Heat guard Terry Rozier has been placed on indefinite unpaid leave after being arrested on federal charges related to illegal gambling. Rozier (via the players’ union) has an arbitration hearing tomorrow with the NBA to determine whether he should be paid while on leave — his withheld salary is currently being placed in an escrow-type account.
The Heat were reportedly unaware of the unusual betting activity — or the NBA’s investigation — tied to Rozier (he was a member of the Hornets at the time) when they traded for him in January 2024, several months after the incident took place. Miami still owes Charlotte a future first-round pick from that deal — it will be top-14 protected in 2027, and if it does not convey, the Heat will send the Hornets an unprotected first-rounder in 2028.
Multiple reports have indicated that Miami has also not received clarity about whether the team can waive Rozier or use his salary in a trade while he’s on leave. The 31-year-old’s $26,643,031 salary is partially guaranteed for $24,924,126, so the Heat could theoretically create a modest amount of cap savings if they cut him on or before January 7.
At a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s NBA Cup final, NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked if the league has considered giving Miami some type of salary cap or draft pick relief as a result of Rozier’s arrest, according to stories from Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Silver said. “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. I would just say that there is no doubt at the moment they have a player that can’t perform services for them. As to the draft pick (that has yet to convey), 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 unique solutions. 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.”
Silver said the NBA continues to look into the matter, but there’s no timeline for a resolution.
Were the Hornets aware of the investigation? If so, it feels like both the Hornets and the league owe compensation to the Heat. If they weren’t, I say tough shizz
I’m with you, if its genuinely out of nowhere that no one had any idea or inclination to these circumstances, I don’t think theres much to be done about it even if the Heat are getting the very short end of the stick. Now if the parties other than the Heat were in the know and did not disclose such information then yeah the Heat are owed some amount of compensation.
Probably not, it would’ve leaked.
I might be wrong here, but I think I recall reading somewhere that the NBA was investigating, or had completed an investigation, into Rozier when the Heat traded for him. So the Hornets might not have known the full extent of the investigation. However, the NBA clearly had some knowledge of what was going on and I don’t think the NBA mentioned it to the Heat when they made the trade.
Like other leagues, when a trade happens typically all teams involved + the league get onto some sort of conference call so all parties are aware of the parts moving in the trade (so one team can’t try to sneak something in or out of the deal) + provides a verbal confirmation. If the league was investigating Rozier at the time, you would think they would kind of give the Heat a heads up saying “hey we’re investigating him for a potential issue so maybe we delay the trade until we finish”.
I think the league keeping mum about it on the trade call was appropriate if the Hornets were also unaware. If the Hornets knew about the investigation, then the NBA should have made the Hornets tell the Heat or nixed the trade.
Thats the thing for me, someone had to have known something. And if they did, they should’ve notified the Miami Heat at some point since they’re likely to be stuck with the ramifications of the trade without any return whatsoever. When you make these trades you typically do so honestly with medical/physical examinations done in addition to the interviews with said player. But if there is information not disclosed or intentionally withheld in regards to a player, then its not really a honest transaction or trade and should result in some sort of compensation for the organization being taken advantage of. But thats my opinion, I’m not sure how everyone else feels, definitely a screwed up situation tho.
Best trade Charlotte ever made if the pick winds up unprotected lottery, and the trade was already a loss for Miami and just got way worse.
Adam’s having a lotta unprecedented issues lately
His lack of spine probably spurns future unprecedented maters as well