The Miami Heat don’t want to pay a lot of tax, but they’re deep in luxury tax country and are repeat offenders. In order to reduce the tax bill, they’ll be trying to get rid of some redundant players, like Mario Chalmers and maybe even Chris Andersen.
Chalmers has been mentioned in trade rumors for quite some time, but he doesn’t seem too worried about the constant mentions of him and the team getting rid of him.
I haven’t spoken to anybody. When I had my exit meeting with Pat Riley, he said the only way he would trade me was if he had to.
Which pretty much means the Heat will trade him if they get a good deal. Chalmers has one year left on his deal worth $4.3 million, which isn’t big money, even if what he’s giving hasn’t changed for quite some time. He didn’t really step up despite the absence of LeBron James, averaging 10.2 points per game and shooting just 40.3% from the field, while playing off the bench for about half of the season.
Chris Andersen is making even more money ($5 million a season) and might not see a lot of floor time (around 19 minutes last season) if Amare Stoudemire, Hassan Whiteside and Chris Bosh remain healthy. He’ll probably be harder to move given his age (37) and his very limited skill set, which is making it harder and harder for players who can’t do more than one or two specific things to get jobs.
Chalmers, we’ll mention again, is a big more “movable.” He is pretty much in his prime (even though not a very impressive one) and is a good shooter when he’s open, has experience in big game situations, a pretty good defender when motivated and isn’t someone who tries to do too much on most occasions. At his price, some team will be looking to add him at some point during the season, but right now the market might be a bit cool for him, meaning the Heat need to be patient.
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