The Miami Heat's hopes of trading Terry Rozier will ultimately be decided by the NBA, and they're not tipping their hand at all. According to a recent report, the NBA will only make a ruling on whether Rozier is trade-eligible or not until after the Heat submits a trade proposal.
With the way things sound, there's a scenario in which the Heat agrees to a trade in principle with another team that includes Rozier, only to have the NBA strike it down afterward. With the way the NBA has handled this entire situation, the Heat are in a pretty unfortunate situation, and they can't help but just try to make lemonade out of it.
In fairness to the NBA, it's hard to envision the Heat even finding a team that would be willing to take on Rozier's salary, even as it is expiring, but the fact that Miami has this dead money on its cap that they can't even use in a perhaps bigger trade has to be increasingly frustrating.
Not only are the Heat forced to carry Rozier on the roster, but they're also stuck with his cap number counting against them. He's currently away from the team and ineligible to play for Miami, even if they wanted him to.
The Heat may need Terry Rozier's contract for a bigger deal
But the most unfortunate part of all this is the idea that the Heat may need his salary to be part of a bigger deal for the team at the trade deadline. If there's a scenario in which a star player becomes available, and the Heat are interested, having Rozier's contract eligible to be traded as a salary filler could be valuable.
Without the potential to use Rozier in a trade, though, it will certainly limit what the Heat may or may not be able to do at the trade deadline.
But this is just another part of what makes this entire Rozier situation all the more frustrating for the Heat.
It's almost impossible to predict how this Rozier situation is going to end for the Heat, but it's becoming pretty clear that the least likely scenario is a trade.
Even if the NBA won't admit it now, I can't imagine there's a scenario that they'd let the Heat trade Rozier. And it's pretty foolish that the NBA won't even admit that now, let alone relay that message to the Heat's front office.