Exactly one year ago today, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier had one of his best games with the Heat, scoring a game-high 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting and 5-of-11 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-2 guard helped the Heat lead to a 12-point win over the Washington Wizards on Easter Sunday, as they were in the thick of competing for seeding in the East.
He followed suit with a dynamic 34-point performance in what was a 10-point win against the New York Knicks. Since then, his stature with the Heat has been a downward spiral.
Rozier, 31, suffered a season-ending neck injury and is having one of the worst seasons of his career, averaging 11.0 points on just 39.5 percent shooting and 29.9 percent from 3-point range.
Over the weekend, Terry Rozier opened up about his fit–or lack thereof–with the Heat, doing his best to adjust what’s best for the team.
“I think it’s just my style of play hasn’t been the best fit for what we want to do,” Rozier said, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel. “So I’m just seeing what works and what Coach likes and what fits best for the team, I’ve kind of been fighting. I kind of know what Coach wants me to do. Just got to do it.”
Rozier hasn’t impacted the Heat positively this season, which is very unfortunate after how dynamic he was pre-neck injury.
His role in the Heat rotation has been minimized for most of the last month, which was a decision that head coach Erik Spoelstra had to make. He last appeared for a four-minute stint in Saturday’s 23-point win over the tanking Philadelphia 76ers, recording one assist and rebound apiece while missing both of his shots.
In his six previous games, dating back to March 7, he was just averaging 6.0 points and 2.7 rebounds on 35.1 percent shooting across 17.0 minutes per game.
For Rozier’s sake, I hope he his able to unearth his confidence next season and in future seasons. This season was a lost one for him. He’s had an up-and-down career. His 11.0 points is the fourth-fewest of his 10-year career; his 39.5 percent field is the fifth-worst while his 50.3 true-shooting percentage is the fourth-worst.
I have confidence he’ll bounce back. Whether or not that’s with the Heat is a different conversation. Rozier will have one more partially guaranteed–93.5 percent of his $26.6 million is guaranteed–year left on his contract.
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Rosier might have the same problem as Butler. The game changed so much that a small guard as Rosier is having a lot of problems to play his game. There is always a springy big somewhere protecting the paint, and a versatile big or long guard to protect the perimeter.
This effectively cut what Terry likes to do on the court. The result is a low efficiently, when he trays to do something, or he is invisible, when he doesnt. He is not a good playmaker either, so thats it. Not a lot small guards still able to play in the league.
He wont stay in the league for long, when he ll finish the Heat contract.
Butler was not that good past two years. He received a lot of blocks, his efficiency fall, for the same reason. His size in the paint was not good enough.
You are right and this is why he needs to diversify his game and add mid range jumpers. It will pay him off in the long term.
There are so many present day NBA players who had to tweak their game because of the opposition.
A few examples are Bosh your typical post up man and mid range jumpers, added 3s to his arsenal.
Bam post up, added mid range and 3s
Herro mid range and 3s added down the lane runs to the rim.
Chris Paul did it all, shot 3s, mid range and ran down the lane very well but was a poor facilitator. It was with the clippers that coach Doc Rivers challenged him to increase his assist ratio. CP was disgruntled and requested.Now in his old age, with his ppg considerably below what we know him for, he is not only grateful to Doc Rivers but added that being a facilitator opened his vision on the court. I mention CP because of his size, 6′ 0″ with 42% FG.
Here in Miami, Rozier has been charged to be a facilitator as well. I will encourage him to add mid range shots to his arsenal. if he does not want to do that, he has to improve his shooting accuracy so his field goal percentage is higher than the misery 39.4% this season. One good thing he still has, is his quick burst of speed or sudden change in direction which few players have a mastery of in today’s NBA, that is dominated by shooting 3s.
Jalen Brunson 6′ 2″ of Knicks has a similar burst of speed and sudden change in direction as Rozier but has a higher FG% of 49% because of his accuracy. Jalen Brunson has in addition mid range jumpers which Rozier does not have.
Alec Bucks and Highsimth are not high volume shooters but are more efficient on the floor than Rozier with the the few minutes they have on the floor because they shoot better on the floor and hence higher FG% of 41.6% and 46% respectively.
The Heat strategy has no room for a high volume shooter as Rozier, so he has to increase his shooting percentage with few touches on the floor to be effective for the Heat.
I like his resilience but he needs to diversify his game, if he wants to be relevant to this team. His game is very predictable and easily defended. No mid range jumpers shots, does not cut and slash. Sorry to say it, I will take the kid Larsson over Rozier because Larsson has a broad range of plays he brings to the court, he is not predictable and hence not easily defended against, his defense is fast improving with his steals, rebounds, hounding his opponents relentlessly and he is young.
I am wondering whether his neck injury has been affecting his play in some way. They say he is fine, but I don’t know. It’s just weird. He was a 20 ppg player in his 5 seasons in Charlotte. And he wasn’t bad at all during his games for the Heat last season. I wouldn’t say that the problem is his style of play not being a good fit. His play this season is horrendous! He is unplayable! His current play wouldn’t be a fit anywhere. This is the problem. But how do you explain that a proven player who averages 20 ppg over 5 seasons, not a one season wonder, turns into the current version of scary Terry (scary in a different way)? There has to be something. Either this neck injury or something else.
Who knows if it’s his neck, the current federal gambling investigation, his stubbornness, low BBIQ or something else. Any way you cut it, he has been a huge disappointment.
He does well as a high volume shooter and if he handless the ball most times. That is not Heat style where every body is trained to handle the ball, assists in shots and take the shot when realistic to do so.
I was happy when we got Rozier based on his career stats. He really started to get hot towards the end of last season before the injury. He has been profoundly disappointing this season. I had a little laugh when I saw his statement about playing style because I thought “yeah, the playing style we hoped for was you putting the ball through the net.”
However, I do think that he will be fine in the long term, whether it be here (doubtful) or somewhere else (likely).
Respect for him for not making excuses and always having a good attitude
I said that this is a good game to try to fit him back into the rotation, in the game day thread. He could be used sparingly at first, as an eighth or ninth man, just to lengthen the very short rotation we have been playing lately. But, he is not that far removed from that big game he had for us last year vs the Knicks. It’s in there somewhere.
I still believe in him