BOSTON – Before the preseason began, Celtics point guard Terry Rozier was asked about the surplus of minutes that would be available this season in the wake of the departure of backup ball handler Evan Turner.
The 22-year-old commented with a smile, “I really want them all.”
While Rozier may not get all of the 28 vacant minutes per game that Turner has left behind, he sure has made a case to earn a substantial amount of them with the way he has performed this preseason – especially after the display he put on Wednesday night.
While the Celtics, minus four of their typical starters, did not come away with a win during their preseason finale, losing 121-96 to the New York Knicks, they still received an outstanding offensive output from Rozier, which has become the norm of late.
Rozier earned his first NBA start and dropped 13 points in just 14 minutes of play. He shot 5-for-7 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range. It's worth noting that the only trey he missed was a deep, contested prayer that he launched at the end of the first quarter.
“He was great,” coach Brad Stevens said about Rozier's performance. “I think he's had a good preseason. He's clearly done a lot of good things to help position himself and to impact us moving forward.”
Stevens says that the greatest area of growth that Rozier has displayed has been his shooting. Take, for instance, the fact that Rozier canned three 3-pointers during the first quarter Wednesday night. That is half of the amount of 3s that Rozier made during his entire rookie season.
“He's really, really improved as a shooter and scorer,” said Stevens. “That's been something that he's worked hard on, so he's a grinder. He works hard at the game and it's no surprise that he's having success – but we need him to, to be quite candid. We're going to rely on him.”
Boston relied on Rozier to pace the offense out of the gates Wednesday night, and he excelled by knocking down three triples in the opening four and a half minutes of the game.
Rozier then brought out the rest of his scoring tricks early in the second quarter, as he abused Knicks veteran guard Sasha Vujacic on back-to-back possessions. First, Rozier slashed his way past Vujacic for a an easy layup, then he crossed up Vujacic and hit a no-hesitation midrange jumper in the veteran's face for his final points of the night.
This is a completely different Rozier than the rookie that we saw last season. That version was a 27.4 percent shooter from the field, 22.2 percent shooter from 3-point range and averaged 8.3 points per 36 minutes. The Rozier that we just witnessed over seven preseason games shot 54 percent from the field, 60 percent from 3-point range and averaged 20.3 points per 36 minutes. He scored 67 total points in 119 minutes as opposed to the 72 points he scored over 311 minutes last season.
So, what's attributing to Rozier's scoring surge?
“My confidence plays a big part in that,” he answered after Wednesday's game. “This summer I spent so many hours in the gym working on my shot. My agent stayed on me about it – just getting my shot up, giving it a chance to go in, and now it just feels like it's a flow for me and it's my job to make it because I work on it every day.”
Rozier is also proving that he can competently run the offense. He only turned the ball over four times during his 119 preseason minutes, and his teammates took notice.
“Terry's improved on his decision-making a lot,” observed Jordan Mickey, who notched 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench Wednesday night. “He's making the right passes, the right reads and his shooting has gone out the roof. He's improved a lot; he worked hard over the summer.”
Now that hard work is paying off, and as a result, Rozier is in line to earn a substantial boost in playing time when the regular season begins next Wednesday.
