Charlotte Hornets: 5 ideas for a Terry Rozier trade

The Hornets send Terry Rozier to Dallas, adding additional scoring punch to the Mavericks’ backcourt.

The Dallas Mavericks’ loss of Seth Curry is a tad overstated as a reason for the Mavericks’ struggles this season. It is clear that the Mavericks have not had a season that meets their own expectations this season.

The Mavericks have constructed a roster with a strong defensive core. Dorian Finney-Smith is a premier wing stopper, who guards multiple positions and navigates screens well. Maxi Kleber’s combination of shooting and switchability makes him one of the ideal modern-day power forwards. Kristaps Porzingis is a high-level center who protects the rim at a good level and has just enough mobility to play some more aggressive pick-and-roll coverages. Even Luka Doncic is playing better defense this season, using his high-level basketball IQ to make timely rotations off the ball, and is a high-level rebounder.

The Mavericks could use a pinch of offense. Even though Doncic provides quality offense nearly every time he touches the ball, to make waves in the postseason more unpredictability and versatility are required for their offense. Small guards like Trey Burke, Jalen Brunson, and Tim Hardaway Jr play as offensive sparkplugs next to Doncic and the Mavericks defenders. Rozier is not quite the best complement to Hardaway (Curry’s passing and defensive IQ was probably a better fit next to him), he’s quicker, so when locked in, he potentially guards the quicker ballhandler that can sometimes give the Mavericks issues. Rozier is simply a higher level shotmaker than Hardaway; his 20 points per game on 61% true shooting far outshines Hardaway’s 16 points per game on 58% true shooting.

Rozier is also an insanely clutch shotmaker. This addresses a weakness of the Mavericks that Mike Prada touches on in this piece. The Mavericks offense declined from 116 points per 100 possessions to 99 points per 100 possessions in the clutch last season. Rozier wills his way to buckets in the clutch and has carried the Hornets offense down the stretch. This ability would alleviate some of the Mavericks’ clutch time offense concerns.

The Mavericks aren’t loaded with a large amount of draft capital due to their future first picks being tied to the New York Knicks as part of the Porzingis trade, but what they do have offers some value to the Hornets. Josh Green is a laterally quick wing who might be able to address the Hornets’ defensive issues at the point-of-attack and Tyrell Terry is a talented combo guard. Both players might not be ready to contribute in the short term for the Mavericks, they could become valuable contributors in two to three years; a timeline that much better suits the Hornets than it does the Mavericks.