The Miami Heat’s deliberately patient pursuit of DeMar DeRozan now comes with a clock attached. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday on “NBA Today” that the Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers have joined Miami among the teams interested in the six-time All-Star, turning what had looked like a comfortable waiting game into a live competition for one of the last accomplished scorers on the market.
REPORT: The Miami Heat are targeting DeMar DeRozan and Klay Thompson, per @ShamsCharania
“I’m told Miami, Denver, and Cleveland are among the teams interested in DeMar DeRozan… There is a player out west that is overlapping with DeRozan as far as interest from teams. That is… pic.twitter.com/ChLZN7Zdqm
— Heat Central (@TheHeatCentral) July 27, 2026
“Probably the biggest name guy right now, DeMar DeRozan, six-time All-Star,” Charania said. “I’m told Miami, Denver, and Cleveland are among the teams interested in DeMar DeRozan, a scorer, playmaker, a clutch performer down the stretch of games.”
The timing matters because the Heat have spent the days since LeBron James chose Philadelphia treating DeRozan as a fallback they could circle back to whenever their preferred business elsewhere resolved. Monday’s reporting suggests the market may not extend Miami that courtesy much longer.
Where the Heat and DeRozan actually stand
Miami’s interest is genuine, and so is the dialogue. Miami Herald reporter Barry Jackson tweeted Monday that the Heat and DeRozan have held conversations within the past 72 hours, that DeRozan likes the idea of playing in Miami and that the 36-year-old has admirers inside the Heat’s decision-making circle.
As Anthony and I (and Ethan) have noted, Klay is Heat priority. DeRozan likes Heat and there have been conversations in past 72 hours, but as we reported Saturday AT LEAST 1 member of Heat decision making group wants to wait, though DeRozan has admirers inside that key Heat inner… https://t.co/OR1M1iodi0
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 27, 2026
The complication sits inside that same circle. At least one member of the Heat’s decision-making group prefers to wait out the market before committing one of the team’s three open roster spots.
That split — admirers on one side, institutional patience on the other — has kept the conversations from progressing into anything resembling an offer.
Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald reiterated Monday that while the Heat carry a level of interest in both DeRozan and Klay Thompson after missing out on James, Thompson remains the front office’s top priority even though he is still under contract with the Dallas Mavericks.
That hierarchy is the entire story of Miami’s offseason right now. The Heat are not lukewarm on DeRozan so much as they are unwilling to spend on him while a door they like better might still open.
The $8 million question
What the Heat are protecting is the roughly $8 million that remains of their midlevel exception, and Miami is not the only interested party circling that money. Multiple notable free agents have wanted some or all of that remaining exception, and the Heat cannot accommodate everyone with it.
Multiple "names" want or wanted 8 M left of Heat midlevel and you can't give it to everyone. Though Mavs would prefer to trade Klay than buy him out, Heat logically must have reason to put eggs in this basket. https://t.co/mQBK1GfxX5
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 27, 2026
Jackson also acknowledged the awkward fact hanging over the whole plan, writing that though Dallas “would prefer to trade Klay than buy him out,” the Heat “logically must have reason to put eggs in this basket.”
That basket comes with mechanical strings. As covered in this space over the weekend, spending the exception requires the Heat to open the season with 14 players to stay beneath the $209 million hard cap they triggered earlier this offseason, and Thompson is owed $17.5 million in the final season of his deal — money Dallas faces no urgent pressure to eat.
If the Mavericks find a trade partner for Thompson elsewhere, Miami will have spent weeks preserving flexibility for a player who never became available, while the DeRozan market moved on without them.
What DeRozan would give Miami
The on-court case is straightforward. DeRozan averaged 18.4 points, 4.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game across 77 starts for Sacramento last season, per Basketball-Reference, shooting 49.7 percent from the field on the strength of the midrange game that has aged better than almost any scoring profile in the league.
He has been a free agent since the Kings waived him earlier this month. For a Heat roster that sent Tyler Herro to Milwaukee in the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster and then watched Norman Powell leave for Chicago in free agency, another proven half-court creator addresses a real void.
DeRozan remains one of the league’s most reliable late-clock options, the kind of player who can manufacture a bucket when a playoff possession breaks down — precisely the situations where Miami’s post-Herro roster looks thinnest. The fit question is the shooting.
DeRozan connected on 32.0 percent of his three-point attempts last season and sits at 30.2 percent for his career, and pairing him with Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo would ask Miami’s remaining rotation spots to carry nearly all of the floor-spacing burden. That tension is presumably part of why Thompson — a career-long elite shooter — sits atop the wish list while DeRozan waits.
Why the clock matters now
Denver and Cleveland change the math on waiting. Several teams have contacted DeRozan’s camp and some of them can offer exception money of their own, which means DeRozan is under no obligation to accept a minimum deal or to sit idle while Miami monitors Dallas.
The Nuggets can sell a championship-caliber situation next to Nikola Jokic. The Cavaliers can sell a featured offensive role for a team coming off a deep playoff run — and for Heat fans, the idea of DeRozan strengthening a direct Eastern Conference rival lands differently than losing him to the West would.
None of this means Miami is wrong to wait. The front office watched the James pursuit end with nothing to show for weeks of patience, and it has clearly decided that the right shooter matters more than the fastest signing. But patience was a free strategy only as long as DeRozan’s market stayed quiet.
As of Monday, it isn’t quiet anymore, and the Heat may soon have to decide whether protecting the Thompson plan is worth watching a six-time All-Star sign somewhere else — possibly somewhere Miami will see four times a year.
The next signal to watch is Dallas. Any movement on Thompson, in either direction, likely unlocks Miami’s remaining money within days. If the Mavericks hold firm and DeRozan’s suitors press, the Heat’s summer of waiting will finally demand an answer.
