NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed reporters in Las Vegas, Nev., on Friday to discuss a variety of topics. One of those was the expected timetable for the conclusion of the cases for Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups.
Rozier was arrested by the FBI in late October in an illegal gambling probe and pleaded not guilty to federal fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges earlier this month. He was released on a $3 million bond and won’t appear in court again until early March.
While Silver was “uncertain” about the timeline for a resolution, since the NBA doesn’t have the power to “leverage the authority” that the FBI has, he did acknowledge that they will try to work with the Heat for a solution.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Silver said. “I’m incredibly sympathetic to the Heat and to their fans. We’re going to try through and work this out with them. There’s no obvious solution here. There’s no doubt, at the moment, they have a player that can’t provide services for them.
“As for the draft pick they conveyed, obviously, he hasn’t been convicted of anything either. This is an unfortunate circumstance. Sometimes, there’s these unique events, and sometimes they require unique solutions.
“We’ll be looking at this with the Heat and other teams and see if they’re any satisfactory relief.”
As long as his current salary is on the Heat’s books, it remains to be seen whether or not the Heat can trade Rozier’s salary. He’s currently on the books for $26.6 million, which doesn’t become fully guaranteed until Jan. 7.
There’s not much the Heat can do. But any immediate solution — especially since we are roughly one-and-a-half months away from the Feb. 5 trade deadline — would help, especially with draft compensation.
Rewarding the Heat with a compensatory pick — at the bare minimum — is an obvious solution. But to Silver’s point, this is a very unique, unprecedented situation. Nevertheless, the Heat only have two tradable first-round picks (2030, 2032) ahead of the deadline; they cannot trade their 2027 or 2028 first-round picks because of the Rozier trade.
We’ll see how to the Heat navigate the deadline with Rozier on their books, should the situation be unresolved. It may not hurt them to throw Rozier in a trade anyway; the worst the NBA can say is “No.”
But, then again, why would another team accept that?!
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Maybe I’m in the minority. Miami got screwed, but it happens. Enjoy the expiring contract and move on.
Do I think the league/Charlotte did Miami dirty? Sure, but it’s a trade that happened, Miami got 1.5 years out of Rozier. If he had performed up to expectations, would we still be discussing this?
The FO may have not had all the information, but they also screwed up, with a desperation trade, for a player who wasn’t that good.
Good points. It was a desperate trade of a player who was also on a very expensive contract he was grossly underperforming on. We thought we were fleecing them. We couldn’t believe someone took Lowry even with a first round pick. Easy to forget the context of that trade.
And, some people may not like to hear it, but our all knowing wizard was exposed for just how fallible he became later in his career. But, hey, he was just listening to Jimmy, that’s the ticket.
It’s easy to blame Riley for several things. This isn’t one of them.
The overwhelming majority of us wanted the team to get rid of Lowry and felt Rozier (a 20 ppg scorer) together with 3 other 20 ppg scorers (Bam, Herro and the “quitter”) would make Miami much more competitive.
Unfortunately, Riley/we knew nothing about Rozier’s legal baggage that Silver and Charlotte were concealing. Charlotte, with the help of the NBA, was more than happy to dump their problem on Miami and get a first round draft pick in return.
in the 4 years prior to the trade, Rozier averaged better than 20/4/5, so he was actually a pretty good player at the time.
Yes, which is why we were quite happy getting Rozier. But, we aren’t getting paid to make these transactions. My point was and has always been that this team started its downward turn from the top of the league to where we are now when we acquired Lowry and paid him his exorbitant salary which limited other moves. .
Riles got boxed in when he saw what a mistake that became and made the somewhat desperate trade for Rozier. Now, there are some who felt Kyle was okay in his first year but I recall how he missed a lot of games early on for “personal reasons”. It is legitimately debatable though as some of his stats were okay. But after that year it was, as AUCH might say, painfully obvious he was underperforming his contract and that is why he was traded, and we gave up a number one draft pick in doing so.
I was happy when we got Rozier, but was not nearly as pleased when we got Lowry, as there were already signs he was past his prime and I have been consistent all along in saying, avoid spending big on old players.
Of course, I was responding to Zac on my comment, and, of course again, you and I were/are on the same page about Lowry. It was a move to placate the resident occasional ss for his good buddy. Clearly a mistake
Yes, but it is true that Riley didn’t know that the real reason he was even able to get this player who was probably far better than what he would have normally received for Lowry, with his contract, was that Rozier was possibly facing legal troubles. It all makes sense now and it’s just important to remember the context surrounding the trade. Is Riley responsible for not knowing?, I think not. He probably thought he was just getting a great deal. Was there a little desperation in unloading Lowry?, yes, probably some.
However, there were also a fair number of people who felt the pick was not in the Heat’s best interest. If it conveys as designed in 2027, it is lottery protected (first 14 picks), but if it conveys in 2028, it is fully unprotected. Anyway, I thought it was a good deal at the time. If they were advised there was an ongoing investigation, I’m sure no deal would have happened.
Riley was set up by Adam Silver who refuses to accept responsibility for his harmful decision.
Riley never thought the NBA Commissioner would walk him into an ambush without a warning.
Silver approved the trade knowing of and concealing relevant information posing potentially negative repercussions for Miami.
