Heat emerges as front-runner to add Kevin Love. What it would mean for roster

The Miami Heat appears to be the front-runner to sign veteran forward Kevin Love.

The Heat has emerged as the leader to sign Love, league sources confirmed to the Miami Herald, after he finalized his contract buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday. He’s eligible to sign with any team as a free agent following the buyout.

There had been some speculation whether the fourth-place Cavaliers would agree to the buyout knowing that Love would likely join the seventh-place Heat, a team Cleveland leads by five games in the Eastern Conference standings and could face in the first round of the playoffs. But with the buyout finalized, the CBA does not allow for a team to add a stipulation to such an agreement that tells a player which teams he can’t sign with.

While the Heat is the front-runner to land Love, ESPN reported he’ll talk to the Philadelphia 76ers before making a decision. The 76ers entered the All-Star break in third place in the East.

A source close to the situation says Love, 34, is intrigued by the Heat because of the possibility for consistent and significant playing time and the opportunity to play in Miami alongside the leading duo of center Bam Adebayo and wing Jimmy Butler.

“I think it would be huge,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said to reporters in Salt Lake City just hours before participating in Saturday night’s Three-Point Contest, when asked about the possibility of adding Love to the roster.

“Anytime we can get somebody the caliber of Kevin Love, he’s played in so many big games, so many big playoff runs and he’s experienced. He’s been there before. Getting a guy like that, we’ve seen what we can do if we add veteran players like that midway through the season. Usually that leads to good runs and long playoff runs for us as a team. I’m excited. We’ll see. Hopefully he decides to bring his shooting down to the 305 and we can end the season on a very high note.”

Love (6-8, 251 pounds) would help address a Heat need in the frontcourt as a shooting big who can play as a center when Adebayo is on the bench as part of smaller lineups or alongside Adebayo as a power forward. There’s also the possibility for Love to play as the Heat’s starting power forward if the team wants to shift Caleb Martin (6-5, 205 pounds) back to a bench role to play his more natural position as an athletic two-way wing.

“He has won rings,” Adebayo said to reporters when asked about Love during All-Star Media Day on Saturday in Salt Lake City. “He has been in that locker room where they’ve been down, what, 3-1 [in the NBA Finals]. He has been through adversity in his moments of life and in moments of truth. So I think it will be great for us just being that he has been a leader. He is a vet, so he can coach the younger guys and help us push this thing forward.”

Love is averaging 8.5 points while shooting 35.4 percent on 4.8 three-point attempts, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 assist per game in 41 games (three starts) with the Cavaliers in his 15th NBA season. He has played through a fractured right thumb that he sustained in November, but recently fell out of the rotation and has not appeared in a game since Jan. 24.

Love was one of the league’s top candidates for last season’s Sixth Man of the Year Award that went to Herro. Love averaged 13.6 points while shooting 39.2 percent on 6.4 three-point attempts, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in 74 games (four starts) last season.

Love has been with the Cavaliers since joining the organization prior to 2014-15, winning one championship in 2016 and making consecutive All-Star Games in 2017 and 2018 during his time in Cleveland.

With the trade of Dewayne Dedmon opening two roster spots and nearly $5 million of room under the luxury tax threshold, the Heat is well-positioned to bid for players on the buyout market. Miami can use the remaining $3.2 million of its bi-annual exception or more likely the remaining $3.1 million of its midlevel exception (both exceptions started being prorated down on Jan. 10) to sign Love or any other free agent without needing to enter the tax.

Using the bi-annual exception this season is less likely because it would take it off the table for the Heat next season, with this exception not allowed to be used two years in a row. Using any remaining portion of its midlevel exception would hard cap Miami at the apron of $157 million, but that’s not an issue because the Heat is not even expected to cross the luxury tax threshold of $150.3 million this season.

The Heat could also offer a veteran minimum contract to free agents.

With undrafted guard Jamaree Bouyea’s 10-day contract already expired, the Heat officially has two open spots on its 15-man roster. Adding Love would fill one of those spots.

Among other options to fill the openings on the Heat’s roster is to convert undrafted center Orlando Robinson’s two-way contract to a standard contract. Robinson, who has been playing as the Heat’s backup center for more than a month, is only permitted to be on the Heat’s active list for four more games this regular season before he’s forced to log the rest of his minutes this season in the G League.

Other options who could or already have become available on the buyout market include players like Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and Will Barton, among others. Players must be waived by March 1 in order to be playoff eligible elsewhere and they can then sign with a new team up to the final day of the regular season.

Westbrook has been linked to Miami. But as of now, Westbrook ending up with the Heat is considered unlikely, according to league sources.

With the NBA currently in the middle of the All-Star break, the Heat (32-27) will reconvene for practice in Miami on Thursday before resuming its schedule Friday against the Bucks in Milwaukee.