Miami Heat: Tyler Herro’s extension likely means big changes soon

Tyler Herro may have gotten the big contract extension that he was seeking, but things are far from settled for the Miami Heat.

Tyler Herro got his money – four years, $120 million guaranteed to be exact. It was a contract extension that the Miami Heat likely had to make if they weren’t going to trade him at any point this season. And Miami decided to give it to him before the rookie-extension deadline. Miami has locked up Herro and will not have to worry about him testing restricted free agency next offseason.

That said, there is plenty that remains unresolved for the Heat heading into the 2022-23 NBA season – and beyond.

Tyler Herro’s contract extension makes the Miami Heat’s cap sheet even more complicated next season

Even though extending Herro was a move that the Heat needed to make – especially after it became clear they were not going to come away with either Donovan Mitchell or Kevin Durant this offseason, there’s a cold reality that Miami must now face.

And it’s that there are likely big changes coming soon – perhaps after this season.

Looking ahead, the Heat has some major salary cap gymnastics that they’ll have to figure out for the 2023-24 season. Entering that season, the Heat will have 125.5 million allocated to Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Duncan Robinson alone.

The projected cap for the 2023-24 season is currently $134 million. That means the Heat will have less than $9 million to theoretically fill out the rest of the roster. When you consider that Caleb Martin, Dewayne Dedmon, and Nikola Jovic are already locked in under contract for that season for a combined $13.4 million and the team is already in the red – or already a tax-paying team.

Let’s remember that Victor Oladipo has a $9.5 player option too and the team would probably want to re-sign Gabe Vincent, Omer Yurtseven, and Max Strus – who will all be unrestricted free agents next summer.

That’s trouble, especially for a team that likely isn’t even a championship contender. And for the past few years, the Heat has done whatever it takes to avoid being a tax-paying team. Is that suddenly going to change? It’s hard to believe that it will.

In short, some move is coming. And for the Heat to proceed as they’ve done over the last few years, it will likely have to be a big one.

Extending Herro is something the Heat had to do. Their hands were somewhat tied. And he deserves every penny he got. He’s been a good – and important- player for the Heat. But it’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room after this extension – and it’s that a big move is likely coming, sooner rather than later, for the Miami Heat.