Over the last three decades, there haven't been many horrific moves made by the Miami Heat's front office. However, as ESPN illustrates, there's probably none worse over the past five years specifically than trading for Terry Rozier.
It's a move that has hurt the Heat on several fronts.
ESPN labels this move for the Heat as one that was "too high a cost for too little reward." That's putting it nicely. In retrospect, this was a completely unnecessary move that was pretty irresponsible overall.
Terry Rozier has been a disaster for the Heat
To revisit the trade, the Heat packaged Kyle Lowry and their 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Rozier. In the year and a half since the deal was made, Rozier has evolved into one of the most disliked players in Heat history, and he's considered one of the most overpaid players in the league at the moment.
On top of that, he's on an expiring contract that's pretty untradable (who knew that existed), and is also under a federal gambling investigation. Not great.
But even if we focus on his on-the-court product, Rozier has been a shell of the best version of himself and was borderline unplayable down the stretch this past season. Not only did the risk on Rozier not pay off, but it also handcuffed the team's ability to make other big trades.
Because the Heat doesn't own their 2027 first-round pick, it automatically makes their 2026 first-round pick and 2028 first-round pick untradable. No team is allowed to trade back-to-back first-round picks thanks to the stepien rule in the CBA, and it's greatly limited the Heat in their road back to contention over the last year.
Even though the move is just a year and a half old, it's easy to see why it's so unpopular for Heat fans. Again, Miami has not made that many huge mistakes in recent memory, but the move for Rozier looks worse by the day.
To add insult to injury, it was a move that was commercialized to help deliver Jimmy Butler the help he needed to help push the Heat to another level in 2024. Now, Jimmy is no longer a member of the Heat, and Miami is stuck with Rozier.
There are times when it's completely fair and understanding to criticize ESPN, but they were probably spot on this time around. It's hard to push back against Rozier being the team's biggest misstep over the last five years.