Minimum Monsters: The Miami Heat Didn’t Completely Fail This Offseason

Welcome to our new off-season mini-series: Minimum Monsters. In a game where cap space is limited, the best teams are the ones who can stretch a dollar the furthest. Generally speaking, players on minimum deals don’t move the needle too much. But every year, there are always a few cases where a team hits a salary cap home run – landing a real contributor on a cheap deal. In this series, we will highlight a few players who signed minimum contracts this offseason that could end up vastly outperforming their expected value.

It’s easy to criticize the Miami Heat for their 2023 offseason. After missing out on the Damian Lillard sweepstakes, they also let their conference rivals, the Boston Celtics, scoop up Jrue Holiday. On top of that, they lost two of their starters from their Finals run (Max Strus and Gabe Vincent) to free agency (Strus to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Vincent to the Los Angeles Lakers) with no obvious replacements in sight.