To put it lightly, the last two weeks have been the best of Terry Rozier’s entire career.
That statement may sound like an exaggeration on its face, but it’s really not. When LaMelo Ball went down with yet another ankle injury on Nov. 26, the immediate future of the Hornets looked bleak. The backup point guard spot was already a weak spot on the roster — how would the offense survive with its star going down? Where would the playmaking come from to put Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, PJ Washington and the like in position to score? Well, in just a couple weeks time, Rozier has rendered all of those concerns moot.
Of course, Charlotte is still in a holding pattern of sorts until Ball returns. Rozier’s primary role of a dynamite off-ball scorer, movement shooter and point-of-attack pitbull suits him best, after all. But in the meantime, the 29-year-old veteran is holding the ship upright with the best basketball we’ve seen from him to date.
Over the last five games, in which the Hornets have gone 2-3, Rozier is averaging 28 points, 10.6 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1 steal, shooting a blistering 46.7% from deep on 9 3PA per game. The main is hoisting ’em up at a higher rate than even his first few seasons in Buzz City and burying them at an alarmingly high clip. On top of that, his usage rate of 27.4% coupled with a 4.82 assist-to-turnover ratio is legitimately outstanding considering the attention he draws as the team’s best scorer and playmaker with Ball injured. It only makes sense that, with this level of production, he’d join the franchise point guard in making Hornets history.
Rozier has long been the emotional leader in the locker room. Hampered by injury for most of last season and early this season, he sparsely got to display leadership with his play on the court. Now, with Ball sidelined and all of the Hornets’ chips seemingly down, Rozier has stepped up to the plate and then some.
In that same five-game stretch, Rozier’s 53 total assists are third in the NBA behind only Nikola Jokić and Tyrese Haliburton (54). He tallied a season-high 37 points, a career-high 13 assists and sank seven 3-pointers in a dominating performance versus Brooklyn. He scored four points in the final 22 seconds of the win over Toronto. He scored 12 points and made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter against Miami, nearly pulling off a comeback victory in the final minutes.
There’s no area of the game in which Rozier hasn’t excelled since Ball was carried into the locker room late last month. It’s only right we take a moment to stop and appreciate the greatness that is Scary Terry.
