Heat agrees to deals to bring back Josh Richardson, Kevin Love on opening day of free agency

The Heat lost guard Gabe Vincent in the opening hours of free agency, but brought back two familiar faces on Friday night.

After Vincent agreed to join the Los Angeles Lakers on a three-year contract worth $33 million, the Heat pivoted and brought back guard Josh Richardson for a second stint with the organization and also retained forward Kevin Love on the first day of free agency, according to multiple league sources.

Vincent leaves Heat in free agency to join Lakers. Strus next to go? And Heat trades Oladipo

Richardson will sign a two-year-deal at the minimum worth about $5.9 million to return to the Heat. The contract includes a starting salary of $2.9 million and a player option in the second season.

Love will sign a two-year deal with a starting salary of about $3.7 million to stay with the Heat. The contract also includes a player option in the second year, as the Heat used non-Bird rights to give Love a bit more than the minimum salary.

Richardson, who was drafted by the Heat with the 40th overall pick in the second round of the 2015 draft, spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Heat before he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers as part of the deal that brought Jimmy Butler to Miami in the 2019 offseason.

Richardson had an opportunity to take a larger offer with an undisclosed team when free agency opened, but opted to sign with the Heat after speaking with coach Erik Spoelstra on Friday evening.

Richardson, who can play shooting guard and small forward, turns 30 in September. He averaged 10.1 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game shooting 43.1 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from three-point range in 65 games (10 starts) this past season while splitting the year between the New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs.

Richardson spent the 2021-22 season with the Boston Celtics and Spurs, the 2020-21 season with the Dallas Mavericks and the 2019-20 season with the 76ers after beginning his NBA career with the Heat.

In four seasons with the Heat, Richardson averaged 12.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 42.5 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from beyond the arc in 259 regular-season games (190 starts). His best NBA season came with the Heat in 2018-19, when he averaged career-highs in points (16.6 per game), rebounds (3.6 per game) and assists (4.1 per game).

Richardson’s defensive versatility and ability to hit spot-up threes at a solid rate will be useful for the Heat.

Meanwhile, Love first joined the Heat this past season during the mid-February All-Star break after agreeing to a contract buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. As an accomplished veteran, Love quickly emerged as a positive locker room presence and leader while also taking on a starting role for most of the Heat’s playoff run to the NBA Finals.

Love averaged 6.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game while shooting 37.8 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from three-point range in 20 games (18 starts) during this year’s playoffs.

In the regular season, Love averaged 7.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 38.8 percent from the field and 29.7 percent on threes in 21 games (17 starts) after joining the Heat.

While Love’s best days on the court are behind him, he proved this past season that he can help the Heat with his three-point shooting, rebounding and charge-drawing ability. He turns 35 in September.

In addition to all of these moves, the Heat also traded injured guard Victor Oladipo’s expiring $9.5 million salary into the Oklahoma City Thunder’s cap space on the opening night of free agency. The Heat took nothing back in the deal, which allowed Miami to open a roster spot, shed $9.5 million in salary and create a trade exception worth about $9.5 million.

The Heat’s current salary-cap breakdown for next season now includes Butler ($45.2 million), Bam Adebayo ($32.6 million), Kyle Lowry ($29.7 million), Tyler Herro ($27 million), Duncan Robinson ($18.2 million), Caleb Martin ($6.8 million), Love ($3.7 million), Jaime Jaquez Jr. ($3.5 million), Nikola Jovic ($2.4 million), Richardson ($2 million cap hit despite higher actual salary), and Haywood Highsmith ($1.9 million nonguaranteed salary).

Not including cap holds, the Heat has about $175.5 million committed to salaries for 11 players, including “unlikely to be earned incentives” that raise Herro’s cap number for this upcoming season to $29.5 million.

With the 2023-24 salary cap set at $136 million, the luxury tax at $165.2 million, the first tax apron at $172.3 million and the second tax apron at $182.7 million, the Heat is well above the luxury-tax threshold and is close to crossing the newly instituted and punitive second apron with roster spots still to fill for next season.

With Vincent gone and Love back, five players from the Heat’s season-ending roster remain available in free agency: Jamal Cain, Orlando Robinson, Max Strus, Omer Yurtseven and Cody Zeller. Cain and Robinson are restricted free agents.

NBA teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players under contract in the offseason and preseason, a total that does not include those on summer league contracts. Rosters must be cut to a maximum total of 18 players (15 on standard contracts and three on two-way contracts) by the start of the regular season.

While negotiations were allowed to begin Friday evening, free agents can’t formally sign their new contracts until Thursday at noon.