As it stands, the Miami Heat and its fans are the ones being penalized for decisions to conceal relevant information made by the Charlotte Hornets, Adam Silver and the NBA!
After a year in Miami he noticed, that he is not the best fit for what Heat are trying to do. Thats the part which bothers me. Somebody else should noticed that way earlier, ideally before that trade.
So it’s Riley’s fault for not hiring a gypsy with a crystal ball to foretell what the results of the proposed future trade would be?
Gypsies, Wizards, witches, Nostradamus propheties, HHH fans….what ever it takes.
He had those averages on an awful team. Many thought he wouldn’t be the same guy when brought here.
Look I agree the legal stuff sucks. I agree the Heat got screwed, but I also think that if he had been the 20 ppg guy he was in Charlotte here, we’d be crying about losing the player, not the fact that we got fleeced.
We got fleeced, not just because of the investigation and likely criminal activity, we got fleeced also because he didn’t fit, and just wasn’t that good. He was a classic volume scorer on a bad team. If Silver gives Miami something, great, but I’ll also enjoy when his contract is gone, and that’s coming up this year either way.
I remember things differently. I remember an aging, overweight, former solid pg who helped a team win a championship, but became overpaid dead weight. I remember some people saying they wanted to keep Lowry, but not many. Someone getting fleeced, to me, means one of the parties came out way ahead of the other. That didn’t happen here. Now, if you want to talk about Powell for Love and SLO-Mo, that’s another story. 😀
They got fleeced because they lost Lowry’s expiring contract. I don’t remember nearly anyone wanting to keep Lowry, but I believe I and some other folks wanted the contract off the books to give Miami some cap flexibility. Throwing in the first pick to boot, is where I’d say they got fleeced.
Trading an expiring contract, and a first for a volume scorer who played no defense (and didn’t fit in), wasn’t a good move. It looks worse because the NBA and Charlotte knew, which is why Miami has its hand out now wanting something.
I’d also say your right, we fleeced Clippers in that trade, imagine if they also gave us a first….
I agree with the last part.
You are mistaken on several fronts and are definitely in the minority. Here’s just a few corrections to your comments:
This is no time for Miami to roll over and play dead. If Silver does not fix the problem he created soon, Miami should take him, the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets to court and seek Rozier’s back pay to the time of the trade, the return of the 2027 draft pick and punitive damages.
Rec!
Thangya vera mush.
I remember as a kid watching Victor Page play for Georgetown, thinking wow they went from 1 – star PG (Iverson) who could score buckets to another. I didn’t look at the stats, just the points.
Rozier put up numbers on a bad team, requiring a lot of shots to do so. A guy scoring 20 PPG, shooting a 42-43% clip, isn’t what I call a premiere scorer.
He was also know to be an awful defender.
And who can speak to why he stunk here, you can assume it was because of an investigation, just as I can assume it’s because he stinks in general.
This situation is unresolved for months, which is unacceptable.
That was practically a fraud by Hornets FO, which new that they are traded the player under the investigation, and NBA, which shouldn’t allow such trade.
We wouldn’t get our pick back, because that means, that NBA will admit that somebody there didn’t do the job right.
But at least clearance, if Rosier could be traded as expiring contract is needed now.
So, the best we can get out of of this, is.
-NBA allows trading Rosier as expiring contract.
-NBA takes away the pick from Hornets.
-Name and fire person or persons in NBA organisation which allow this trade.
-Add another role which forbid to hide investigation details of players in case of trade and provides the punishment for such trade.
Fuck you silver
It looks like there won’t be a resolution anytime soon, at least not soon enough for us Heat fans. And it has the effect of paralyzing us from doing anything to improve.
Even if we were allowed to trade Rozier’s contract, why would another team accept it with his status and value pending. And, we don’t know how much to offer a team in picks until we know how many are available. It’s also hard to even out any potential trade with salary when you don’t know the exact number the Heat has on its ledger.
Meanwhile, our frustration mounts. Nothing we can do but ride it out as our complaints fall on deaf ears.
Another team would accept his contract because it is an expiring one. If they are saddled with long term contracts and they want to rebuild, it works for them. It is also important for salary matching purposes.
That’s about it in a nutshell. The team has a good supporting cast but needs to trade Rozier plus ? for a player (or two) who will make a difference. Right now the team is stuck in neutral.
A very weak response from Silver. The Heat deserves some relief now, before the trading period, before the end of the season. A conviction can take years. Instead of addressing it now, he defers to the federal investigation. But that is just the age old ‘washing of the hands’ approach. Of course he has no say in presenting the case or conviction of the accused, but he can do something now for the Heat since he acknowledges the obvious situation of having a player on the books who can’t perform a service. The good news is it’s the first time Silver has said they will seek a solution.
Silver admitted the NBA initiated the Rozier investigation then backed off once the FBI began investigating. What he does not address is why he chose to withhold relevant information that could have directly impacted Rozier’s value before approving the trade from Charlotte to Miami. That his gross negligence and Miami should not have been penalized for his incompetence. Miami needs to be made whole again to the tune of $60M plus the return of its 2027 first round pick. PERIOD!!!
Fix this mess you created Adam…or resign!
Heat is held hostage on this. finding it hard to make a move that might alter their course this season. and alter it dramatically. but no…they think Heat is soooo good the franchise can find their way to compete like what they have been doing every season lol