Even though his salary will still count against the Miami Heat’s salary cap books, they will not be paying Terry Rozier while he’s on leave of absence, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania and AP’s Tim Reynolds first reported Wednesday.
According to Charania, his paycheck — as well as Chauncey Billups’ — will be “withheld and placed in escrow, pending outcome of FBI cases.”
Rozier is on the books for $26.6 million, even though $24.9 million was guaranteed on their books entering the 2025-26 season.
With his salary still present, the Heat remain without enough salary to sign a 15th player to their active roster without exceeding the luxury tax.
Rozier, 31, was one of 34 individuals arrested in an illegal gambling scandal. He has not appeared in a game this season and has since been put on leave by the Heat.
It remains to be seen how the league will handle this after they reportedly withheld information from the Heat after the sportsbooks informed the league of suspicious betting activity. The league doesn’t have the subpoena power that the FBI does, but it’s still embarrassing nonetheless.
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Rozier’s performance tapered off after the trade in the 2023-2024 season. It got substantially worse in 2024-2025. I have suggested before that he was probably under a lot of stress/pressure because of the ongoing FBI investigation (waiting for the other shoe to drop).
If that’s the case, he came to Miami as “damaged goods” (which is confirmed by the drop offs in productivity in 2023-2024 and again in 2024-2025). Therefore, Miami has paid him several tens of millions of dollars for inferior performance -AFTER- the trade was made by Charlotte/approved by the NBA. Miami is the damaged party and deserves a 2027 first round draft pick from Charlotte -OR- the NBA and full reimbursement for Rozier’s contract salaries (retroactive to his January 2024 arrival in Miami).
NBA ADVANCED STATS
Jaime Jaquez is rated #5 in Offense, #1 in Defense and has #1 Net Rating in the NBA!
Also note several other Miami players are in top 10 in various categories, including: Fonteccio, Mitchell, Ware, Jovic and Smith.
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced-leaders
That makes sense. Paying him while he is suspended would suck if he is later convicted. Holding his money in escrow until this matter is resolved seems fair to both parties. I still believe the NBA and Charlotte both owe the Heat compensation for withholding relevant information. Adding a first round pick for Miami in the 2027 draft seems appropriate for the NBA. A second round pick seems appropriate compensation from Charlotte.
It may make sense, but it doesn’t help the Heat in any way now. As we all know, cases can take years to be resolved. I was on a capital case grand jury in 2019 and one of the high profile cases we dealt with has yet to come to trial. The only way to be fair to the Heat would be to allow them to add a player at about 50% of Rozier’s salary ($13m) without impacting the cap or tax. We are, in essence, operating under the NBA requirement of 14 players. It is unlikely that the investigation will be concluded this season or this year. The team is being unfairly punished for something they had no control over and no knowledge of.
I agree. Ideally, the NBA waves the salary cap issue since the NBA itself (and Charlotte) put Miami in this position. I hope Silver is looking for an expedited resolution that makes the Heat whole again. Otherwise, Miami should sue tf out of both NBA and Hornets. FTS!
That is EXACTLY how I feel – that the Heat organization should sue the league for reasonable compensation. And that should happen sooner rather than later.
charl had no idea terry was dirty.terrys to blame not charlotte,we got fkd.just sign precious back need a 3rd big
How do you know that? It’s not just whether he was dirty )that hasn’t been proven yet). I guess you are not following the whole story. The Sun Sentinel has directly reached out to the league asking if they or Charlotte were aware that Rozier was under INVESTIGATION at the time of the trade and did not inform the Heat. Nobody except those 2 entities knows the answer to that question.
They and NBA had an obligation to tell Miami there was an ongoing FBI investigation since the NBA did not have the legal authority to fully investigate the matter.
Thank you!! I’m still trying to figure out how he KNOWS Charlotte “had no idea Terry was dirty”? Could he be an agent of the underworld with insider information? Hmmm….🧐
Hmm? Could be. After all, he is from the Bronx (nearby), so there’s that. Some people (who will remain nameless) might call that prima facie evidence.
What did Hot Hot Hoops know about hfl and when did they know it? CNN and Fox are asking. If found guilty, he will be sentenced to be the permanent ride operator of It’s A Small World at Disney.
That’s a little severe. Maybe the tea cups?
think rcs been to to many spicy buffets sun
how bout the head chef at boma when rc is eating there
if they knew terry was dirty they would have reported to silver.99.9% sure of that.why jeopardize their franchise.