Miami Heat Reportedly Trade Roger Mason Jr. to Kings to Create Open Roster Spot

UPDATE: Thursday, Feb. 20 at 5:15 p.m. ET by Adam Fromal

It's official. 

Roger Mason Jr. will never play a game with the Sacramento Kings. As expected, the team is waiving the veteran small forward who was brought over in a deal with the Miami Heat, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst: 

Mason will be looking for a new home after surviving the early portion of the year on tenuous deals, and the Kings will continue to plan on giving Ben McLemore and Ray McCallum the playing time that was freed up in the Marcus Thornton deal. 

--End of update--

ORIGINAL TEXT

With the trade deadline approaching, the Miami Heat made a deadline-day deal with the Sacramento Kings, agreeing to trade guard Roger Mason Jr. and cash in exchange for a protected second-round pick:

ESPN's Marc Stein went on to say that Miami will likely never use the pick involved in this deal due to its highly protected status:

So, let's recap: Miami just paid a team to take Mason off the books. Not sure how that feels, but it can't be great.

Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick confirmed the report and added that Miami's endgame may be using the newly opened roster spot for someone else who may be bought out:

There's no official word yet on who Miami might plug into that open spot, but Grantland's Zach Lowe speculated on the possibility of Jason Terry: 

Talk about a thorn in the side of Dirk Nowitzki and Mark Cuban. The Dallas Mavericks and Heat have been on-again, off-again nemeses since the 2006 NBA Finals.

Miami won that series, but the rivalry intensified in a Finals rematch in 2011 when Terry was a huge part of Dallas' only championship in franchise history.

Other names are bound to come up as possibilities for Miami, but all we have is speculation for now.

Andy Bailey covers the NBA for Bleacher Report.

Follow @AndrewDBailey