Heat face season’s final personnel deadline, one complicated by Duncan Robinson’s absence
For the Miami Heat and the rest of the league, the last chance to alter rosters is Sunday's final day of the regular season.
MIAMI — It is not necessary as much a personnel deadline as a matter of the NBA’s personnel clock striking midnight. But for the Miami Heat and the rest of the league, the last chance to alter rosters is Sunday’s final day of the regular season.
At the maximum of 15 players under standard contract, such a move would impact what already is in place — and also could prove beneficial considering the circumstances.
With guard Duncan Robinson dealing with a recurrence of back discomfort, sidelined for Friday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center, his third consecutive absence, the Heat could find themselves at a 3-point deficit in the postseason, otherwise lacking a 3-point specialist.
One remedy could be turning to 3-point specialist Cole Swider, Only it’s not that simple.
Players on two-way contracts are ineligible for the playoffs, a postseason restriction that also would be in place for fellow two-way Heat players Jamal Cain and Alondes Williams.
In order to convert Swider (or either of the other Heat two-way players) to a standard contract, it would mean waiving by Sunday a player currently on the standard roster.
Among options there would be waiving center Orlando Robinson, who also has a non-guaranteed 2024-25 season on his contract, or potentially one of the players added on the buyout market, Delon Wright or Patty Mills. Typically, players who agree to join teams on the buyout market are assured of being on the postseason roster.
The Heat are not positioned to waive sidelined guard Josh Richardson, who has been lost to season-ending shoulder surgery, because he has a player option of the two-year minimum-scale contract he signed last summer.
Should the Heat not make a move with their two-way players, they would be eligible to train, practice and travel with the team throughout the postseason.
Teams also are allowed to sign players who have been out of the league or players waived elsewhere by March 1 as potential postseason-roster additions. Players do not have to appear in a regular-season game in order to be playoff eligible.
Players can no longer be signed to two-way contracts.
Duncan Robinson’s situation is a delicate one for the Heat, considering he missed five games with left-facet syndrome that initially was listed as back discomfort, returned for five uneven performances, and now has missed the three in a row, with Sunday’s season finale against the visiting Raptors up in the air.
Last year, in addition to Robinson, the Heat also featured the 3-point shooting of Max Srus and Gabe Vincent on their postseason roster. Strus and Vincent left in free agency in the offseason.
The Heat have a history of late-season and final-day personnel moves, machinations also utilized to get players under contract for developmental purposes.
2021: The Heat signed free-agent center Omer Yurtseven on May 14, three days before the close of that pandemic-delayed season.
Yurtseven then emerged as a summer-league standout, spending two seasons with the Heat, including productive rookie minutes amid the injury absence of Bam Adebayo
2019: The Heat converted Duncan Robinson from a two-way contract to a standard deal on the penultimate day of the regular season and then, having waived Rodney McGruder for salary-tax- saving days earlier, signed G League guard Kendrick Nunn on the final day of the season.
While the moves came in the shadow of Dwayne Wade’s final two games amid his retirement tour, it afforded the Heat a low-cost roster option in Robinson and began a process with Nunn that would have him move on to All-Rookie status.
2016: The day before the close of the regular season, the Heat signed Dorell Wright, older brother of Delon, in order to make him part of their playoff roster.
Two days before that move, the Heat also signed Briante Weber to move him into the team’s developmental program.
2010: With three games left in the regular season, the Heat add center Shavlik Randolph for their playoff roster, having cycled through a series of players on two-way contracts to that stage.