Heat Likely Forced to Cut Mike Miller

[Built Ford Tough]

For the last three days NBA executives have been digesting the new collective bargaining agreement line-by-line and crunching numbers. During that process it’s likely that the Heat have come to the conclusion that they’re still probably going to have to use the amnesty clause on Mike Miller and release him.

 

For months the Heat had believed this was inevitable knowing they badly needed to use their mid-level exception to help out some holes on the roster. This information made it to Miller’s ears, he put his house on the market. This was with the understanding that teams paying the luxury tax, which the Heat will, wouldn’t be permitted to use an entire mid-level exception of $5 million.

 

Then in the 11th hour of talks the owners agreed to give teams a $4 million “apron” to go into the tax and still use the full mid-level. This gave the Heat a chance to keep Miller, which by all accounts is what they would prefer. But once the literature got to the teams it became known that this “apron” clause has some pretty significant strings attached. Those strings probably will force the Heat’s hand.

 

The most important item is that any team that uses its $5 million mid-level exception and goes over the luxury tax line cannot exceed the $4 million apron for the entire season. In layman’s terms, it means that if the Heat use the mid-level exception they cannot spend over $74.3 million this season. In effect, this is a hard salary cap even though neither the union or the league sold it that way. Simply, the Heat need to add some free agents and they can’t keep themselves under that threshold with Miller’s $5.4 million on their books.

 

Once the Heat sign rookie point guard Norris Cole, their payroll will be about $67 million. This includes $2.7 million the Heat have to pay to satisfy old deals for players no longer on the roster. They owe James Jones $1.65 million as part of a buyout from last year plus money they guaranteed Patrick Beverley and Da’sean Butler, rookies they signed and then cut in training camp last year.

 

That gives them a roughly $7 million window to spend on the rest of the team if they use their mid-level exception. They probably just can’t get there.

 

They will go after top free agent centers like Nene as is Pat Riley’s custom, and perhaps offer Miller and Udonis Haslem in a sign-and-trade with the Nuggets, who have Nene’s rights. They offered this deal, in fact, to the Nuggets last year. But unless Nene is willing to take a massive pay cut to play for the Heat, this is a pipe dream. More likely, the Heat will attempt to use that $5 million to land center Sam Dalembert, who is interested in coming to Miami.

 

That would leave just $2 million to fill out the other five roster spots including Mario Chalmers, who is a restricted free agent the Heat are likely going to re-sign. Just looking at the math, Miller doesn’t fit in.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/10158/why-heat-are-likely-to-part-with-mike-miller

 

Kind of sucks for Miller since he took a paycut last season in order to sign with the Heat only to suffer through one injury riddled season before likely getting the axe. I still believe that a fully healthy and confident Miller is a huge asset to this team, but it just isn't in the cards financially.

[NomarFachix]

Berman just tweeted a source said he won't be cut

[Abro]

I still doubt it.. Especially if they have the chance to sign Dalember and then Battier.