million you can’t go trade for a $45 million player so how does that impact their ability to trade for say Donovan Mitchell then it’s it’s gonna be really hard if they wanted to do that this summer it’s gonna be really really tricky because hey now I’ll say this if there’s a team in the league that I think could figure out a way they’ll get there because when they got Jimmy Butler it was like the heck are they making this happen and then it was like okay they worked like felt like 25 other moves to do what they needed to do to get there so if they were going to trade for Donovan Mitchell it’s going to include probably somebody else is going somewhere in some kind of move and that’s going to be how they’re going to do that and it that’s where order of operations becomes extremely important so that could be one where it’s like excuse me we’re Trading for Donovan Mitchell so what we’re going to do is we’re going to move Jimmy Butler to to Philly first we’ll just use that one because that’s out there as a rumor then now we’re no longer dealing with apron issues now we can bring in Donovan Mitchell because we’re not dealing with apron issues because we can combine roier and Robinson or what hero and Robinson or whatever you need to do to do that so you can’t combine salaries if you’re second apron team the other thing you can’t do anymore first or second apron you can’t you can only take back as much money as you send out or less in a trade so if they let’s say again Donna uh Jimmy Butler is going out 49 million you could take back up to 49 million but you can’t take back 50 you can’t take back 49 and a half all those buffers that were created are gone they’ve made it very difficult for teams to make trades when they’re up and over the aprons that rule exists first and second apron the aggregation rule is there last one for second apron teams just very quickly you can’t send out cash in trades so no more buying draft picks right so you can if they were like hey the best way we want to fill out with another second rounder if they’re a second apron team you can’t do that and if you do use cash you get hard capped at the second apron geez so I’ve got screwed well I’ve got two hypotheticals for you then based on off so if well number one let me ask you this first on draft night right that’s before the league the new league calendar starts on July 1st right so are they if can they do these things maybe on draft night July 27th or do they still have to operate as a second apron team yeah you can’t so what they did was they changed the rules uh in the CBA specifically to block this so what happens is they you have to operate at whatever status you’re you’re you’re at or or will be at post trades at as of the end of your season so my season ended Miami’s is now restricted to to doing that so if they technically they could make a trade today right we we know that it’s working AG to terms on the trade but it can’t become official until the new league year well you can even make an official trade still right now um as long as you’re using this year salaries and it’s all legal and works that happened a couple years ago Detroit did that the league frowns upon it they don’t really want trades being made during the finals um but you can there’s nothing that says you can’t do that but what what the loophole they closed was is all of the the apron rules kick in upon the end of your season this year so what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to close it off from being like hey well we have a week here at the draft let’s get in all these trades where you we wouldn’t be able to do this in a couple more days they’ve closed that loophole off so that’s why you heard probably quite a bit of discussion around when uh Damen Lillard and Drew holiday were traded and Drew holiday then was traded to Boston the concept of this is something these teams couldn’t do next year because of all these increased rules you can’t aggregate salaries together you can’t take back more money than you send out and all those things as apron team so it was kind of the idea was we’re going to give you a year the NBA’s thought was let’s give everybody a year to kind of get their books in order so you’re really ready to go then you had Boston Phoenix Milwaukee say n actually let’s blow straight through all of that last Chance Saloon time to do some of these things we’re going to do them all and then we’ll deal with the Fallout on the back end of all that stuff so it really a um kind of Miami missed out on that basically so by not get to an extent now the good thing is Donovan Mitchell if you’re trading for a guy like him I you’re you’re not GNA make that trade and still have Jimmy Butler probably on the heat that that’s I think the easy way to do that like I said if there’s a team that can figure it out and get there it’s Miami but it’s just very very hard if you’re dealing with any kind of the apron challenges to make those moves if the heat were then to let’s say on it’s the first night of the draft June 26 and they were to salary dump let’s say Tyler hero to a team with cap space that might be an indicator that they they might have something lined up potentially for a Donovan Mitchell or a star trade because then that would get them if they were to salary dump something like that that would get them to where they need to be in terms of the apron yeah and to be very clear that would be one of those AG two things and then it would be actually executed when the moratorium am ends in the you know middle of the first week of July so what would happen is they