Oladipo now has a two-year deal starting at $8.5 million.
When news initially broke shortly after 6 p.m. June 30 that Victor Oladipo would return with the Heat, it was reported to be a one-year, $11 million contract. But today, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald said the Heat and Oladipo agreed to restructure the deal for more flexibility.
Oladipo’s new deal with Heat has changed. Instead of previously reported one-year deal worth $11 mil, it’s now going to be two-year deal with smaller salary this season and player option in second year.
Less money gives Heat more room to avoid luxury tax and potential hard cap.
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) July 6, 2022
Chiang said the new deal is a two-year contract worth about $18 million — with a first-year salary of around $8.5 million. The move gives Oladipo the security of a second year should he opt in next summer and the Heat flexibility to avoid a “hard cap” if they use more mid-level exception money.
Albert Nahmad wondered what happened between June 30 and today that led the two sides to renegotiate the deal. It’s hard to say, and we may never know. Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell remain with the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz, respectively.
It’s interesting… The Oladipo and Dedmon agreements were announced within 25 minutes of each other. The only announcement since was Martin getting T-MLE money. So what happened that they couldn’t initially foresee that caused the need to renegotiate with Oladipo?
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) July 7, 2022
This is interesting. Would have to go down to ~$6M to get them all the way out of tax, which seems unlikely, but even going to say 8.5M x 2 would make it much easier to trade out of tax in-season if needed and/or avoid apron if they use remainder of MLE. https://t.co/uLVUzD67KG
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) July 6, 2022
Thus far, the Heat have re-signed Oladipo, Caleb Martin and Dewayne Dedmon — but lost P.J. Tucker. That still appears like a regression from last season’s team that came up just shy of making a second NBA Finals appearance in three years.