Miami Heat have five open roster spots, who should they sign to fill them?

The Miami Heat must sign at least four free agents to complete their roster for 2018-19 to meet the NBA minimum league-wide average of 14 players on a team.

Assuming Jordan Mickey and Luke Babbitt don’t return, and Miami guarantees Rodney McGruder’s contract, that leads to a choice of whether to resign Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, and Wayne Ellington, or else sign minimum-scale free agents to augment the ten players already under contract.

Miami’s situation is they have ten players in the fold to start next season, and they can fill the remaining five slots anyway they feel is best for the organization.

Barring any trades the Heat can wipe the slate clean and sign five developmental projects to start a rebuild this season with 10 rotation players, 7 building blocks, and two first-round draft picks in the next couple of summers.

The Heat must make a trade to avoid the luxury tax, because of the minimum roster size requirement.

Miami is $2.6M under the tax penalty line, and since five minimum annual contacts would total $4.2M, the Heat could either shed $1.6M in salary during the season, or pay a modest luxury tax bill.

To resign Wade, Haslem and Ellington, the tax payment for Miami becomes larger, or the salary-dump trade scenarios become more complex as fan favorites may need to be sent elsewhere.

Bottom line, as of today five roster spots remain open: how should the Heat fill them?