Day 4 Free agency tracker: Heat adds Burks, keeps Bryant. And Martin, Highsmith unsigned

The first three days of free agency have been relatively uneventful for the Miami Heat.

What will happen on Day 4 of free agency on Wednesday? Updates will be posted here throughout the day.

4:30 p.m. update: The Heat bolstered its wing depth on Wednesday, agreeing to a one-year deal with 6-6 veteran small forward/shooting guard Alec Burks.

Burks -- who signed for the $3.3 million league minimum for 10-plus year veterans -- has averaged 10.8 points and shot 38.3 percent on three-pointers in a 13-year career. He is a competent ball-handler but isn’t much of a play-maker; Burks has averaged 2.0 assists and 1.2 turnovers in 742 games, including 144 starts.

Burks, 32, began last season in Detroit, where he averaged 12.6 points and shot 40.1 percent on threes in 43 games (no starts).

He was dealt to the Knicks, along with Bojan Bogdanovic, on Feb. 8, and struggled with his shooting with New York, hitting 25 of 83 three-pointers (30.1 percent) in 23 games and one start for the Knicks.

Burks averaged 6.5 points and 13.5 minutes during his time with the Knicks last season. It was his second stint with New York, having previously played two seasons for the Knicks (2020-2022).

Besides New York and Detroit, Burks previously Utah, Cleveland, Sacramento, Golden State and Philadelphia. The Jazz selected him 12th overall, out of Colorado, in the 2011 draft.

Burks’ addition leaves the Heat with 13 players with standard, guaranteed contracts. (That doesn’t count center Orlando Robinson, who likely will be released before his $2.2 million contract becomes guaranteed July 15.) Miami likely will add one more player via free agency or trade.

Haywood Highsmith and Caleb Martin remain unsigned free agents. Martin wants more than the Heat has been willing or able to offer. Highsmith and the Heat negotiated for a time last week but have not struck a deal.

1:45 p.m. update: The Heat continued to add centers on Tuesday, agreeing to a one-year deal to re-sign Thomas Bryant, who had opted out of his $2.8 million contract on Saturday. Bryant will return on a one-year minimum deal at $2.9 million, but because of NBA rules, his cap charge will be about $800,000 less than it would have been had he opted in.

Bryant fell out of the Heat’s rotation multiple times last season and averaged 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game, while appearing in 38 games and starting four. He shot 57.7 from the field but 18.2 percent (4 for 22) on three-pointers.

His return is somewhat surprising because Miami used its first-round pick on a center (Kel’El Ware) and re-signed center Kevin Love to a two-year, $8 million deal early in free agency.

“As we go into this year, I like our roster,” Pat Riley said last October. “I think Thomas Bryant is going to be an addition as a backup for us.”

For Riley, that enthusiasm about Bryant didn’t dissipate, even though Erik Spoelstra played him sporadically.

The Heat now appears unlikely to keep Orlando Robinson, whose $2.1 million contract becomes guaranteed in mid-July.

12:30 p.m.: As The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey just reported, the Philadelphia 76ers have had discussions with Heat free agent Haywood Highsmith. The 76ers have also had discussions with Heat free agent Caleb Martin as they scan the free-agent market for options to fill their roster, according to a league source.

The 76ers, which have already added nine-time All-Star forward Paul George in free agency this offseason, can open about $9.2 million in cap space by waiving Paul Reed, according to Spotrac’s Keith Smith.

The most the Heat can currently offer Haywood or Martin while remaining under the ultra-punitive second apron is a contract with a starting salary of about $7 million with a maximum of 8 percent raises each season.

10:15 a.m.: While the Heat faces its own salary-cap challenges in adding six-time All-Star wing DeMar DeRozan, another team linked to DeRozan is also very limited in what it can do to sign him.

With LeBron James reportedly re-signing with the Los Angeles Lakers on a two-year, $104 million contract, the Lakers are right up against the second apron.

“I would expect the Lakers to be under the second apron after their free agent contracts are signed,” ESPN’s Bobby Marks, an ESPN front office insider and former team executive, wrote on X on Wednesday morning. “There is enough of wiggle room to structure the contracts and still remain below.”

As teams currently above the first apron, though, the Heat and Lakers aren’t eligible to land DeRozan or any player through a sign-and-trade transaction.

The Heat and Lakers also currently only have the $5.2 million taxpayer midlevel exception and a minimum contract to sign DeRozan outright in free agency.

To create more flexibility and available money to add DeRozan this offseason, the Heat and Lakers would need to shed salary in trades.

9:30 a.m.: Seven players from the Heat’s season-ending roster remain free agents: Thomas Bryant (unrestricted free agent), Jamal Cain (unrestricted free agent), Haywood Highsmith (unrestricted free agent), Caleb Martin (unrestricted free agent), Patty Mills (unrestricted free agent), Cole Swider (restricted free agent) and Alondes Williams (restricted free agent).

While Martin’s return to the Heat was immediately deemed unlikely when he bypassed his $7.1 million player option last week to become an unrestricted free agent, multiple league sources said Tuesday night that a return to the Heat shouldn’t be completely ruled out.

As Martin continues to explore his options in free agency, the Heat’s interest in bringing him back hasn’t waned.

The issue is the Heat would have had more money to give Martin if he had opted in to his $7.1 million player option last week instead of opting out and becoming a free agent.

That’s because the Heat was eligible to offer Martin up to a four-year, $78 million extension that would have kept him with the Heat through the 2028-29 season if he had exercised his player option by this past Saturday’s deadline.

This type of contract would have kept Martin’s cap hit for the upcoming season at a manageable $7.1 million amid the team’s salary-cap crunch, while also making up on the back end of the deal for the money he would have lost this summer by opting in to a lower number than he would have gotten in free agency.

But with Martin declining his player option, that type of extension with a front-end cap hit of $7.1 million for this upcoming season is no longer possible.

Instead, the most the Heat can currently offer Martin while remaining under the ultra-punitive second apron is a contract with a starting salary of about $7 million with a maximum of 8 percent raises each season.

The Heat holds full Bird rights on Martin, which allows Miami to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to him maximum salary despite being over the cap. But the Heat is not expected to surpass the second apron threshold because of the roster-building restrictions that come with it.

The Heat could also try to shed salary in a trade to create more room under the second apron to improve its potential offer to Martin.

In Martin’s three seasons with the Heat, he has played in two Eastern Conference finals and one NBA Finals. He finished just one vote from being named the 2023 East finals MVP.