Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier’s age, contract and lack of production a season ago all make him a prime candidate to be moved this offseason.
At 31 years old, he doesn’t exactly fit Miami’s timeline. Additionally, he is an expiring contract in that he has just one more year remaining in his current deal. He will get paid just over $26.6 million in the upcoming 2025-26 campaign before he hits unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2026. Meanwhile, his Heat tenure hasn’t gone well.
It’s safe to claim that Miami’s decision to trade guard Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Rozier has aged like milk. According to a report, some of the Heat’s top decision-makers were split on the move at the time. Allegedly, team president Pat Riley pushed for the move while CEO Nick Arison was against it.
Riley was one of those pushing for the Rozier trade @MichaelRyanRuiz rightly hated, though. (I was wrong to be in favor of the deal.) Nick Arison, who has had final say since 2011 (5 finals appearances since) was against it.
(We reported this on Off the Floor and @5otf_). https://t.co/rgjOu3Gl0x
https://twitter.com/5ReasonsSports/status/1940838433125183592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1940838433125183592%7Ctwgr%5E453cf2c9644812011a0c3c67fab38a98d2f9f4f5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fheatnation.com%2Frumors%2Freport-pat-riley-was-in-favor-of-terry-rozier-trade-while-nick-arison-was-against-it%2F
In the clip quoted by Five Reasons Sports, sports pundit Dan Le Batard explained that Riley doesn’t necessarily run the show in Miami despite what some may think. He said that “the people who run this team are Micky and Nick Arison,” adding that “Nick is Pat Riley’s boss.”
Riley’s judgement was seemingly off in the instance of the Rozier trade, as not only is he now a clunky fit in Miami because of his age, but he just had one of his worst campaigns of his pro career.
Rozier has proven throughout his pro career that he’s a gifted scorer, as he’s averaged as many as 21.1 points per game in a single season at the highest level. Yet, he scored just 10.6 points per game (his lowest scoring average since the 2018-19 campaign) on 39.1 percent shooting from the field and 29.5 percent shooting from 3-point range across 64 games played this past season.
The guard has spent just one full season (and part of another) in a Heat uniform, but he already could be on his way out of Miami in the near future.
Considering the numbers Rozier put up earlier in his career, it makes sense why the Heat decided to take a flier on him. However, the experiment clearly hasn’t worked, and the two sides would likely be better off heading their separate ways at this point in time.
