4 Miami Heat players who definitely won’t be back next season
By Josh Wilson
Heat players who won’t be back next year: Max Strus
From undrafted to a legitimate part of a playoff rotation, Max Strus is entering free agency and the wing that shoots 41 percent from the field and 35 percent from beyond the arc is going to get a huge payday.
Shooting comes at a premium in today’s game, and Strus is good for two or three long-range balls per game. After balling out on a $1.8 million salary this year, he’s due for a huge raise. Very few teams would turn him down for a dollar figure far beyond that. You’re looking at something in the $6-10 million range per year for Strus this offseason, I would guesstimate.
Miami certainly would not be opposed to bringing him back, but it’s going to be difficult to do so given how well he’s platformed himself with his play of late. Miami’s payroll next year is already at $173 million, they are projected to be 67 million over the salary cap.
Strus is a luxury signing for a team like Miami who will need to get creative to fill the roles of players like this that they were able to pull out of nowhere and help develop.
Riley and the Heat might need to find more low-cost, high-impact undrafted players or second-rounders to work on to fill these roles given how much money they have doled out already.