MIAMI, February 16 – The Miami HEAT announced today that they have acquired guard Brian Roberts from the Charlotte Hornets in a three-team trade involving Chris Andersen. In exchange for Roberts, Miami will send Andersen and two conditional future second round picks to Memphis and the Grizzlies will send Courtney Lee to the Hornets in exchange for PJ Hairston and two future second round picks.
“Chris Andersen was absolutely essential in our 2013 NBA Championship run,” said HEAT President Pat Riley. “We want to thank him for his contributions and we wish him nothing but the best, he will always be considered part of the HEAT family. Brian Roberts has been on our radar and we felt it was important to solidify our point guard position due to the injury of Tyler Johnson. We feel like we did that with the addition of Roberts and we would like to welcome Brian to Miami.”
Roberts, playing in his fourth NBA season, has appeared in 252 career NBA games (57 starts) and averaged 7.4 points, 2.6 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 18.5 minutes while shooting 41.2 percent from the field, 35.2 percent from three-point range and 91.9 percent from the foul line. He has currently shot above 90 percent from the charity stripe in three of his four seasons thus far, including an NBA season-high 94 percent during the 2013-14 campaign. Roberts has been perfect from the line 12 times this season and recently scored a season-high 17 points at Portland on January 29.
Andersen, who spent parts of four seasons with the HEAT, appeared in 181 games with Miami (21 starts) averaging 5.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.13 blocks and 17.6 minutes while shooting 60.5 percent from the field. He captured his first NBA championship as a member of the HEAT in 2013 and appeared in 38 postseason games with Miami averaging 5.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.05 blocks and 16.3 minutes while shooting 69.3 percent from the field.