Pain. All I experience is pain as a Celtics fan. Specifically, it pains me to see a player do so well after leaving the Celtics. Don’t get me wrong, I still am fans of every single former Celtic, with one exception. I’m happy for guys like Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Rajon Rondo, Gordon Hayward, and Terry Rozier for finding success outside of Boston, but it does make me a little sad.
There was this pipe dream that most Celtics fans had back in the day. It was that one day, the Celtics would be led by the trio of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier. I got to see Rozier play once when I lived in Kentucky. Louisville came to play against UK, and on paper, it was a good matchup. UK won that game, like they did every game that regular season, but I remember being really impressed with what Scary Terry brought to the floor. Imagine how excited I was to get him in the 2015 draft. At the time, I thought that it was going to be a good situation for him, to get to play behind Isaiah Thomas, and eventually be the starting Point Guard.
Things didn’t go that way, unfortunately. IT4 was traded for Kyrie Irving, and it was all downhill from there. To Rozier’s credit, he played his role. He came in, never made a fuss, and did his job. Playing behind Irving couldn’t have been easy. Not to mention the monumental collapse that the Celtics had after having lofty expectations to go into both seasons Irving was there. After two disappointing seasons, the writing was on the wall for a lot of people. Irving wanted to go home and play for Brooklyn, Al Horford left for Philly, and with the point guard situation being volatile for a few seasons, Rozier looked for greener grass in Charlotte. In what might as well have been a trade, Rozier went to Charlotte, and Boston got Kemba Walker.
It took a while for the switch to be flipped, but eventually Rozier started to live up to his $20 million a year salary. This year has been no different. With the back court of him and Graham, it proved to be a good scoring duo, on top of the Gordon Hayward signing, and drafting LaMelo Ball. The Hornets quickly became a team to watch. I’ve very much advocated for LaMelo to continue to come off the bench this year, and part of that reasoning is strictly due to how well Rozier has been playing.
Over the past five games, Rozier has averaged 31.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1 steal per game. On top of that, he’s shooting the lights out going 57% from the floor, and 55% from deep. He’s really on a roll right now, but he’s had really good games this whole season. He’s scored in double figures every game but two, and he’s had six games scoring over 30 points. He’s what we call in the business, a “walking bucket.”
I’m happy for Rozier. He’s a good young player, and he can be that for any team in the league. It upsets me that we gave up on him so soon, but I’m glad that he’s had the chance to prove what he can be in the league.
Round The Game 
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