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With (temporary) clarity with Adebayo, Heat and Riley still with plenty to sort out with payroll

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read

MIAMI — The long view came into clearer view for the Miami Heat this week without a ball being bounced or a dollar being spent. Such are the vagaries of the NBA salary cap and the league’s new collective-bargaining agreement.

With Bam Adebayo bypassed for one of the 15 spots on the All-NBA teams announced Wednesday, the Heat know that their center will not be eligible for a supermax extension when that window opens next month.

To a degree, that makes Adebayo’s loss potentially the Heat’s gain when it comes to the team’s long-term payroll.

Or possibly not.

While Adebayo will not be eligible to sign a four-year supermax extension worth $245 million at the opening of his July 7 extension window, he remains eligible for a three-year, $165 million extension, one that would kick in starting in 2026-27.

Or . . . Adebayo could wait until next summer for an extension and again hope to meet one of the qualifying elements for a supermax, in his case either being named 2025 NBA Defensive Player of the Year or to one of the three 2025 All-NBA teams.

In the immediate wake of being bypassed for All-NBA in the media balloting that concluded prior to the postseason, Adebayo took to social media to seemingly express his disappointment. That included a clapback to his offensive game being questioned, with a response of, “You don’t know ball.”

For the Heat, the reaction to Adebayo not qualifying for a supermax likely will be a bit more nuanced, considering it likely means a lower long-term cap hit with the 26-year-old three-time All-Star.

As it is, even before the Heat get to Adebayo’s extension window, there are concerns of managing the luxury-tax apron in the new CBA, ones that come with potentially severe tax and draft-pick restrictions.

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In discussing the direction of his team in the wake of the first-round playoff exit against the Boston Celtics, Heat President Pat Riley said the new payroll rules will require a deep dive by his front office into all the changes and challenges.

“It’s like a moving target,” Riley said of managing the cap, tax and aprons. “You don’t know. When you start putting things up on the board and how it impacts your payroll and tax and all of that stuff — what it would cost to bring somebody in, who’s going to leave, who’s going to stay. We don’t even know.”

Among the reasons Adebayo’s potential extension, one that would start in 2026-27, weighs significantly for the Heat is that for that season the lone salary currently on the Heat’s books is $33 million for Tyler Herro.

More than ever before, the long view is essential, with a new rule moving a team to the back of the draft order regardless of won-loss record — for consistently excessive payrolls.

“You got to put a pencil to the bottom line, too,” Riley said earlier this month. “Then, also, you have to put a pencil to what the cost is going to be in the collateral damage of going over the first and second apron and then repeater tax.

“This is a business as well as it is anything else.”

As it is, of the NBA’s final four teams in the conference finals — Boston, Indiana, Minnesota and Dallas — only the Celtics were, like the Heat, a luxury-tax team this season.

“Going into the tax and going way into the tax to win a championship, you have to be damn right about the guy you’re going to get and what you’re going to give up for him,” Riley said of a potential free-agent addition, but an element that also could have to be considered with extensions.

As for Adebayo potentially playing the waiting game, the criteria for a supermax extension is being named to the All-NBA first, second, or third team or being named Defensive Player of the Year in the immediately preceding season to an extension or in two of the immediately preceding three seasons, or being named NBA MVP during one of the preceding three seasons. To qualify for any of those awards, a player must appear in at least 65 games that season.

Adebayo has never been named Defensive Player of the Year or to an All-NBA team.