would agree to that trade of and I’m just making it up Tyler hero into the Orlando Magic’s cap space and they’re taking back I don’t know we we’ll have fun with it to draft rights to Fran Vasquez who’s now 40 something years old and retired but let’s just say we’re taking back nothing right we’re taking back no salary then what would happen is that it would it it’s less wiggle room but it would accomplish the same thing it gets them the clearance they need then they could go about saying all right let’s let’s figure out a way now and then they can aggregate trades bring back a little bit and basically do a Donal deal yep yep let’s do it that way or or at that point it becomes an expanded hey actually Cleveland if we’re going to trade for Donovan Mitchell let’s just do this as one big transaction where we’re bringing in Mitchell but Heroes going out to Orlando and there’s ways you could work it that way too so right and that’s where sometimes if anybody who follows me will see I will say sometimes when the initial trade news breaks I I am very famous on Twitter for saying hold on there’s something else there’s got to be something else because usually what I do is I start doing math then I’m like this doesn’t quite work as the kids say the Math’s not math then right so then I’m like where where are we at with that so then I I start kind of thinking through it and like there was a did do you remember the big Pelicans um the Pelicans and the Bucks there was the Drew Holiday trade and Memphis got involved David Griffin by the end expanded that I think it ended up being a four team trade it involved multiple signin trades multiple guys getting moved all over the map and he was really kind of the architect of saying hey we’re going to do these individually or the best way for all of us is let’s all jump in one big trade and we’ll do it this way and that that that could be something that could happen and what that does is it just angers people because then it’s delayed like why don’t I see you player X on my team’s roster and it’s like well it’s coming but you know it’s they’re still working out the details they’re going to get there one last thing Keith and I really do appreciate the time this has been awesome but um we mentioned a little bit Caleb Martin and Haywood High Smith Caleb’s gonna opt out we know this High Smith as a free agent um they have the bird rights for both of these players yep correct and so they can just sign them and to the max if they wanted to all what they would have to be worried about Miami would be well we’re already a second apron team how much deeper do we want to go into that second apron and then obviously you’ve got the the multipliers on their salaries that could turn a $10 million contract into a bajillion dollar contract yeah yeah that that’s yeah that’s the the thing and now there’s one more level to the tax stuff in the year in 25 26 they they redefined the tax banss meaning what they did was if you’re only a little into the tax it’s not quite as punitive as it used to be but if you are a lot into the tax it is way more punitive than it used to be they basically took it from right being if you are like in a spot where you are $3 into the T like $3 per dollar into the tax that’s not like $4 doar per dollar into the tax so the the whole idea behind the CBA it was two two ways it was to squeeze everybody back towards the middle everybody knows about the Warriors and the Clippers and what the Nets were becoming of we don’t want teams being super expensive so they took those teams push them down right we want you to be less expensive but what they did was they added rules on the other side where if we remember back San Antonio Indiana would go into a season with $40 million of cap space left then they were everybody’s third favorite teamate in every trade because it was like hey they can just take the bad contract now what happens is day one let’s say you’re 40 million under the cap you get a cap hold an artificial cap hold put on your books that brings you up to the salary floor because they’re trying to say we don’t want you sitting on cap space because that’s not new money being spent if you eat a contract that’s already out there we want you to spend money and they they they improve the value of the mid-level exceptions and the like those are worth more money so they kind of took the top teams pushed them down those cheaper teams pushed them up I’m not going to say it’s even like this for anybody watching on video my hands are even but it’s a little bit less unbalanced than it used to be and that’s how they’re going to try to force and drive some parody with rosters and the like like that to kind of bring everybody a little bit back closer to the Middle with how they spent Keith Smith super informative you can find his work over at spot track you can find him on Twitter uh his Twitter account is here on the YouTube channel but if you’re not watching Keith Smith NBA on Twitter thanks man this was awesome appreciate it I appreciate it thanks so much for having me thanks for making lockdown heat your first listen every day hit that subscribe button on YouTube and follow us on your podcast app a

What does giving Jimmy Butler a maximum extension mean for the Miami Heat’s salary cap this offseason and in the future?

Spotrac’s salary cap expert Keith Smith joins Wes Goldberg and David Ramil to discuss the Heat’s decision process when it comes to Butler, Bam Adebayo’s extension and what the Heat can do to improve the team this offseason.

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