Heat waive end of roster, will start season with 14 players

The Miami Heat just did something they haven’t done in years, chose to begin the season with under 15 players on the roster.

They announced that they waived Rodney Purvis, Raphiiael Putney, Jarnell Stokes and Brianté Weber on Saturday, minimizing the roster to 14 guarantee players along with 2 two-way players in Yante Maten and Duncan Robinson.

The move is not a total surprise, as saving the last spot open saves them around $4 million when you include salary and tax. However, the Heat have traditionally brought a full roster into the season. Many of their moves were with an eye to send players to the Sioux Falls Skyforce over the last week.

However, we know at least one player was very upset, and that’s Brianté Weber.

Weber is in his third go around with the team, and still couldn’t make the roster. Miami keeps its flexibility to use the one open spot to either convert one of their two-way players to a regular contract, sign another free agent, or absorb an extra player in a trade (ahem, Minnesota) if they needed to without making cuts.

The season begins on Wednesday, October 16 in Orlando for the Heat.

Here is the final regular season roster for Miami:

• Bam Adebayo
• Goran, Dragic
• Wayne Ellington
• Udonis Haslem
• James Johnson
• Tyler Johnson
• Derrick Jones Jr.
• Rodney McGruder
• Kelly Olynyk
• Josh Richardson
• Dwyane Wade
• Dion Waiters
• Hassan Whiteside
• Justise Winslow
• Duncan Robinson (two-way)
• Yante Maten (two-way)