Heat’s Terry Rozier cleared for basketball and ‘feeling great’ after last season’s neck injury

The Miami Heat didn’t make a significant addition to its roster through free agency this year. But one could argue the Heat made that significant move through a trade in January.

By trading guard Kyle Lowry’s sizable expiring $29.7 million salary and a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets to land guard Terry Rozier on Jan. 23, the Heat traded any flexibility it was on track to have in free agency this summer. Instead of having the full $12.8 midlevel exception and enough cushion from the ultrapunitive second apron to potentially bring back Caleb Martin in free agency, the Heat was left with only the $5.2 million taxpayer midlevel exception and minimum contracts to offer outside free agents while limited room under the second apron played a part in Martin leaving to join the Philadelphia 76ers.

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That was the cost of acquiring Rozier midway through last season. It’s a move that the Heat believes will still end up being worth it because of the offensive punch Rozier can provide, but he needs to be healthy and available after missing the final 11 games last season because of a neck injury.

The good news is Rozier, 30, revealed Tuesday that he has been cleared to resume full basketball activity for “a couple weeks now” and is on track to be available for the start of training camp in early October.

“Doing great, feeling great. I’m cleared to play,” Rozier said to reporters during a Tuesday appearance to interact and take photos with young campers at Jr. Heat Basketball Camp at Cooper City High School. “I’ve been on the court. Shout out to the guys on the Miami Heat in getting me right. I’ve been lifting and doing everything else that I need to do. So I feel great.”

With the injury first listed as neck stiffness, Rozier initially blamed the injury on “the traveling and the sleeping” in early April. But further tests revealed concerning results, as the Heat held Rozier out of the final four games of the regular season, the two play-in tournament games and the entire five-game first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics with what the team went on to list as neck spasms.

“Obviously we all know why I came here, to be a big help for the playoffs and just to try to get this team some life,” Rozier said Tuesday. “It just sucks that I couldn’t play in the most important part of the season, and I had to watch the guys that I go to war with. So it was tough. ... It was just nonstop thinking about me just wishing I was out there with my guys. That’s why I’m glad that I’m cleared and everything else will take care of itself when the time comes.”

Heat president Pat Riley said during his season-ending news conference in May that Rozier was wearing a neck brace toward the end of last season.

“It was tough. It was tough just to look at myself in a neck brace,” Rozier admitted Tuesday. “... It was just a mutual agreement with me and the Heat that I wasn’t feeling the best and I wasn’t super comfortable. So we definitely sat it out, waited it out.

“I think that I would have played in the second round [of the playoffs] if we would have made it, but obviously that didn’t happen. But, like I said, the most important thing is I’m feeling better now and I’m in the facility every day just getting better and I’ll be ready for next season when training camp starts.”

Rozier added that he never felt his playing career was in jeopardy because of the neck issue.

“There was no fear of that,” he said. “The most difficult thing was me not playing with the guys. But obviously you just want to listen to your body and you got to get right first. But it was never a time where we were worried about me not playing basketball.”

Rozier has two seasons left on his current contract. He’s set to be the fourth-highest paid player on the Heat’s roster with a $24.9 million salary for next season behind only Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.

When Rozier was available last season following the late January trade, the Heat was pleased with what he brought to the team as a fixture in its starting lineup.

Rozier averaged 16.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and one steal per game while shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 37.1 percent on threes in 31 games (30 starts) for the Heat last regular season before being sidelined by the neck injury. With the Heat in need of players who could put pressure on the rim, Rozier provided that by averaging the third-most drives to the basket on the team last season with 10.3 per game behind only Butler and Herro.

After playing as a high-usage guard who averaged 23.2 points on 18.3 field-goal attempts per game with the Hornets last season prior to the trade, it took Rozier a few weeks to adjust to a more complementary role with the Heat alongside its leading trio of Adebayo, Butler and Herro. But Rozier’s best stretch in a Heat uniform came just before he went out with a neck injury, averaging 18.8 points per game on 45.3 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting on 7.4 three-point attempts per game in his final 10 appearances of the season.

But the Heat’s injury issues limited the quartet of Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Rozier to just 10 games together this season. Miami posted a 5-5 record in those games.

“Definitely just keep building that relationship with Bam, keep building that relationship with Tyler, and keep building that relationship with Jimmy,” Rozier said of the key to quickly building on-court chemistry with Adebayo, Butler and Herro. “Everything else will take care of itself. Spending time with each other, and I’m not talking so much off the court, but when we get back on the court together in training camp and stuff like that. I think things will start clicking.

“We’re learning one another. Like I said, we didn’t get any time with each other last year. I make no excuses at all, but I think we’re all excited.”

Excited to get another opportunity to play together, but this time as a healthier team with an available Rozier.

“I think the fans are bored right now, and they want to put as many scenarios as they can for us,” Rozier said. “But at the end of the day, we want to run it back with our same team, and we want to show the fans what we can bring to Miami. Obviously last year was tough on us, all of it as a whole. But we’re looking to get out there and impact, and make an impact all together.”

With Miami’s roster seemingly already set for next season, unless there’s a trade made in the coming weeks and months, 11 of the 14 players currently on standard deals were also on last season’s season-ending roster. The only new faces on the Heat’s standard roster for next season are free agent addition Alec Burks, and draft picks Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson

Even though most of last season’s roster remains intact, Rozier and his teammates believe the results will be different this season with fewer injuries. Along with missing Rozier, the Heat was also without Butler and Richardson when it was eliminated by the eventual NBA champion Celtics in the first round of the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed last season.

“I think everybody got kind of a sour taste,” Rozier said. “I think everybody wants to prove people wrong. I think everybody is ruling us out and doubting us, which is fine. But I think coming back to training camp, I think we have the right mindset that we want to prove people wrong. So whatever we decide to do as an organization, I know me and those guys that are going to put on a Heat jersey will be ready.”