UNC in the NBA: Will Heat let Ellington walk after record-setting season?

Wayne Ellington is playing the best basketball of his career, and his days in Miami could be numbered

When Wayne Ellington signed a free agent contract with Miami in the summer of 2016, few anticipated the impact that the veteran shooting guard would have on the young Heat.

Miami president and general manager Pat Riley brought Ellington in on a two-year deal that put him on his seventh team in as many seasons. Both Riley and Ellington were hoping that a change in scenery would help revive the former Tar Heel’s career.

And revive his career, it did.

The journeyman sharpshooter was just three years removed from a disappointing season in Dallas that saw career-lows in points, rebounds, assists, field goals, three-pointers, free throws and minutes played. After two seasons in Miami, though, Ellington is playing the best basketball of his career and likely due for a nice payday in the coming offseason.

Through the first 74 games of the season, Ellington is averaging career-highs in points (11.4) and minutes played (26.7). And although he’s been in the starting lineup just twice this season, Ellington is likely to set a new career-best in games played (76, twice).

After knocking down a career-high 149 three-pointers a year ago, Ellington has connected on 207 this season. He’s currently sixth in the league in made threes, just five behind Steph Curry and 18 shy of tying a Miami Heat record set by Damon Jones in 2005.

It’s worth noting that the Heat let Jones walk the following season, unwilling to offer the type of contract that the Cleveland Cavaliers would later give him. Two seasons later, Miami bid farewell to Jason Kapono, despite his league-leading 51.4 three-point percentage.

Ellington, now in his ninth professional season and coming off the best two-year stretch of his career, could find himself in a similar position.

The NBA is a bit different from what it was in the early-2000’s, though, with three-point shooting now the focal point of some of the league’s best offenses. And Ellington, who’s made better than 200 of the 500-plus threes that he’s taken this season, fits right into that mold.

Perhaps it’s possible for Riley and the Heat to get creative with the salary cap again this offseason in order to keep one of the league’s best long-range shooters. It does seem like a difficult task, though, considering that the Heat expect the injured Dion Waiters to return next season, along with Dwayne Wade and a plethora of other perimeter players including Goran Dragic, Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, Justice Winslow and Rodney McGruder.

With all of those contracts in order, and Ellington set for a costly raise in 2018, the Heat would likely enter the league’s dreaded luxury tax realm.

Riley has emphasized on numerous occasions that he’s unwilling to pay the NBA’s luxury tax unless the team is in title contention. And while Miami currently sits in the Eastern Conference’s eighth playoff spot, title contention seems far-fetched in any universe that the Heat have to pass through LeBron James en route to said title.

It was Riley’s foresight, along with Ellington’s fortitude, that led to the somewhat surprising renaissance of his career. And the two appear to have built a solid relationship in the process. But will that connection be enough for the Heat to bring Ellington back into the fold next season?

So, while Ellington appears to have found his groove in Miami, and figures to be just a handful of games away from breaking the franchise record for three-pointers, his time with the Heat may be quickly coming to an end.

Next: Joel Berry's legacy at North Carolina

But wherever Ellington winds up next season, it’ll likely come with a lot of zeros on the end of it.