Miami Heat: 3 big questions heading into 2018-19 NBA season

1. Can the Heat shed any of their long-term contracts?

Without question, this casts the biggest cloud over the direction of the franchise moving forward.

Presently, the Heat are on the books for the following deals in the coming years:

• James Johnson: three years remaining, $45.4 million
• Dion Waiters: three years, $36.3 million
• Hassan Whiteside: two years, $52.5 million
• Tyler Johnson: two years, $38.5 million
• Goran Dragic: two years, $37.3 million

While its admirable that the Heat front office would reward their own with generous contract extensions, the length and amount of these deals has hamstrung the organization considerably in the short-term.

For team president Pat Riley, finding a way to move on from one or more of these deals is unquestionably the first step toward building their next legitimate contender. With a plethora of big names such as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson on the board as free agents in 2019, creating the necessary cap space in order to garner a genuine meeting with these prospective names is at the top of the priority list for Riley and the front office.

Despite protestations to the contrary by Riley, the Heat are making every attempt to try to remedy their current cap position, as Zach Lowe of ESPN recently stated:

"“The Heat are kicking a lot of tires, I can’t figure out what they’re trying to do.”"

This reported activity is likely to be a strong reason behind the delayed re-signing of team legend Dwayne Wade, with both sides seemingly keen to strike a deal. However, with such a lopsided current roster construction, moving on from the current deals of either Dion Waiters or Tyler Johnson would seem the most likely avenue for Wade to return for a 16th season.

So with little time remaining until the commencement of training camp, there’s sure to be a hive of activity in the Heat front office over the coming weeks.