NBA Trades: Miami Heat strike bold move for Terry Rozier to bolster chances in East

NBA Trades: The Miami Heat has acquired Terry Rozier as they attempt to shake up the roster to make a move up the Eastern Conference standings.

The Miami Heat has lost seven of their last 12 games and are reeling down the Eastern Conference standings as the midway point of the season has arrived. Watching them play is generally a task and they have the look of a team that desperately needed a shakeup heading into the NBA Trade Deadline.

The hope is that the Heat have accomplished that shakeup. With the emergence of Jaime Jazquez Jr., the biggest need the Heat had heading into the deadline was at the point guard position. Miami has now officially addressed that need.

The Heat has traded Kyle Lowry and their 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Terry Rozier, a move that was rumored to be in the works over the past few days. It was something that was trending toward coming to fruition and the Heat finally got the job done this time around.

Terry Rozier could make a huge impact for the Miami Heat

Trading Rozier is not going to match the hype that was going to be around this team had they made the move for Damian Lillard during the offseason, nor if they had decided to pull the bigger move for Dejounte Murray, who the team was also linked to, but it's certainly an upgrade.

Rozier, who wanted to be traded to the Heat if moved at the deadline, is in the midst of arguably the best season of his career thus far. Rozier is averaging 23 points, seven assists, and four rebounds per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from 3-point range.

And if Rozier is posting those types of numbers while playing with the lowly Hornets, you can imagine what the ceiling will look like for him when he's surrounded by substantially more talent with the Heat. Playing next to Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo is going to make the game exponentially much easier for Rozier.

Perhaps the biggest impact this move makes for the Heat is that it gives them another player who can get his own bucket whenever he needs one. The Heat lacked a lead guard that could effectively penetrate the paint and get others involved. Even though Rozier is far from a natural pass-first point guard, he will give the Heat a lot more than what Lowry was giving them on the offensive end of the floor at this late stage of his career.

The Heat gets better with this trade. The question is, how much better is the Heat, and whether they're done making moves ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline?