Heat keeps Terry Rozier on roster past Wednesday deadline, guaranteeing full salary for season
While Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier has been away from the team and is not expected back this season in the wake of his Oct. 23 arrest stemming from a federal investigation into illegal gambling, the Heat has still opted to guarantee Rozier’s full $26.6 million salary for this season.
With only $24.9 million of that $26..6 million salary initially guaranteed, the Heat had an opportunity to save $1.7 million by waiving Rozier before Wednesday’s 5 p.m. league-wide deadline to release players before all contracts become fully guaranteed.
But the Heat decided to keep Rozier on its roster past that deadline and guaranteed his full $26.6 million for this season.
Why?
The biggest advantage of keeping Rozier on the roster beyond Wednesday is to have his large expiring salary available to use in a trade prior to the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline. Not only could Rozier’s $26.6 million salary help balance the salary-cap math in a trade, but it also could be attractive to a team because it’s an expiring salary that will come off the books this upcoming offseason.
While the Heat has yet to receive clarity from the league about whether Rozier’s expiring $26.6 million salary can be used as part of a trade in the wake of his October arrest, according to a league source, the Heat would push for an immediate answer from the NBA on this issue if Rozier’s name came up in trade discussions with another team.
Waiving Rozier before Wednesday’s deadline would have created an additional $1.7 million of room below the luxury tax threshold, and would have opened another spot on Miami’s 15-man standard roster.
The Heat, which opened a four-game trip with a 122-94 blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night at Target Center, is currently operating with one open spot on its 15-man roster and just $1.6 million below the NBA’s punitive luxury tax line. The Heat already has the ability to fill that open spot by signing a player to a prorated minimum contract for the rest of the season without crossing the luxury tax threshold, but waiving Rozier would have opened a second roster spot and given the Heat the ability to immediately add two players to prorated minimum contracts for the rest of the season without entering luxury tax territory.
But the Heat decided to keep Rozier, 31, as a potential trade chip instead of creating a second open spot on its 15-man roster.
Rozier, who the Charlotte Hornets traded to the Heat in January 2024, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason. He was only with the Heat this regular season for the opener before being arrested on the morning of Oct. 23 at the Heat’s Orlando hotel following the team’s Oct. 22 season-opening road loss to the Magic.
The NBA placed Rozier on paid leave shortly after his arrest in October, with the Heat continuing to list him as “not with team” on its injury reports this season.
The NBA is currently having the Heat place Rozier’s salary in an interest-bearing account, pending the resolution of his legal case.
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While the Heat was not made aware of the unusual betting activity involving Rozier before trading for the veteran guard in January 2024, the Heat has yet not received any type of relief in the wake of Rozier’s October arrest.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said during a news conference in Las Vegas on Dec. 16 ahead of the NBA Cup’s championship game. “And I think I’m incredibly sympathetic to the Heat and to their fans. But I think we’re going to try to work something through, work this out with them. But there’s no obvious solution here.”
The NBA was alerted to the unusual betting activity 10 months before the Heat traded Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to the Hornets for Rozier in January 2024, but the league did not inform the Heat (or other teams) of that red flag in the months that followed. The NBA went on to clear Rozier in its own investigation of him before a federal investigation later ended with his arrest.
The Hornets also did not inform the Heat, sources said. The Hornets have declined to comment when asked if they knew of the NBA’s investigation at the time of the trade, whether they had any knowledge of sportsbooks flagging bets involving Rozier and why they did not inform the Heat if they did know.
The Heat, in fact, was unaware that Rozier was the subject of separate NBA and FBI investigations until the Wall Street Journal broke the story this past January.
But there remains little clarity regarding what recourse the Heat may have in the Rozier situation.
It still remains to be seen if the Heat would attempt to recoup the first-round pick that it sent to the Hornets in the trade for Rozier.
That pick will convey to the Hornets in 2027 if the Heat makes the playoffs next season. If the Heat misses the playoffs next season, then Charlotte would receive Miami’s 2028 first-round pick regardless of where it falls in the first round.
If the Heat had not traded a future first-round pick to the Hornets for Rozier, Miami would have all its future picks and four tradable first-round picks (2026, 2028, 2030 and 2032). Instead, the Heat can currently trade no more than two future first-round picks (2030 and 2032).
One potential workaround for the NBA would be awarding the Heat a compensatory first-round pick in 2027, which would allow Miami to trade four first-round picks. But there has been no indication that the NBA would consider doing that.
Rozier, 31, made an appearance in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, last month for his arraignment. Rozier pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was released on a $3 million bond secured by his home in South Florida.
Rozier has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is accused of providing inside information to co-conspirators about his intentions to leave a March 2023 game early due to a foot injury while he was with the Hornets, which enabled them to place large bets on him not reaching statistical thresholds.
In its indictment, the FBI alleges that Rozier told Deniro Laster, a childhood friend, that he planned to remove himself from the Hornets’ game against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. Laster allegedly sold this information to two betters for about $100,000.
Rozier left the game after just nine minutes with five points, four rebounds and two assists.
The indictment alleges that he paid for Laster to travel to Philadelphia to collect the proceeds from the scheme, and that Laster then drove to Rozier’s home in Charlotte to count the money with him. The indictment does not detail the evidence against Rozier.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, has denied the allegations.
“I would just say that there’s no doubt at the moment they have a player that can’t perform services for them,” Silver said when asked about Rozier’s situation last month. “And as to the draft pick they conveyed, obviously he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet either. But this is an unfortunate circumstance. But sometimes there’s these unique events, and maybe sometimes they require a unique solution. So we’ll be looking at this with the Heat and the other teams in the league, and see if there’s any satisfactory relief. But at the moment, there is none.”
