Free agent negotiations in the NBA begin Tuesday, and expect the Heat to be involved in several discussions.

But that might not necessarily translate into major deals for the Heat by July 16, the first day free agents can sign.

That's because the Heat, which likely will have in the neighborhood of $7 million to spend on free agents, is taking a cautious approach. Coach and president Pat Riley said he will not throw the team's money around just because it has some to spend.

After Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan and Jermaine O'Neal, the list of unrestricted free agents is not that impressive. Michael Olowokandi, Juwan Howard, Brad Miller, P.J. Brown and Karl Malone headline the list of free agents who will fall into the Heat's price range, but none is considered a franchise player worth a lucrative multi-year deal.

So it is possible the Heat will only sign players to one-year deals and wait until next year, when it could have more money to spend, to make a serious run at big-name free agents.

Riley, though, is not looking past this summer, when he will consider several possibilities, including sign-and-trade scenarios.

''We're going to approach it very aggressively,'' Riley said. ``Now, aggressively doesn't mean that I'm just going to go out and sign people to multiple-year contracts that might not reap the winning reward and strap us for the future. So we have to be aggressively cautious and go out looking at what our [salary cap] room can do for us and how it relates to our roster, looking at all kinds of sign-and-trade scenarios, which I think there will be a lot of, looking at whether we use our room or sign our free agents back and look to the exceptions.

``And if I can't do something that is really perfect for the team right now, then, yeah, we will [wait] and make sure that we have a lot of room in the future to be able to do those things.''