Charlotte Hornets Midseason Report Card: Terry Rozier
Has Terry Rozier lived up to expectations in his first year with the Charlotte Hornets so far? This article will analyze and grade Rozier’s performance from the first half of the season.
During the Summer, the Charlotte Hornets made a difficult choice when they did a sign-and-trade with the Boston Celtics to acquire Terry Rozier. Making this move and trading away Kemba Walker changed the direction of this franchise.
Rozier spent the majority of his career playing as a back-up to some great point guards in Boston. This is the first season of his career where Rozier has been the full-time starting point guard of a team.
Without further ado, let’s begin to analyze Terry Rozier’s play from the first half of the 2019-20 season.
Offense: A-
Terry Rozier has earned this grade, and he’s been playing great as of late for the Hornets. In just 42 games as a starter, Rozier has averaged 18.0 points and 4.3 assists per game, which set new career highs.
More from Hornets News
- Hornets: Where does Brandon Miller’s ceiling rank among other rookies?
- Charlotte Hornets grade out mostly average in position-by-position ranking
- Hornets News: P.J. Washington makes bold statement on Brandon Miller
- Grade the mock trade: Hornets snag Tyler Herro, flip Gordon Hayward
- 3 Areas that the Charlotte Hornets should see improvement in for 2023-24
No one thought Rozier would come in and be in the “Most Improved Player” discussion with Devonte’ Graham in his first year with the Hornets. Both of these players have played well together, and Graham has opened up a lot of options for Rozier on offense.
Rozier has improved his shooting statistics in every category so far this season. He’s shooing a career-high from the floor with 42%, while also shooting 39% from behind the arc. Besides Graham, Rozier is the second-best three-point shooter on the team, as he’s knocked down 110 triples so far this season.
While his offense has been electrifying at times, Rozier needs to continue to be consistent on this side of the court. Rozier has had six games so far this season where he finished a game with under ten points.
Defense: A-
Terry Rozier brought his nickname “Scary Terry” to Charlotte when he changed uniforms. Watching Rozier play defense is something special because he’s always giving his 100% effort on this side of the court.
Rozier has found himself deflecting passes and getting steals consistently. So far this season, he’s averaging 1.5 deflections and 1.2 steals per game.
Rebounding has also been a forte for Rozier, as he’s averaging 4.2 of them per game. As of late, I haven’t seen a guard besides Kemba Walker play with as much intensity as Rozier does.
Final Thoughts
With the deal that the Hornets made to get Rozier, I think they made the right choice. Keeping Kemba Walker would’ve been hard to make happen, and Rozier’s playing better than a majority of last year’s free-agent point guards.
Rozier will definitely finish the season with career highs, and if he continues to play as well as he is, then I expect his points per game average to continue rising. He’s currently averaging 23.7 points per game in January.