At one point this offseason, it seemed all but clear that the Miami Heat were building toward having complete financial flexibility (via cap space) heading into the summer of 2026. However, that may no longer be the case, especially with the extension decisions they'll have to make between now and the next free-agency period.
Theoretically speaking, the Heat could still carry cap space heading into next summer, but because of the decisions they have to make on Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, and Norman Powell relatively soon, it won't necessarily be genuine cap space.
The Heat will be forced to make some big decisions on extensions for each one of those players, either before the start of this season or early on in the summer next year.