The Miami Heat have been wheeling and dealing to try and lower their payroll. On Sunday it was reported that Shabazz Napier had been traded to the Orlando Magic which would save the Heat about $4.5 million. Now it is being reported that the Heat have traded Zoran Dragic to the Boston Celtics as another salary dump according to the Dan LeBatard Show.
The deal with the Celtics is reportedly the Heat sending Dragic and a second round pick and getting back a heavily protected second round pick according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. This move could save the Heat about $6 million when the luxury tax is taken into account which means they would have saved more than $11 million in two days with the Dragic and Napier deals.
Zoran is the brother of the Heat's starting point guard Goran Dragic who is reportedly okay with Zoran being dealt as he was looking for playing time and was unlikely to find any with the Heat in this coming season. The move now opens up a roster spot for the Heat to keep one of the younger players that they really like, like James Ennis or Josh Richardson.
Despite the trade of Dragic the Heat are still $8 million over the luxury tax according to Zach Lowe of Grantland.com and are likely not done making deals to try to avoid paying the repeater tax. The Heat have reportedly traded two guards in the past two days yet Mario Chalmers' spot with the team is still reportedly not safe. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports that the Heat are still looking for a trade partner that would take on Chalmers' contract to further reduce Miami's payroll.
Dragic is now going to a Celtics team that should be able to provide him more of an opportunity in terms of playing time. Avery Bradley is entrenched as the starter at shooting guard but behind him he will compete with second year man James Young for playing time as a backup wing. Dragic is 26 years old and has only played 75 NBA minutes so far but his brother is a very good point guard and Zoran had some success in Europe.
As for the Heat this was another move to try and get closer to being below the luxury tax line. Dragic wasn't likely to find minutes this season anyway so they dealt him and saved a lot of money. The Heat are likely not done with moves like this as they continue to try and shed salary to avoid being the first team to have to pay the repeater tax.
