Miami Heat face decisions with Omer Yurtseven in free agency
MIAMI — We’re about to see within a week, at minimum, what the Miami Heat think of Omer Yurtseven.
After playing Cody Zeller ahead of Yurtseven during the run to the NBA Finals these past two months, and having opted for Dewayne Dedmon as their reserve center of choice during last year’s run within one victory of the NBA Finals, the Heat face a June 29 decision on extending a free-agency qualifying offer to Yurtseven.
While the qualifying offer of $2.3 million is nominal in the overall NBA salary stratosphere, it also potentially would lock in a guaranteed salary for 2023-24 at a time the Heat could be hard up against several punitive elements of the new luxury-tax tiers.
By extending a qualifying offer, the Heat would make Yurtseven a restricted free agent, able to match outside offers.
Should the Heat bypass a qualifying offer to the second-year center, Yurtseven would become an unrestricted free agent.
The Heat also could extend a qualifying offer and later rescind it — provided Yurtseven does not sign it in the interim — as was the case with guard Kendrick Nunn in 2021, who went on that summer to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.
For the Heat, options to augment Bam Adebayo in the power rotation beyond a trade could be limited to decisions on whether to bring back Yurtseven, Zeller, Kevin Love or sign a veteran big man at the league minimum.
Among potential free-agent centers who could be available at the minimum at the June 30 start of NBA free agency are Thomas Bryant, Andre Drummond, Bismack Biyombo, Blake Griffin, Montrezl Harrell, Willie Cauley-Stein, Gorgui Dieng, DeAndre Jordan, Meyers Leonard and Dedmon. The Heat also have the option of upgrading rookie center Orlando Robinson from a two-way contract to a standard deal.
For Yurtseven, 2022-23 essentially was a lost season, appearing in only nine regular-season games due to ankle surgery. There then were eight mop-up appearances during the playoffs.
“It taught me a lot about the process of recovery,” Yurtseven said of what he endured this past season. “It’s my first injury. So to be able to go through that and grow from that was a learning curve.”
The previous time he was a free agent, he quickly was signed by the Heat amid a dominant 2021 summer. Now there is a decision based on playing time, role and salary.
“While I haven’t given it much thought in terms of balancing those three,” Yurtseven said, “I think my priority is to play, because that’s the way to get better and reach the potential of the team and improve personally so you can help the team win.”
Among the reasons Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has turned elsewhere have been defensive questions, with Yurtseven limited in his lateral movement with his 6-foot-11, 255-pound frame.
“I think defensive abilities are going to be at the core,” Yurtseven said of his offseason work. “That’ll be agility. I think I’ve improved a lot on it since coming back from injury. And also the 3-pointer was a big focus last summer.”
During his best of times, Yurtseven put together a dominant stretch in the middle of the 2021-22 season, when he filled in for six weeks while Adebayo recovered from thumb surgery.
He believes now with a greater sense of the NBA game that he can do it again, particularly provide the rebounding that at times was so lacking during the playoffs.
“Absolutely,” he said “I think that’s something I’ve done before and I still do. It’s just not having been able to do it in a helpful way that can help us win. Yes, that’s why I got to get better. I think I do have a natural instinct for it. But rebounding is just working for it every single time, going after it every single time.”
As for the just-completed Heat playoff run, he said it provided perspective.
“I would say keeping composure through it all,” he said of what he learned from the Heat’s leading men. “Seeing that focus from guys was a big teaching point and something I think I really took away from them.”
