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Will the Heat be able to keep Haywood Highsmith and Caleb Martin?

Among the issues to manage for the Heat this summer, there is the future of Haywood Highsmith And Caleb Martin. To begin with, the players' desire is very clear: to stay in Miami.

“Everyone knows I want to be here. I made it known. My goal is to be here for as long as possible. This is my priority”, assures the second. “I definitely want to stay in Miami. I love being here. My family, my daughter live here, so it’s a big priority for me, to be near my daughter”announced the first, free of any contract this summer.

A huge payroll

It remains to find common ground and that's where things get complicated. For what ? Because the Heat's finances are already in the red. Just with the players under contract in 2024/25, namely Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic, there is already $163 million in the balance. As a reminder, the authorized salary cap is blocked at 141 million and the luxury tax at 172 million.

Several players, including Caleb Martin, have an option for next season: Kevin Love, Josh Richardson and Thomas Bryant. Even with modest contract years, if the three come back, we add 10 million, so we go up to 173 million…

Caleb Martin has a season at 7.1 million as an option but as he is coming off his best career campaign, with 10 points per game coming off the bench, he could test the market to fetch a salary of more than 10 million. Haywood Highsmith will want to receive much more than the 1.9 million for his 2023/24 season. Keeping both could therefore require more than 15 or 20 million dollars per season and that's where it gets stuck.

The same scenario as with Max Strus and Gabe Vincent?

Because the famous “second apron”, which harshly punishes teams who spend too much, is set at 190 million dollars. As we must also not forget the bonuses of certain players, the guaranteed salaries and the future first round of Draft, then Bobby Marks, the ESPN journalist specializing in these payroll questions, specifies that the Heat will exceed 190 million dollars, if he keeps Haywood Highsmith and Caleb Martin.

The risk with the “second apron” is losing the right to exceptions to sign players, and therefore only being able to offer free players minimum contracts. This limits the possibilities of recruiting.

Is Caleb Martin aware that the Miami franchise might not offer the check he expects, to avoid finding himself tied hand and foot financially? “I didn’t think too much about it. Obviously, now is the time to think about some of these questions and have discussions about them. But, yes, I will think about it »warns the player who can always stay by activating his last year as an option.

A situation reminiscent of that of the 2023 offseason. Max Strus and Gabe Vincent also wanted to continue the adventure with the Heat but the finances were already in the red and the managers therefore let the two shooters go, respectively to the Cavaliers and to the Lakers.

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