Trade deadline passes without Heat adding to roster, as attention turns to buyout market

It turned out to be a quiet NBA trade deadline day for the Miami Heat.

The Heat allowed Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline to pass without adding to its roster amid a wild few days around the league that included a blockbuster deal that sent superstar Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets to the Phoenix Suns. It marks the second straight season that the trade deadline has passed without the Heat adding a player.

Last season, the Heat’s only move in the hours leading up to trade deadline was a deal that sent KZ Okpala to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick. The teams also agreed to amend the protections on a first-round pick Miami owes to Oklahoma City.

The Heat’s only move this week was trading Dewayne Dedmon and an unprotected 2028 second-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs for cash considerations in a deal that created additional roster space and flexibility under the luxury tax threshold.

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This means veteran point guard Kyle Lowry remains on the Heat’s roster beyond Thursday’s trade deadline.

The Heat was open to dealing Lowry, 36, this week but a trade ultimately never materialized as he continues to deal with an ongoing knee issue. The Los Angeles Clippers expressed interest in Lowry as they looked to add a point guard before the deadline, but the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on a trade.

The question now becomes: How will the Heat handle Lowry moving forward?

Lowry missed his second straight game in Wednesday’s 116-111 home win over the Indiana Pacers because of left knee soreness. He will also miss at least the next two games before being further evaluated.

The expectation is that Lowry will be sidelined beyond these next two games and possibly for several weeks as he continues to receive treatment on his left knee, barring a rapid recovery.

Whenever Lowry does return, the Heat will need to decide whether to stick him back into the starting lineup. Gabe Vincent has started in Lowry’s place while he has been out.

Lowry has averaged 12 points while shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range and 5.3 assists per game this season. The last time Lowry averaged fewer than 13 points per game in a season was in his first year with the Toronto Raptors in 2012-13, the last time he shot worse than 41 percent from the field in a season was also in 2012-13, the last time he shot 34 percent or worse on threes in a season came in 2014-15 with the Raptors, and the last time he averaged fewer than six assists in a season came in 2009-10 with the Houston Rockets.

Lowry is on a $28.3 million salary this season and is due $29.7 million in the final season of his contract next season. The Heat could again explore a Lowry trade in the offseason when he’s on a large expiring deal.

For now, the Heat moves forward and continues its schedule Friday against the Houston Rockets at Miami-Dade Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). Miami is in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 30-25 record.

With the Nets trading away stars Kyrie Irving and Durant in recent days, the door has opened for the Heat to make a move up the standings. The sixth-place Heat entered Thursday 2.5 games behind the fifth-place Nets and one-half game ahead of the seventh-place New York Knicks, as Miami works to avoid the play-in tournament that includes the teams that finish in seventh through 10th place in each conference.

But the teams at the top of the East bolstered their rosters. The first-place Boston Celtics added three-point shooting big man Mike Muscala, the second-place Milwaukee Bucks acquired former Heat forward Jae Crowder in a trade with the Nets and the third-place Philadelphia 76ers landed forward/center Jalen McDaniels from the Charlotte Hornets.

Some of the teams just behind the Heat in the East standings also were active ahead of the trade deadline. The seventh-place Knicks added guard Josh Hart from the Portland Trail Blazers and the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks acquired forward Saddiq Bey in a multi-team trade.

Just because the trade deadline has passed, though, doesn’t mean the Heat is done adding to its roster. The Heat is now expected to turn its attention to the free agent and buyout market.

Tuesday’s trade with San Antonio left Miami with 13 players signed to standard contracts, two fewer than the league-maximum of 15 players. NBA teams can only carry 13 players on standard contracts for up to two weeks before rules force a 14th to be added.

The Heat signed developmental guard Jamaree Bouyea to a 10-day contract on Wednesday to temporarily add a 14th player. But once that 10-day deal is up, Miami will again have two open roster spots.

Tuesday’s trade that unloaded Dedmon’s salary without getting any players in return also created enough room for the Heat to fill both roster openings for the remainder of the season while still avoiding the luxury tax. The Heat went from about $200,000 away from the tax threshold before the deal to now about $4.8 million from the tax line.

The Heat could decide to fill one of the two empty roster spots by converting undrafted rookie center Orlando Robinson from a two-way contract to a standard contract to make sure he’s available for the rest of the season and the playoffs. Orlando Robinson, who has been playing as Miami’s backup center for the last month, is only eligible to be on the Heat’s active roster for just eight more games this regular season as part of his two-way contract.

If the Heat chooses to convert Orlando Robinson to a standard deal, it can use the second open roster spot to shop the free agent and buyout market. 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.

Potential buyout candidates include Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka, Terrence Ross, Will Barton, Reggie Jackson and Patrick Beverley. Westbrook has interest in joining the Heat or the Clippers once he’s bought out, according to the Athletic.

The Heat is well-positioned to bid for players on the buyout market after the Dedmon trade put the Heat nearly $5 million below the tax threshold. This means Miami can use its $4.1 million bi-annual exception and/or the remaining $4 million of its midlevel exception to sign players in the coming weeks without entering the tax.

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

The Heat has been hesitant to enter the tax this season because it expects to be a luxury tax team next season. Avoiding the tax line this season keeps the clock from starting toward the punitive repeater tax, which is triggered when a team is in the luxury tax at least three times during a four-year period.

By doing nothing beyond dealing Dedmon, the Heat maintained future draft inventory. The Heat will have two available first-round picks to deal when it’s again permitted to make a trade after its season comes to an end: 2023 and 2028 or 2029. Miami could also unlock its 2027 first-round pick to include in a trade by lifting the lottery protections on the 2025 selection it owes the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Heat is in need of outside help to inject life into its struggling offense.

Miami entered Thursday with the NBA’s fifth-best defensive rating this season. But the Heat owns the league’s fifth-worst offensive rating this season, including the worst half-court offense since the start of January.

A large part of the Heat’s offensive issues stem from its three-point struggles, as it entered Thursday ranked 27th in team three-point percentage at 33.5 percent this season. Miami closed last regular season as the NBA’s top three-point shooting team at 37.9 percent.

The Heat’s current roster includes 13 players on standard deals, not including Bouyea’s 10-day contract: Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Lowry, Caleb Martin, Victor Oladipo, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Vincent and Omer Yurtseven. Both of Miami’s two-way contract spots are filled with Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain.

The Heat’s big midseason addition could come from within. Yurtseven, who has yet to play this season following November surgery on his left ankle, has been cleared to resume full contact work and is expected back after the mid-February All-Star break to compete for backup center minutes.

INJURY REPORT

Jovic (lower back stress reaction), Lowry (left knee soreness), Oladipo (right ankle sprain), Duncan Robinson (finger surgery) and Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) remain out for the Heat on Friday against the Rockets.

Vincent (right ankle inflammation) is listed as probable because of right ankle inflammation.