Biggest need Heat must still address in 2024 NBA free agency
When news broke that the Philadelphia 76ers had officially signed Caleb Martin to a four-year, $32 million contract almost a week into the 2024 NBA free agency period, it put quite a bit of egg on the Miami Heat 's face.
Sure, the team reportedly tried to lock him up on a five-year, $65 million contract before he could go to free agency, with the former undrafted free agent out of Nevada clearly misplaying the market under the new CPA, but considering the Heat had the ability to lock up their 2023 Finals star ahead before he even hit unrestricted free agency, losing a homegrown star for nothing does nothing but leave a hole on the depth chart that will be hard to fill in free agency considering their cap situation .
Could the Heat find some player with the Taxpayer MLE and turn them into a 10-points-per-game contributor like Martin was in 2024? You bet, they will almost certainly offer that contract to someone left on the open market and said player will probably outplay expectations, as is often the case when seemingly anyone lands in Miami, but before that happens, the Heat can't make the same mistake twice, as they have another forward on the free agent market that they now even more can't afford to lose in Haywood Highsmith.
Haywood Highsmith is worth the Heat's investment
Originally landing in Philadelphia via a local tryout with the Delaware Blue Coats out of basketball powerhouse Wheeling, Highsmith slowly worked his way up from a feel-good story to a legitimate role player, originally signing a 10-day hardship exemption contract with the Heat in December of 2021, before officially signing a three-year deal to join the team a few months later in the spring of 2022 after a pair of standard 10-day contracts.
Though Highsmith didn't contribute much to the team in 2021-22, he slowly but surely carved out a bigger role with each passing season, with 2023-24 marking career-highs in points, minutes, games played, starts, and darn near every other category on the stat sheet.
Haywood has turned himself into a solid 3-point shooter, connecting on 39.6 percent of his shots from beyond the arc last fall, and has become a very good perimeter defender, too, with an ability to switch across positions and even log quality minutes against an opposing team's top perimeter player. While he may never become more than a 3-and-D wing who sides in and out of the starting lineup depending on what the Heat need from game-to-game or series-to-series, considering his humble roots, that's a pretty incredible accomplishment, going from Wheeling to a top-8 NBA player on a championship contender. If Martin can be had on a contract worth $8 million a year, securing Highsmith on a deal at $6-8 million annually would be a fantastic get for the Heat both now and into the future.
The Heat were "dumbfounded" by Caleb Martin's free agency
Speaking of Martin's exit in free agency, Miami Herald veteran Barry Jackson reported the goings on of the negotiations between the Heat and Philadelphia's newest forward and let it be known that Pat Riley and company were "dumbfounded" by how things shook out, as they offered a much better deal to their free agent than what he initially agreed to.
"Miami could not make a similar offer after free agency started because it would have involved Martin opting in with much bigger salaries in subsequent years," Barry Jackson wrote via Fadeaway World. "So Martin turned down five years, $65 million from Heat, and then a week later settled for what ESPN said is four years, topping $32 million from the 76ers. Martin's rep thought the Heat's offer wasn't good enough, which dumbfounded Heat. This Heat/Martin negotiation last weekend was quite (shall we say) intense, per two sources. Martin's camp thought Heat was trying to force him to take what Martin's rep thought was a below-market deal and made that clear. Heat thought this was a very good offer (it was) and made that very clear."
Is there more to this story than has initially been reported? Sure thing; it's hard to imagine Martin purposefully agreed to less money in Philadelphia than Miami when the two squads are theoretically in similar spots from a contention standpoint. If Martin was truly convinced that this was the best deal he could land in free agency and that the Heat were low-balling him when he opted out of his contract, well, he might want to re-evaluate his current representation, as leaving $33 million on the table, albeit over two more years, is not good business at all.
