SHOOTING GUARD – Terry Rozier
Terry Rozier is officially locked into a long-term deal with the Charlotte Hornets, and his contract runs through the 2025-26 season. It’s worth a good deal of money (about $24 million per season), and will begin after the 2021-22 season has ended.
Charlotte Hornets: Predicting the 2021-22 starting five
Rozier, though, looks to be one of the few veterans on a really youthful Hornets team. He can score in a variety of ways, and displayed a high-level of scoring on efficiency this past season. The Hornets originally acquired Rozier in the 2019 offseason as a part of the Kemba Walker-to-Boston sign-and-trade – and his first season in Charlotte was shaky, to say the least.
However, he looks to be the top backcourt scoring option in the long-term, as he averaged 20 points per game on shooting splits of 45/39/82 this past year. Rozier’s improvement has been incredible to watch over the past two seasons, and he is another no-brainer selection for the starting lineup.
The presumed backup to Rozier (if he were to ever miss time) would be rookie wing James Bouknight. Ideally, you would never want to force a rookie into a starting spot, but Bouknight is a natural scorer that could hopefully replicate what Rozier brought to the starting lineup.
In the long-term, it would not be particularly shocking to see Rozier eventually become replaced by Bouknight, although that would mean the Hornets really hit a home run on the 11th selection in the 2021 NBA Draft.