Miami Heat waive Khem Birch, roster now at 15

The Miami Heat needed to waive one more player to get their roster to the league maximum of 15 players by opening night, and they chose to keep Andre Dawkins, and waive PF/C Khem Birch.

Sedano broke the news? Yes, but CBS Sports confirmed it as well.

Birch, out of UNLV, had helped the Heat tremendously during the preseason in the absence of Josh McRoberts and Justin Hamilton. But apparently, the Heat feel that once those two return and and ready to go, they won't have much of a need for Birch. He's already behind in the rotation after Bosh, Haslem, Shawne Williams, McRoberts, Andersen, and Hamilton.

The Miami Heat waived C/PF Khem Birch out of UNLV.

— Jorge Sedano (@SedanoESPN) October 25, 2014

Birch just didn't provide enough offense to survive the final roster cut. In the wake of LeBron leaving, the Heat can't offard to have someone on the floor so one dimensional. Every player has to be able to contribute. Birch was a terrific rebounder and shot blocker, but that was all.

So the Heat decided to go with the un-drafted Andre Dawkins for their final roster spot. Dawkins is a great three-point shooter, and that has been enough to keep him on the roster. Dawkins will be behind Wade and Shannon Brown at the shooting guard spot.

With the Heat now having 15 players on the roster, they don't need to make any more changes before opening night. They'll only need to designate which 2 players will be inactive for opening night.

The Heat host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday for their regular season opener.