It’s been a tale of two seasons for Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who’s having one of the worst seasons of his career.
Last year upon arriving in Miami, Rozier averaged 16.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, including 20.4 points on 45.1/50.0/94.1 shooting splits over his final 10 full games before suffering a season-ending neck injury.
Through 32 games to begin 2024-25–one more than he played in 2023-24 with Miami–Rozier’s barely been able to get off the ground offensively. He’s averaging just 12.0 points on 39.7 percent shooting, including 29.2 percent from 3-point range–the worst mark over a season that he’s logged at least 400 minutes.
He’s been one of the Heat’s most disappointing players this season, and one anonymous NBA executive still thinks it’s flying under the radar.
“He’s nowhere near the player the Heat thought they traded for,” an executive recently told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst. “His poor play has [played] a bigger role than gets noticed for their season.”
Amid his poor play, Rozier has started in 17 of the team’s 32 games. If the season ended today, his assist percentage would be the worst of his career, PER second-worst, effective field goal percentage third-worst and true-shooting percentage fourth-worst.
Rozier, 30, is under contract for $24.9 million this season with $24.9 million of his $26.6 million partially guaranteed for next season. The Heat would have to make the second round of the playoffs while Rozier plays at least 70 games during the regular season. He is on track to play 73 while the Heat do have Erik Spoelstra. But a potential Jimmy Butler-less Heat would have difficulty making it past the first round, depending on the matchup, barring something unforeseen. A lot can still happen between now and then, for better or worse.
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That may be true, that he is probably not quite as good as we hoped. But, Terry is still pretty darn good, easily better than some other players who play similar roles and who are decent too. Because of that, his skillsets are not redundant and I always am concerned that he will get traded while other players we have who have a less unique skillset won’t. And, you can tell who is valuable by who other teams want and I think he would have suitors. But, a lot of the proposed trades of Rozier hurt us a much as helping.
I am still a fan and think we can win with him.