The Miami Heat can safely waive Chris Bosh at any time now, as his salary will be excluded from their cap number now that there’s no way he could play 25 or more regular season games for another team this season. So what’s the holdup?
According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Heat are in no rush to release Bosh because there are no players currently available that they want badly enough to free up a roster spot. In addition, Miami apparently has not given up hope that some team could decide to trade for Bosh.
More importantly, Miami want to keep alive the not-very-likely possibility of being able to trade Bosh (after the season) to a team that might want to trade something Miami wants or a team that believes he could play or (as was the case before last month’s trade deadline) a team that needed to get to the cap floor. There were preliminary trade inquiries earlier this season.
There has been no indication that a doctor would even clear Bosh to play, as his repeated blood clots caused him to fail his preseason physical with the Heat and he has not appeared in a game since. If Bosh plays in 25 games in any remaining season during the term of his deal with Miami, the Heat would have to pay him his full contract amount. They’re already in the clear for this season, but they still owe him about $52 million over the next two years.
As Jackson notes, any team that trades for Bosh would not be eligible to have his salary removed from their salary cap regardless of what happens with his health, so that makes acquiring the 33-year-old even more risky. At least one team was said to have interest in Bosh earlier this season, but the reality is his condition could keep him from ever playing again.
