Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[Smitty]

A lot of talk about Miami and Klay. I looked at the MIA cap situation, and this is where they stand:

10 Guaranteed Contracts
2 Non-guaranteed Contracts

Total Salary: $198,139,835
Space below the Tax Line: $2,027,992
Space below First Apron: $10,614,992

Exceptions:
NTMLE: $8,979,000
BAE: $5,477,000
TPE: $5,616,000

1 tradeable FRP: 2029
1 tradeable SRP: 2027

Depth Chart:

Mitchell | Dru Smith | Conwell
Larsson | Hardaway Jr.
Wiggins | Fontecchio | Gardner
Giannis | Jovic
Bam | Portis


In a Klay for Jovic trade, it adds $1,260,317 to MIA payroll. They would still need to add a minimum of 2 players to get to 14. This trade would leave them $9,354,675 below A1. They could split the rest of the NTMLE between (2-3) players, leaving them $375,675 below A1. One is DeRozan? The other a Center?

Projected Depth Chart:

Mitchell | Dru Smith | Conwell
Klay | Hardaway Jr.
Wiggins | Larsson | Gardner
Giannis | DeRozan | Fontecchio
Bam | Portis | (FA Big)



Anyway, I know we look at it from a Mavs angle all the time. At least the financial implications. Found this exercise interesting... In that a trade match that's been talked about plenty, kind of lines up well on MIA side. Not to mention the cap space it opens up for them as early as next year...

My guess is that the Mavs would want to find a 3rd team to send Jovic to. One that might be desperate enough, after missing out on Kuminga (to CLE?), and going all in with their current roster, would be the Lakers.

Playing out how something like that looks, I came up with:

DAL: Scoot Henderson (-$3.9M)
MIA: Klay Thompson (+$1.3M)
LAL: Nikola Jovic (+$3.8M)
POR: Jarred Vanderbilt (-$1.2M) + Draft Capital of some sort