Heat lock in Pelle Larsson on new contract as Antetokounmpo era opens
The Miami Heat have secured Pelle Larsson on a new contract. The Swede's deal is done as the club opens its first season with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Larsson appeared at the Heat's media availability at Kaseya Center on Sept. 28, 2026, with the deal in place. Camp has since moved into the preseason.
The franchise has seen how the size of a contract can land on a player. In the 2016 offseason, Tyler Johnson acknowledged being overwhelmed after receiving a four-year, $50 million contract from Miami.
Larsson reaches his own deal off a 2025-26 season in which he appeared in 70 of the Heat's 82 games. That season paid him $2.0M, the salary the new contract replaces.
The deal leaves Miami one question in the ledger: whether the contract pays for production already on the sheet or for production not yet shown.
Last season Larsson was paid like the 403rd player in the league and produced like the 109th, per WAGE. That return carried a 77 WAGE Score, in the Smart Money tier.
The 2025-26 ledger records production delivered, not projected: output just outside the top quarter of the league at a salary near the bottom of the list. On cost per unit of production, he ranked 11th cheapest of 399 rated players.
The season before, the price was nearly the same and the output was not. In 2024-25 the sheet had him paid like the 422nd player and producing like the 273rd.
That season carried a 58 WAGE Score. The climb between the two seasons came on the production side, with the salary rank close to unchanged.
The sheet shows a rotation contributor at a minimal price, with the step forward already taken before the new deal arrived.
The roster around him has changed since. Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP, made his preseason debut for Miami on Saturday in a 129-105 win over the Toronto Raptors in Quebec City.
Erik Spoelstra, the Heat coach, said after that game that a few weeks together had given him a new appreciation for Antetokounmpo's playmaking. He compared him to the "great big point guard" who played for Pat Riley in the 1980s.
"He makes great plays," Spoelstra said. "We knew that about him."
Larsson's new contract joins the payroll assembled around that arrival. The preseason in Quebec City marked the first look at the combination in a game setting.
The payroll sheet frames the price of Larsson's 2025-26 production from another side. Larsson at $2.0M and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors at $59.6M produced the same last season, tied for 109th in the league.
Whatever the new figure, the production on the sheet was earned at the bottom end of that range.
If the new terms lift Larsson's salary rank from the bottom of the list, the next ledger reads as the last one did only if the production holds near the 109th mark he set in 2025-26.
The regular season has not started, and no player carries a current score. The first ledger entry on the new deal comes with the games.