NBA’s new exclusive negotiating window will begin soon. What it means for the Heat

The busy part of the NBA offseason will start a little earlier than usual this year.

As part of the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams around the league — for the first time — can begin negotiating with their own impending free agents on the first day following the last game of the NBA Finals. That exclusive window could begin as early as Tuesday, with the Boston Celtics holding a 3-1 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks and looking for a championship-clinching win on Monday at TD Garden in Game 5 of the best-of-7 NBA Finals.

Prior to this year, teams weren’t permitted to negotiate with their own free agents or ones from another team until June 30 at 6 p.m. This year teams only need to wait until June 30 to begin talking with outside free agents.

But one thing hasn’t changed: Nearly all free agent signings still aren’t eligible to become official until the league’s moratorium is lifted at noon on July 6.

So what does this head start mean for the Heat?

<bullet>On the first day after the final game of the NBA Finals, the Heat will be able to begin dialogue and potentially reach agreements with its own impending free agents Haywood Highsmith, Patty Mills and Delon Wright. Highsmith, Mills and Wright are all set to become unrestricted free agents.

In addition, the Heat will be allowed to begin negotiations with Jamal Cain, Cole Swider and Alondes Williams, which will become restricted free agents if Miami extends qualifying offers to them by the June 29 deadline. Cain, Swider and Williams closed this past season on two-way contracts with the Heat.

<bullet>On the first day after the final game of the NBA Finals, the Heat can also begin talking to its own players who have player options to decide on by a June 29 deadline. That list includes Thomas Bryant (holds a $2.8 million player option for next season), Caleb Martin (holds a $7.1 million player option for next season), Kevin Love (holds a $4 million player option for next season) and Josh Richardson (holds a $3.1 million player option for next season).

If any of those players opt-in, they won’t become free agents this offseason and instead will lock themselves into their current contracts with the Heat for next season. But bypassing the player option would make them unrestricted free agents this summer. Having an opportunity to talk to these players with options in their contracts a little earlier than usual should help the Heat get clarity on each of their situations ahead of the official start of free agency.

<bullet> On the first day after the final game of the NBA Finals, the Heat can begin dialogue with Bam Adebayo regarding a potential extension this offseason.

Adebayo, who turns 27 on July 18, can sign an extension with the Heat this offseason starting on July 6 and that window will close on Oct. 21 on the eve of the start of the 2024-25 NBA regular season. He’s eligible to sign a three-year extension worth $165 million this offseason that begins with a $51.2 million salary for the 2026-27 season. Any extension Adebayo signs this offseason would begin in 2026-27. If Adebayo wants another opportunity to qualify for a bigger supermax contract, he could forgo signing an extension this offseason and instead sign one next offseason.

But during this new early window for teams to negotiate with their own players, the Heat still won’t be able to begin talks with Jimmy Butler regarding his potential extension this offseason, according to ESPN front office insider and former Nets executive Bobby Marks. That’s because — unlike Adebayo — Butler becomes eligible to sign an extension with the Heat after July 6. For this reason, Butler and the Heat can’t formally begin discussing an extension until he actually becomes eligible to sign an extension on July 7.

Butler, who turns 35 on Sept. 14, is seeking a maximum two-year contract extension worth about $113 million from the Heat this offseason, which would include salaries of $54.3 million for the 2025-26 season (nearly a $2 million increase from the player option that it would replace in Butler’s current contract for that season) and $58.6 million for the 2026-2027 season when Butler will be 37 years old. The window for the Heat to sign Butler to the two-year max extension closes next year on June 30, 2025. But Butler and his camp will push for that max extension from the Heat prior to the start of next season.

The only players on the Heat’s season-ending 15-man standard roster with guaranteed salaries for next season are Butler ($48.8 million), Adebayo ($34.8 million), Tyler Herro ($29 million), Terry Rozier ($24.9 million), Duncan Robinson ($19.4 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.7 million) and Nikola Jovic ($2.5 million).

In addition, the Heat has until July 15 to guarantee developmental center Orlando Robinson’s full $2.1 million salary for this upcoming season. If the Heat decides not to guarantee Robinson’s salary, he would become an unrestricted free agent.

While most of the Heat’s work to build next season’s roster could still come in July, there’s no doubt that the rest of June will be busy for Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg, Adam Simon and the rest of Miami’s front office.

With the June 26-27 NBA Draft approaching and the league’s exclusive window to talk to its own free agents beginning soon, the Heat has important decisions to make in the coming days and weeks even before free agency officially begins on June 30.