Charlotte Hornets: Terry Rozier; sneakily one of the NBA’s better three-point shooters

While most of the attention this year was paid to second-year guard, Devonte’ Graham, Terry Rozier may be the Charlotte Hornets’ deadliest long-range weapon.

If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention to the Charlotte Hornets over the past six months, you’ll know how ecstatic the fans and critics are about the duo of Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham.

Their rise to prominence in the wake of the departure of Kemba Walker was somewhat unexpected but certainly welcomed as most figured the Hornets to be at or near dead last in the NBA in terms of overall record.

Graham’s jump was a bit more surprising given his limited minutes backing up Kemba and his rather meager stats as a result, but Terry Rozier certainly exceeded his expectations as well. In fact, he may have had one of the best shooting years for a guard in team history.

Many fans assumed Terry Rozier would be a very prominent feature in the Charlotte Hornets’ offense. Few could have predicted how well he would shoot from the field.

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The Charlotte Hornets have had many a sharpshooter in their relatively brief time in the league. Names like Dell Curry, Matt Carroll, Kemba Walker, and Glen Rice all were great shooters, but Terry Rozier’s season may be up there with the best of them.

For instance, there were eight players in the entire league this season that took more than six three-pointers per game and made over 40% of them. Terry and Evan Fournier took the fewest out of this group, with 6.7 shots from behind the arc.

Rozier made 40.7% of those, tying him with Tim Hardaway Jr. for sixth out of those eight players. For perspective, other notable names within those eight players are J.J. Redick, Davis Bertans, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Danilo Gallinari. In terms of outside shooters, that’s some pretty elite company, and Terry is within mere percentage points of their numbers from deep.

Even more remarkable is that Terry mostly played off-ball, with him being at the two against taller and longer opponents. Of course, he’s still labeled as the point guard on his profile sheet, but Devonte’ assumed most of the floor general duties.

Rozier took 2.8 shots a game from 20-24 feet. The NBA three-point line is 22 feet from the basket at the corners and 23.9 feet at the very top of the arc. Rozier took about 2.8 shots from 20-24 feet. In terms of players who took that many or more shots from that distance, Terry knocked them down at the seventh-highest rate in the entire NBA.

He’s not terrible past that, either. His 38.7% from 25-29 feet is the 17th highest in the league, just ahead of… Kemba Walker and a few points ahead of his teammate, Devonte’ Graham. In fairness to Graham (who is a phenomenal outside shooter himself), he took the lion’s share of the perimeter shots this year and for a large chunk of the season, had many teams’ best perimeter defenders on him, negating his outside shooting to some extent.

Devonte’ was tied with the second-most shot attempts in the NBA from 25-29 feet, launching it 7.4 times a contest. He was tied with Kemba—because of course he was—and both were second to none other than James Harden, who jacked it up an astonishing 11 times a game from that range. Maybe that shouldn’t be that surprising.

Historically, Rozier’s shooting compares well to come of those former Charlotte marksmen. Matt Carroll’s best percentage was nearly 44%, but he only attempted just three shots a game from deep that season and was not a starter.

Dell Curry’s best shooting campaign from distance saw similar numbers, but he just didn’t have quite the volume of shots, but he wasn’t a starter either.

Even Kemba’s best shooting year wasn’t technically as great, at least from behind the arc, but it was pretty close, with Walker making 39.9% from three while taking nearly eight shots from deep. That was also the year he competed in the Three-Point Contest during All-Star Game weekend.

It’s difficult to tell whether or not Terry and even Devonte’ could have kept that clip up for another 17 games, given that the season was cut short. Teams were starting to plan around the tandem of guards and their lack of size was beginning to catch up to them.

Then again, perhaps Coach Borrego could have found new and inventive ways in which to get them their shots. Either way, the Hornets will need continued success from the outside and whether the other players already on the roster can catch up to them or the front office adds another sharpshooter or two, hovering deep in the bottom half of the league in three-point percentage isn’t going to win you many games in today’s NBA.

Next year will be a defining year for the team and the staff around them as it should tell us where the team is headed in terms of success in the foreseeable future. Here’s hoping Terry Rozier can keep knocking them down for the Charlotte Hornets.