Links & Quotes: Terry Rozier’s not so great year

Terry Rozier had a good game against the Raptors. As Brad Stevens pointed out (via wjsy)

In his post game presser, Brad Stevens gave him credit for the team’s turnaround, saying, “I thought Terry Rozier turned the game around. I thought he turned the environment around to be honest. I thought that his energy lifted everyone around from our team to the building. I just thought it was contagious.”

“The way he picked up the ball, a couple of the plays he made, the spirit he played with, I thought really got us going in the right direction and everybody followed suit from there on out.”

However, one game doesn’t necessarily mean his season long slump has been fixed. Zach Lowe points out that his numbers have been pretty bad.

Only 14 percent of Rozier’s shots have come from within the restricted area, a huge drop-off -- and one of the lowest marks in the league among guards. He’s shooting 20 percent on long 2s, which is honestly hard to do. His drives are down. His free throws have cratered. He has the assist rate of an average wing -- not a lead playmaker -- though part of that is sharing so much time with at least one of Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart.

Fansided writer David Ramil points out that Rozier’s lack of production seems to be a lack of fit based on situation.

To his credit, Rozier hasn’t complained, at least not publicly, about his role this season even as he has clearly struggled to find his place. But therein lies the issue for Rozier, one compounded after his postseason surge. He knew this was Irving’s team and would stay so once the latter returned from injury. He knew that on a team this deep, everyone would need touches and Rozier, despite his strong postseason, still has to prove that he excels in any one thing. He’s not a scorer like Irving or Jayson Tatum, not a relentless defender like Marcus Smart, nor as versatile as Hayward and Brown. Rozier knew all this and yet there’s the overwhelming sense as he prepares to enter restricted free agency later this summer that he feels something, should have been different.

All of which leads us to the logical solution of trading Rozier now while the team can get something for him instead of losing him in the offseason for nothing. But as Sam Sheehan points out, they may not be able to get much for him.

Simply put and barring extreme circumstances, Rozier will likely not be a trade asset for the Celtics between now and the deadline, and we are far more likely to see him as a sweetener or part of a large package, rather than the main piece in a swap. At this point, a high second round draft pick would be good return for him, but I’m unsure if the Celtics could even find a taker for a deal like that. It will be interesting to see if Danny Ainge makes Brad Stevens play rotation musical chairs for the rest of the year or bites the bullet on a poor return to find Rozier a new home.

The ideal solution to all of this is simply Rozier finding a better groove in his reserve role. But we’ll find out soon enough if the team is content with being patient with him or if they’ll be more interested in moving on at the deadline.