Gabe Vincent left the Miami Heat this past offseason to sign a three-year offer worth $33 million.
Miami’s final offer was a four-year offer worth $34 million. The average per year difference was $2.5 million and it also allows him to reenter free agency at 30.
“I think I had a good playoff run, and I think that changed my value,” Vincent said when asked why he ultimately didn’t return to the Heat in free agency. ” I think once that changed, it just became more difficult. I think Miami wanted me to be there. I think I was naturally looking to return to the team I just had a Finals run with and the team I had been with for the last three or four seasons. It’s unfortunate it didn’t work out. But my value had changed.”
Vincent played on a minimum salary of $1.8 million last season.
“I’m not going to sit here and act like the dollar figure didn’t play a role at all. It did. I’m human,” Vincent said of his free-agent decision to sign with the Lakers. “A guy like me with my kind of background, we don’t see opportunities like this often. So I wanted to make sure that I took the best situation overall for me.”
The Heat have the advantage over the Lakers in terms of no state income tax, but Vincent still came out ahead with the offer.
“My taxes took a hit and it still ended up being more,” Vincent said. “Some people will say it’s not much more. But I also was in the G League a year and a half and I was on a much different salary. So I don’t undervalue any bit of it. Obviously, I’m grateful to the Heat and I’m grateful to the Lakers, and I’m excited to have this opportunity and I’m just trying to make the most of it.”