Q: Ira, Nick Richards in Heat workout gear practicing on the Heat court. What does that tell you? \u2013 Franklin.<\/p>\n
A: What it tells me is that Miami is one of the offseason hubs for player workouts, with the Miami Pro League and other local runs providing ample opportunity toward the buildup to camp. Now, if Nick Richards wants to take a camp invitation without a guarantee, then that assuredly would be an option, just as it was for Precious Achiuwa<\/a> during last year\u2019s camp. Or perhaps that will instead serve as a cautionary tale, that a camp invite, and even quality efforts during the preseason might not result in a roster spot. Last year, the concern at this time of year was the luxury tax. This time it\u2019s the hard cap created by the machinations to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. It is unlikely that Nick Richards otherwise would stand as a front-burner concern, as long as matters remain unresolved with Klay Thompson and others. But a mere invitation to camp? Sure, why not, with teams allowed to carry up to 21 players prior to the start of the season.<\/p>\n Q:\u00a0 Am I greedy or is it realistic to think that the Heat can sign DeMar DeRozan, Klay Thompson and Nick Richards? All three fill positions of need (scoring, shooting, reserve big). But you mentioned that the Heat \u201conly have the current payroll wherewithal at the moment under their hard cap to add two players.\u201d I assume that means one player at the vet minimum and another using the remaining mid-level.\u00a0 \u2013 Gabe.<\/p>\n A: Yes, there are a variety of means to sign three additional players, and therefore work at the maximum of 15 under standard contract. But considering the Heat are about $10 million under their hard cap and minimums cost $2.5 million each against the cap, that would leave little wiggle room for a follow-up move during the season or to replace an injured player. So, yes, they could. But it remains more likely there will be 14 under standard contract to open the season. Plus, DeMar DeRozan now appears to have a new suitor in the Nuggets.<\/p>\n Q: Are there salary-cap or other concerns that are leading the Heat to delay their personnel moves until the season rather than preseason? \u2013 David, Miami.<\/p>\n A: None other than waiting to see if there will be a player or players who will require all or part of what remains of their mid-level exception. The DeMar DeRozan situation could play into that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Ira, Nick Richards in Heat workout gear practicing on the Heat court. What does that tell you?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17325,114,123,125,2490,16151,124,2295,110],"class_list":["post-376427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-ask-ira","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-blog","tag-miami-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}