The Miami Heat face significant challenges this summer during free agency, largely due to their lack of salary cap space and draft assets. Without making a trade, their options for restructuring the roster are severely limited. To create any meaningful change, they would need to part with key players such as Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, Jamie Jaquez Jr., or Nikola Jovic.
One of the recent speculations in the dwindling pool of free agents is Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan. Reports suggest there is mutual interest between DeRozan and the Heat. According to CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn, “The Heat have popped up as a potentially interested party, but it’s worth noting that they are already around $7 million above the first apron.”
However, the feasibility and practicality of this potential move are questionable. Would acquiring DeRozan by moving Herro or Rozier improve the Heat’s chances? Both DeRozan, at 35, and Jimmy Butler, at 34, are aging, raising doubts about their ability to compete for a title.
Quinn elaborates, “Acquiring a signed-and-traded player hard caps you at the first apron, so the Heat wouldn’t just have to trade out however much salary they planned to pay DeRozan, but add another $7 million or so on top of that (and that’s before you talk about filling out the rest of the roster). For this to be feasible, you’d basically have to give up either Tyler Herro or Terry Rozier. Maybe Miami is prepared to do that, but Herro is a decade younger than DeRozan, the Heat just gave up a first-round pick for Rozier, and the Heat already ranked 18th in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game, so subbing out a willing gunner for DeRozan would be suboptimal to say the least.”
Given the current constraints and the criticism directed at Heat team president Pat Riley, there seems to be little that can be done at this point. The Heat might be better off seeing if running it back with a healthy roster makes a difference. If it doesn’t, they can consider breaking from this core next summer when Butler becomes a free agent.
