Heat’s Nick Richards has a fully guaranteed salary after making the opening-night roster

Nick Richards stayed on the Heat’s roster through opening night, so his $3,066,143 minimum-salary deal for 2026-27 is now fully guaranteed, Ira Winderman reports. Miami carries a cap hit of $2,449,421 for him.

The Heat now have 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Wing Myron Gardner is assured of at least a $500,000 partial guarantee, and the 15th roster spot is open. Richards, 28, signed in the offseason to back up Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He averaged 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 14.6 minutes over 48 games for the Suns and Bulls last season.

Several other players had guarantees that rose once they were on a roster for the first day of the regular season:

• Mo Bamba (Jazz): partial guarantee rises from $250,000 to $500,000.
• Isaiah Crawford (Rockets): non-guaranteed $2,449,421 becomes a partial guarantee of $1,154,325.
• Jaylen Wells (Grizzlies): partial guarantee of $300,000 becomes a full $2,296,271.
• Brandon Williams (Warriors): non-guaranteed $2,625,627 becomes a partial guarantee of $1,400,000.
• Vit Krejci (Trail Blazers): partial guarantee of $250,000 becomes a full $2,667,944.
• Trendon Watford (Pelicans): partial guarantee goes from $250,000 to $500,000 if he is not waived Wednesday.

These figures assume none of the players agreed to push back their guarantee dates. A team that did not want to lock in the money would normally have waived the player before the roster deadline, as Dallas did with Dwight Powell.