Terry Rozier Progress Report November
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00:00 For number two, obviously the biggest thing with Terry right now is the groin
00:04 strain that he suffered in that game against the Pacers.
00:07 But being listed as questionable against Dallas was a huge relief because in the
00:11 moment it looked like he could have been out for like the foreseeable future with
00:15 his reaction to it because he's not a guy that reacts strongly to like, you know,
00:20 bumps and bruises or anything.
00:21 So I really thought that he might have been out for a couple weeks or something
00:24 when that first happened because he could barely walk and was like grimacing his
00:27 the whole way off the court, but only questionable against Dallas.
00:31 So we'll see how long that maintains, but he could be back here in the next couple
00:35 of games.
00:35 So definitely a good sign, but how does that happen with NBA players?
00:39 They go down like can't walk and like, yeah, back in a few games.
00:43 I was expecting to get the Hornets PR statement with a, you know, a groin,
00:48 you know, with a MRI result and it just never came.
00:51 Yeah.
00:52 No, I was I was very and it was a non-contact injury to from what I believe
00:55 he just kind of came up limp up like coming around the screen.
00:58 So I'm definitely glad he's okay, but looked a lot worse than it ended up being
01:02 in the in the moment for sure, but he actually has a somewhat of a similar
01:06 problem to Lamella right now.
01:08 Very inefficient from three.
01:10 He's actually shooting pretty well from the rim and from like floater range in
01:15 the mid-range right now, but he's only 25.8% from three.
01:19 So another like reason that the Hornets offense wasn't so good in those first
01:23 couple of games was him and Lamella both just could not throw the ball in the
01:29 ocean from the side of a boat in those first basically once that until they
01:32 got to through that Nets game the last couple games against the Pacers and
01:35 the Mavericks.
01:36 They were a little better.
01:37 Obviously Terry didn't even play against the Mavericks, but still the rim
01:41 finishing is pretty good for him, but the threes not there yet and something
01:45 I've actually been thinking about a lot with him too is with Brandon Miller's
01:49 emergence early in the season and we'll talk more about him later, but Terry's
01:53 role is actually like a little bit interesting to me because you probably
01:57 want to use Brandon Miller a lot as that second unit playmaker as well.
02:00 He's also kind of one of your best off ball shooting threats and if Brandon
02:05 Miller ends up becoming a more efficient three-point shooter sooner than
02:08 Terry Rozier, he becomes the bigger threat and the easier target for Lamella
02:13 in that regard.
02:13 So it's definitely going to be interesting to see how Terry's role evolves.
02:17 Maybe he becomes more of like a playmaker or like a shot creator as like
02:21 an on-ball like isolation late shot clock guy kind of like more towards what
02:25 Gordon Hayward does for the team in the offense right now, but definitely going
02:29 to be curious to see just how soon he comes back from that groin injury first.
02:33 But once that once that he settles back in from there, we'll see how it
02:36 continues to evolve.
02:38 But James, what are your thoughts on Terry Rozier so far in the season?
02:41 Yeah, I mean Steve Clifford came into the season saying he's been the best
02:46 player in training camp over the summer.
02:48 To be honest from what I've seen, it's been like more of the same really apart
02:54 from the three-point shooting hasn't been there, but he's actually been better
02:56 at scoring in paint.
02:57 Like his driving finishing around the rim has been, to my eye test was really
03:02 good.
03:02 I checked the stats.
03:03 It's pretty in line with previous years.
03:04 But like you say 18% from the corners, 32% from above the break, you know, a few
03:11 years ago Chase, we're talking about Terry Rozier being one of the best off
03:14 ball shooters in the NBA, like from the shooting guard position.
03:17 That's the conversation we had and the stats backed it up and it wasn't the
03:22 case last year.
03:22 We put that down to injury playing more on ball.
03:24 At the start of this year, I don't know what the excuses, maybe it's just
03:28 shooting variants and he's going to come back.
03:30 But if he shoots another like 32, 33% year from three, then that really does
03:36 recalibrate where you are because all of a sudden, you know, you're counting
03:41 him in to be like a 38, 39 three-point shooter on high variance and high volume
03:47 and he just doesn't look for it as much anymore.
03:49 His rates gone down.
03:50 So he's still these moments where he gets like he's got hot late in fourth
03:54 quarters and a couple of games, but still his biggest strength has been
03:57 slashing to the rim and that's improved.
03:59 That looks better and that's what we shouldn't forget about that.
04:01 But this team as a whole is shooting three ball terribly, not just shooting
04:07 the ball terribly.
04:07 We're not getting any attempts and Terry Rozier and the Mellor ball, but
04:11 Terry specifically like he has to be better at that for this offense to score
04:16 at a efficient rate throughout the season.
04:18 A big piece of the Hornets being like a fast-paced up-tempo team is also
04:22 being a team.
04:23 That's a very good three-point shooting team.
04:25 Terry is probably the biggest part of that given that will Mello is going
04:30 to be the one driving those transition possessions and those up-tempo have
04:34 possessions a lot of the time.
04:35 So you really really need that off ball threat and that guy that can just
04:39 float out to the three-point line at really having any given opportunity
04:43 off of a make or miss and be somebody that can stretch the defense out for
04:46 you.
04:47 But right now Terry has not been that guy through a couple of games, but I
04:51 do think he's actually been maybe a little bit better than we would have
04:54 expected as like a secondary playmaker when the Mello sits.
04:58 I these at five assists per game, which is what he was averaging through
05:02 the season last year in that same role.
05:04 I mean, he seems to have like fully settled into that like secondary
05:08 playmaker role in Lamello is not on the court or when he's not available
05:11 for whatever reason.
05:13 So at least you can rely on him to do that even through the shooting
05:17 struggles, which obviously was the case last year too.
05:20 So it's definitely pretty impressive that he's been able to evolve his game
05:24 that way because when he came to the Hornets, that was not something he
05:26 was very effective at the Hornets were not a good offense when he was
05:29 the lead ball handler, but now it's it's definitely taking a step up.
05:33 Well, this is the thing the eye test for me still isn't great.
05:37 It's still like slow.
05:38 It feels like yeah, it doesn't look great.
05:41 It's a lot of eyes so ball, but you check the stats on it and the Hornets
05:45 are actually a net plus and point differential when Terry's ear place
05:50 point guard didn't fill a Mello boulders, which like just does not
05:54 match the eye test at all.
05:55 Now.
05:55 There is some funky stuff in there because the Mello's played more with
05:58 the backups and I think Terry's ear has not affects it.
06:01 So I think that's more sample size.
06:02 It is absolutely something that the stats so far the Hornets haven't
06:08 been bad with Rosario playing point guard that has not been the issue
06:12 for them.
06:13 Like some people thought it would be.