Fresh off a surprise trip to the NBA Finals, Miami Heat President Pat Riley says his priority this off-season is to take care of his pending free agents.
“We have a good idea of what we want to do,” Riley said in a media session via ESPN.
“We know what our priorities are… It is to take care of the players that we have, that we have to make decisions on almost immediately. We know Bam has a decision to make and we do with him. We know the guys that have sacrificed for us that we really like, our free agents, especially Goran.”
Aside from Goran Dragic, the Heat don’t have any major pending free agents – although all-star center Bam Adebayo is heading into the last year of his rookie contract and is eligible for a max-extension.
Kelly Olynyk has a player option for $12 million which he may be inclined to take considering teams aren’t going to have much cap flexibility this offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Heat’s other free agents are Meyers Leonard, Jae Crowder, Solomon Hill and Derrick Jones Jr.
It seems likely the Heat will be able to replace one of those role players with the 20th overall pick in the draft.
Barring any major moves, the rest of the roster will probably be filled with players on vet-minimum contracts and one player on a mid-level exception.