The Miami Heat have to cut some salary after committing a grand total of $162 million to Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Kelly Olynyk over the past 24 hours.
It’s in this that the team has traded forward Josh McRoberts to the Dallas Mavericks for second-year player AJ Hammons and cash considerations.
McRoberts, 30, signed a four-year, $22.7 million deal with Miami back in July of 2014. However, utilizing him as a stretch four really didn’t pan out for the Heat. In his three seasons with the team, the former Duke standout averaged averaged just 4.1 points and shot 40 percent from the field.
More than anything, this was purely a cap move from Miami. It might not have had a roster spot for McRoberts. But instead of buying him out, the Heat receive some flexibility under the cap.
Meanwhile, Dallas gains a potential rotational player in the front court to go with Harrison Barnes, Dirk Nowitzki and hopefully restricted free agent Nerlens Noel.
It’s a small move, but one the Heat needed to make in order to sign Waiters, Johnson and Olynyk to their expensive contracts. Whether this will be enough to compete back east remains to be seen, but the Heat surely aren’t throwing in the towel following a tremendous second half of the 2016-17 campaign.