MIAMI _ Of all the twists in the new NBA collective-bargaining agreement that will be rubber stamped next month by players and owners, one factor perhaps impacts the Miami Heat more than any other: the notion that the NBA can induce star free agents to remain with their current teams with vast amounts of cash.
The play from Pat Riley and Heat management for years has been the enticement of South Beach (yes, we know they don't play there, but it does afford players the opportunity to play there), no state income tax, and a Heat culture that has maximized players' potential.
It worked with LeBron James. It worked with Chris Bosh. And it has worked over the years with several others who could have earned more elsewhere.
But now the NBA is about to significantly raise the ante on superstars with the option to enter the market as free agents from teams that drafted them, players such as Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis.
Previously, the differences between staying or going could be in the $30 million range, often offset by opting out of the final year of a deal and recouping in an ensuing contract. But because of the ability of potential free agents to now be locked up by their current teams for six years, as opposed to four-year deals from outside suitors, the difference could approach $90 million to even $100 million.
No longer might a Pat Riley bag of rings equate to a bundle of cash. Suddenly, even in real life, paper beats rock(s).
And with maximum contracts to reach as much as $36 million for 2017-18, it could take even more than Bosh's recouped salary-cap space and a Goran Dragic trade to put the Heat in play to double up in free agency.
What the new collective-bargaining agreement could do is force the Heat to rethink the approach, perhaps reexamine the trade markets, the means utilized to rebuild around Shaquille O'Neal for the franchise's first championship. And that could put the Heat rebuild into play as early as February, with Bosh's salary-cap hit eligible to be excised as soon as Feb. 9 and the trading deadline not until Feb. 23.
A trade would not be as much about this season as about resetting the franchise perhaps in time for June's NBA draft, when the Heat would then know the greatest position of need.
Yes, the Heat's trade assets are significantly limited. But that's also what makes these next two months so significant with players such as Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and, who knows, maybe even Josh McRoberts.
Under the proposed new CBA, draft picks have never meant more, at a time when the Heat's cupboard is practically barren beyond what can be harvested in June. What the NBA is saying with the new agreement is that the league wants teams to grow their talent from within, and then have more of a home-team advantage in retaining those players. That's where the two potential first-rounders shipped to the Phoenix Suns for Dragic could particularly sting. But at this point, there is no use in looking back. Because Bosh's situation changed everything from that trade to the crossroads about to be reached in February and then July.
What the Heat did with James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade from 2010 to 2014 is why the NBA's new workplace rules are about to squeeze the Heat's attempts from replicating something similar.
The reality is that $60 million (the Heat's approximate 2017-18 cap space without Bosh and Dragic), won't buy you what it used to. And the buying power of outside suitors in free agency is about to be reduced, as well.
This is when you have to get creative, at least now knowing what the rules of the new workplace will be. The draft picks lost for Dragic will hurt, but the potential second-chance at Bosh's cap space will help. That is the new math for the Heat. The challenge now is to make it add up to more than what currently is in place.
