Heat waive Rozier

The Miami Heat waited almost six months, then cut Terry Rozier loose two days before the regular season ends and days before the SoFi National Basketball Association Play-In Tournament begins on April 14. Miami now has an open roster spot and until Sunday to sign someone who can be playoff-eligible. (espn.com, nba.com) This was not a player getting benched for bad shooting nights. Rozier has been on indefinite National Basketball Association leave since October 2025, after federal agents arrested him in Orlando one morning after Miami’s season opener. (apnews.com, usnews.com) The charge at the center of the case is not that Rozier bet on games himself in uniform on a random night. Prosecutors say he gave information that helped bettors cash in on wagers tied to his own stat totals during a March 2023 game, when he was still with the Charlotte Hornets. (nbcnews.com, sports.yahoo.com) That is why this dragged on for months without a clean basketball answer. A sore ankle can be listed on an injury report and a suspension has a set length, but a federal gambling case leaves a team carrying a player who cannot help on the court and cannot be easily slotted into normal roster plans. (espn.com, cbsnews.com) Rozier’s 2025-26 season with Miami was basically one line on a transaction sheet. He was present for the October 22 opener at Orlando, did not play, and was arrested at the team hotel the following morning. (usnews.com, espn.com) He later pleaded not guilty in federal court in Brooklyn on December 8, 2025, which meant the legal case kept moving even while his basketball season never really started. Miami spent the year listing him as “not with team,” which is the kind of label clubs use when the paperwork is still alive but the player is functionally gone. (cbsnews.com, sports.yahoo.com) The money complicated it too. Rozier was on an expiring $26.6 million contract, and expiring deals in the National Basketball Association can work like a coupon that loses value on a fixed date: useful in trade talks until the deadline passes, then mostly just dead weight on the books. (espn.ph, indystar.com) Miami is 41-39 and headed to the play-in for a fourth straight year, so the roster spot matters more than the old contract now. A team fighting for the seventh or eighth seed gets more use from a healthy 15th man in April than from a guard tied up in court filings. (espn.com, nba.com, msn.com) So the move looks cold only if you ignore the calendar. The regular season ends April 12, the play-in starts April 14, and the Heat finally used the last clean window to turn a season-long legal limbo into one open locker. (espn.com, nba.com)