Heat wing Pelle Larsson made his 41st start of the season on Sunday, which means he has met the starter criteria ahead of potential restricted free agency, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
If a player starts at least 41 games or logs at least 2,000 minutes in the season before he reaches restricted free agency – or averages 41 starts or 2,000 minutes during the two seasons prior to free agency – it increases the value of his qualifying offer, as we explain in more detail in a glossary entry.
Miami holds a $2.3MM team option on Larsson for 2026/27. If the team declines it to make him a restricted free agent, the value of Larrson’s qualifying offer would now be $5.91MM, as opposed to $2.66MM.
However, as our Luke Adams wrote a couple weeks ago in a Front Office article, Larsson is only in his second NBA season, so there’s little incentive for the Heat to decline his minimum-salary team option for ’26/27.
If he plays out his full contract, Larsson will still be eligible for restricted free agency next summer, since he’ll only have three years of NBA service at that time. So the Heat can deal with his next contract at that point, or at least negotiate an extension during the ’26/27 league year after they exercise that affordable option.
The 44th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Larsson has emerged as a solid rotation player for Miami in year two, making 54 appearances and averaging 10.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists (against 1.2 turnovers) in 25.1 minutes per game. His shooting slash line is .487/.324/.779.
Comments are closed.