The Miami Warmth obtained themselves some extra firepower on Tuesday, buying guard Terry Rozier from the Charlotte Hornets in alternate for guard Kyle Lowry and a 2027 first-round choose. Rozier, who turns 30 in March, is having a profession 12 months and will likely be anticipated to offer the NBA’s Twentieth-ranked offense a lift. The choose going to the Hornets is lottery-protected in 2027 and unprotected in 2028, in keeping with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Lowry, who turns 37 in March, is on a $29.7 million expiring contract and does not have a lot of a future with a Charlotte staff that’s 10-31 this season. The Hornets will attempt to commerce him earlier than the deadline, moderately than instantly engaged on a buyout, in keeping with ESPN.
Let’s grade the commerce.
Warmth: A-
You may’t quibble with this commerce when it comes to worth. Miami, a staff that made the NBA Finals final season, turned a veteran on an expiring deal into a man who’s averaging 23.2 factors and 6.6 assists with a 57.4% true taking pictures proportion on a troublesome shot weight loss plan. It price the Warmth a future first-rounder, nevertheless it’s not absolutely unprotected and, in the event that they see themselves as a contender, this type of factor is what future firsts are for. Rozier is in Yr 2 of a four-year, $96.3 million contract; he’ll be 32 and making $26.6 million in 2025-26, the final 12 months of his deal.
The upside right here is easy: Miami wants offense, and Rozier can present it. He does not must dominate the ball, however he can provoke offense and relieve Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro of playmaking duty. This season, Rozier is making 39.3% of his pull-up 3s and, in keeping with Cleansing the Glass, making a career-high 50% of his midrange pictures, together with 51% on lengthy 2s. He offers Miami one other participant who can hunt mismatches and get buckets when opposing groups are switching and the halfcourt offense is getting slowed down.
Ideally, Rozier will make a easy transition right into a much less demanding offensive function. With quite a few playmakers subsequent to him, he mustn’t need to take as many robust 2s as he is been taking in Charlotte. Rozier’s utilization charge this season is 26.8%, and in accordance, to pbpstats.com, it was 28.4% in 873 minutes with out LaMelo Ball on the courtroom. Butler (24.3% utilization charge), Adebayo (27%) and Herro (28%) will create extra alternatives for Rozier to both catch and shoot — he is solely made 29.9% of his catch-and-shoot-3s this season, however his quantity (2.9 makes an attempt per recreation) is decrease than it has been since he was a backup in Boston — or assault a tilted protection.
The Warmth want Rozier to carry the most effective elements of the man he is been for the Hornets these days and the man he was with the Celtics years in the past. So long as he can get snug of their offense, he’ll be extra environment friendly than ever. Erik Spoelstra will certainly have him in movement off the ball, setting ghost screens and coming off dribble-handoffs. Given how properly Duncan Robinson and former Miami wing Max Strus performed off of Adebayo, the large man ought to be capable of set up a two-man recreation with Rozier instantly. The Warmth may also demand that Rozier use his size (he is 6-foot-1 with a 6-8 wingspan) on protection, navigate screens and customarily be as a lot of a pest as attainable.
Additionally value noting: Miami will save $15.4 million in luxury-tax funds this season due to the swap, and it’ll create a $6.4 million commerce exception, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
If you happen to aren’t bullish on this transfer, it may be since you doubt that Rozier can or will do all that. He hasn’t performed for an above-average protection since he left Boston, and, in keeping with Cleansing The Glass, the Hornets have been worse on that finish with him on the courtroom yearly however one. Lowry is not the defender that he was in his prime, however his smarts have not gone wherever, he stays one of many league’s finest charge-takers and he is nonetheless sturdy when switched onto larger gamers. Spoelstra will miss his screening and the way in which he pushes the tempo, too.
There’s additionally the chance price. Buying and selling the choose does not essentially make it inconceivable for the Warmth to amass a star participant within the close to future, nevertheless it definitely makes it tougher earlier than this 12 months’s deadline, notably if their pleasant rookie, Jaime Jaquez Jr., is assumed to be untouchable. (Miami now can solely commerce one unprotected first-rounder: Its 2030 choose.) Does this deal transfer the needle sufficient to justify lacking out on one thing larger? Miami’s offense hasn’t been superior, however how a lot of that’s merely a results of accidents? Herro and Rozier are pretty related offensively, and Rozier’s presence may complicate Jaquez’s progress and Robinson’s taking part in time.
Mitigating all that, although, is Rozier’s contract. For the reason that Warmth did not exit and get somebody just like the Chicago Bulls’ Zach LaVine, who’s owed $49 million in 2026-27, this does not really feel determined. So long as Rozier performs properly, he ought to have commerce worth subsequent offseason and past. He may even be included in an eventual commerce for a star. If Miami decided that it was unlikely to make use of Lowry’s contract and this choose to commerce for a star within the subsequent 16 days, then a transfer like that is the subsequent smartest thing.
Hornets: A
It is not that Charlotte “received” the commerce. It simply will get the marginally larger grade as a result of its scenario is less complicated. The Hornets are midway via a darkish, forgettable season, and it is time to get what they’ll for the gamers who aren’t part of their future. They are not completed making future-focused strikes, in keeping with ESPN, and nobody will likely be stunned if Miles Bridges and Gordon Hayward, each of whom are on expiring contracts, are elsewhere quickly. It is cheap to surprise if the Hornets may transfer PJ Washington, who signed a team-friendly contract final offseason, too.
Charlotte was most likely by no means going to get a beneficial younger participant for Rozier, and it did not handle to get a totally unprotected first-round choose manner into the long run. It obtained a reasonably good one, although, notably if it does not convey in 2027. Butler is 34, and if the Warmth occur to overlook the playoffs in 2026-27 and have a down season in 2027-28, the Hornets will look sensible.
(An apart that it is best to skip should you do not care about dorky NBA trivia: Since Miami owes the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder a lottery-protected first-round choose in 2025, if it misses the playoffs subsequent season, the choose on this commerce will mechanically develop into an unprotected 2028 first, because of the Stepien rule.)
When Charlotte acquired Rozier in a sign-and-trade as Kemba Walker left city, it was not met with rave opinions. His four-year extension wasn’t precisely celebrated on the time, both. Rozier grew immensely as an offensive participant in his 4 and a half years with the Hornets, although, and developed a fame for hitting troublesome pictures within the clutch. In an alternate universe, the franchise may need been capable of construct on the promise it confirmed in Ball’s first two seasons. On this universe, after a training change, some misfires within the draft, an possession change and a ton of accidents and ugliness, it turned clear that Rozier wouldn’t be a part of the subsequent Charlotte staff to make the playoffs, which implies buying and selling him for a first-round choose is a win.
It’s inside the realm of chance that the Hornets nonetheless get extra out of this deal. Lowry is a primary buyout candidate, however, because of the restrictions within the NBA’s new collective bargaining settlement, he cannot signal with the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns or the Celtics. If a type of groups want to purchase him, it must commerce for him.
Even when Lowry is ultimately purchased out, although, this transfer is smart for Charlotte, whose entrance workplace is projected to have greater than $45 million of cap house this offseason. Now let’s examine who follows Rozier out the door.
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