Valuable, even precious, in the playoffs, will Kyle Lowry still be at the Heat next season? He feels good there, but his huge salary, the fact that he is fragile and on a slippery slope should push Pat Riley to part with him. According to Miami Herald, the ideal is to use it as a bargaining chip to bring in Damian Lillard. It could stick, and we imagine that the Heat are ready to let go of an extra good player to swallow the pill for the Blazers.
But if Heat executives can’t trade the former Toronto point guard, they’re considering cutting him outright. To prevent it from weighing down their payroll for the coming season, they would opt for the ” stretch provision“, a mechanism that allows the cut player’s salary to be spread over several seasons. This is what Nicolas Batum benefited from when he was cut by the Hornets in 2020.
Thus, the daily reports that the Heat will be able to integrate 9.9 million dollars for three years in a row into its payroll. In the short term, this could make it possible to go from a payroll of 178.5 million dollars to 158.5 million, and therefore fall under the sole “luxury tax”.
This mechanism must be put in place before September 1st.
Stretch provision : measure that allows a franchise to cut a player and spread the rest of his salary over several seasons to avoid filling his salary cap over a single season.
