Two seasons ago the question for the Miami Heat was whether to promote Tyler Johnson from their D-League affiliate. Now the question is whether to match the four-year, $50 million offer sheet the Brooklyn Nets will tender to the scrappy 24-year-old guard.
A source close to the process told the Sun Sentinel that the Heat will wait to receive the offer sheet before commenting on the team's approach.
With Johnson a restricted free agent covered under the Gilbert Arenas Provision, the offer sheet was limited to salaries of $5.6 million for the coming season and then $5.9 million for 2017-18. But the final two years of the contract call for staggering salaries of $19 million and then $20 million.
It is a similar approach that the Houston Rockets used in the 2012 offseason to secure Jeremy Lin from the New York Knicks when Lin was a free agent. Lin this offseason also signed with the Nets, now likely to start alongside Johnson if the Heat do not match Brooklyn's offer.
The Nets can formally extend the offer sheet to Johnson on Thursday, the day after the end of the NBA signing moratorium. The Heat then will have three days to match.
Should the Heat match, their salary-cap space for the coming season will be reduced by $4 million.
Unlike a previous era, when an offer sheet had to be physically presented to a team, the process now can be handled via email.
Because of the way rules are written for restricted free agents, with Johnson's limited tenure, he had to seek an outside offer to receive more than $28 million over four years from the Heat, who now can match this higher outside offer.
Johnson recently moved to the agency that also represents Heat forward Chris Bosh and current Heat free agents Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem.
Yahoo Sports reported that Johnson also had been involved in negotiations with the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings.
The final two seasons of the offer to Johnson figure to create pause for the Heat.
The Heat already have salary commitments for 2018-19 at $27 million for forward Chris Bosh, $25 million for center Hassan Whiteside once his new agreement is finalized and $18 million for guard Goran Dragic. Bosh's contract then expires before the 2019-20 season, when the Heat have commitments of $27 million for Whiteside and $19 million for Dragic.
As has been the case with the Heat's other free agents who have reached agreements since the signing frenzy began Friday, Wade was quick with congratulations, posting on Twitter, "Any kid that wants to be an NBA player & you don't think you have a chance. Look no further then [at sign]RealTJohnson. Congrts kid you earned it!"
Johnson replied to that, "Easy to be motivated when playing along side the 3rd best 2 guard ever."
Perhaps unaware of the Heat's ability to match the Nets' offer, Whiteside, who on Friday reached a four-year, $98 million agreement with the Heat, posted on Twitter, "Man i going to miss you bro wow it feels like yesterday we were playing each other in the d league I was cooking,of course lol."
Johnson replied, "Lol crazy how the world works..still remember when they were like who TF is hassan whiteside."
Whiteside and Johnson had been teammates with the Heat's D-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, during the early stages of the 2014-15 season.
Johnson had remained mostly quiet during his free agency, but did re-tweet a post to his timeline from a fan that read, "Heat fans mad at [at sign]RealTJohnson like he's ASKING for $10M. If that's what the market is going to give him, go get paid young fella!"
Johnson has battled shoulder issues during his two seasons with the Heat after going undrafted out of Fresno State in 2014, but has displayed an upgraded 3-point stroke and has offered aggressive defense.
He had been considered one of the Heat's young building blocks for the future, along with Whiteside and 2015-16 rookies Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson.
Another of the Heat's young prospects, summer-camp guard Briante Weber posted Sunday on Twitter, "Man I am happy for my brother [at sign]RealTJohnson man comes to show you that hard work is undefeated Congrats."
While the impact of Johnson's contract would be reasonable for the next two seasons, the impact would be felt on the back end of the deal, when the NBA salary cap is expected to flatten after significant rises this summer and next summer.
Because of the Heat's limited salary-cap space this offseason, playoff starting power forward Luol Deng was lost in free agency to the Los Angeles Lakers and playoff starting small forward Joe Johnson was lost to the Utah Jazz.
The Heat's remaining free agents are Wade, Haslem, Gerald Green, Amar'e Stoudemire and Dorell Wright.
