The Miami Heat are hoping they can land Giannis Antetokounmpo via trade before the NBA Trade Deadline. As an added gift, if the Heat are able to pull off a deal, it's likely that they'll also be able to get out from Terry Rozier's contract.
According to ESPN's Tim Bontemps, if the Heat are able to find a path to Giannis, it will likely include using Rozier's salary as part of the deal. That could be especially helpful if the Heat explores the possibility of including a few of their young prospect in a deal.
Rozier's contract would eat up a lot of what Miami would need in the way of a salary matcher.
Flipping the page on the Rozier era in Miami
It's been a pretty disastrous tenure for Rozier in Miami. He's never quite fit in, and the original deal to acquire him just continues to look worse and worse. That goes well beyond the suspension he's currently serving from the NBA.
Even when he was active, Rozier was playing so badly that he completely fell out of the rotation last season.
To make matters even worse, the first-round pick that was acquired for Rozier originally is the main reason why the Heat currently has only two tradable first-round picks compared to four to offer in a deal for Giannis.
In some ways, there's an argument that the Heat could lose a trade deadline bidding war for Giannis because of the Rozier trade.
The Heat's brutal truth about a Giannis trade offer
As things currently stand, the path to Giannis appears quite narrow. For any team, but especially for the Heat. Miami may have intriguing enough young players to enter the conversation, but until they are able to add another first-round pick or two, it's unlikely that the Bucks are going to take their offer very seriously.
Thankfully for the Heat, there is a path to another draft pick or two. However, they're going to need the cooperation of a third and possibly a fourth team, perhaps more, in order to make it happen.
That's why a trade to the Golden State Warriors seems to make so much more sense, considering they wouldn't necessarily need a third or fourth team to get a deal done. They have a pretty clean path to a competitive Giannis offer, building a package around their four tradable future first-round picks and salary fillers like Jonathan Kuminga and Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green.
But if the Heat is able to find third and fourth teams, their offer could beat Golden State's.
With less than a week before the trade deadline, it's almost impossible to predict how things will shake out for the Heat. But one thing is for sure, and it's the fact that they're in the thick of it all. Interestingly enough, Rozier is going to play a factor one way or another.