Ira Winderman: Rats off a ship? Nah, but Heat seemingly have to cast some salary ballast overboard

MIAMI — As the Miami Heat face the possibilities of landing in the most punitive tier of the NBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement, there could have been an easy out for almost all of what now stand as impending concerns:

They simply could have retained Kyle Lowry to the end of the just-completed season, allowed his $29.7 million salary to come off the books on the final year of his contract, and then entered this offseason with ample flexibility.

Instead, Pat Riley and his front...