Terry Rozier is a new player this season

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2016/11/22/terry-rozier-new-player-this-season/VyimW6Qcd8s70gPoGQNGaO/story.html



Terry Rozier is a new player this season





Nov 21, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Boston Celtics guard Terry Rozier (12) dunks the ball in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Boston Celtics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 99-93. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Terry Rozier (12) was the catalyst for the Celtics’ pivotal fourth-quarter run, including this dunk.
BRAD REMPEL/USA TODAY SPORTS




By Gary WashburnGLOBE STAFF




NOVEMBER 22, 2016




NEW YORK — The contrast is startling. Terry Rozier is a completely different player in his sophomore season, a confident, brash defender, floor leader, and shooter.

His improvement has been one of the biggest surprises of the early season for the Celtics. He was primarily responsible for sparking the Celtics’ stunning rally Monday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was in the middle of Boston’s 19-0 run that knocked out the young, talented, but wobbly Wolves.

Rozier scored 8 points during that run, including a pair of 3-pointers. In 39 games as a rookie, Rozier converted six 3-point shots. In 14 games this season, he has hit 16 of 35 attempts, an impressive 45.7 percent clip. He has also grabbed 3.6 rebounds in his 19.3 minutes per game as well as 1.8 assists.


Rozier’s ascension began with a stellar summer league, giving the Celtics confidence he could fill the backup point guard role.

“Terry’s gonna be a good player,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I think from the day we drafted him we talked about his athletic intangibles but it’s more about his competitive spirit and desire to be good. That guy wants to be good. He works at it. He’s still learning, got a lot to learn, but he was one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason, why we came back.”

Rozier’s defensive activity pressuring point guard Ricky Rubio forced the Timberwolves to rush their offense and eventually they began pressing. In the waning minutes of the game, the Timberwolves completely abandoned their offense and began going one-on-one, partly because Rozier had sped up their offense with full-court pressure.

“We just play hard, and we fed off of that,” Rozier said. “It’s easy to play pretty well if you play hard. Things start working in your favor.”

Playing hard and with passion, blended with his ability to hit 3-point shots, has cemented Rozier in Stevens’s rotation. The Celtics drafted him as a point guard but he didn’t play much of that position during his two years at Louisville. He has worked feverishly on his point guard skills over the past year, and his shooting has improved immensely.


“It’s just Coach believing in me,” Rozier said of his success. “Coach drawing up a couple of plays for me and some good screens. And once you get so comfortable playing hard, you just relax more and you feel like you can do a lot of things. That was a big confidence booster for me, Coach believing in me and sticking with me throughout the fourth quarter.”

Rozier credits his shooting improvement to working on form and fundamentals for hours with assistant coach Jerome Allen.

“I’m just getting more comfortable,” he said. “I remember me when every open shot I used to have last year up until the playoffs, I used to feel like I was rushed. I would jump too high. And now when I am working out with Jerome, we always talk about it, just slow down, just slow down your mind. Shoot the ball. Shoot it in flow. You ain’t gotta jump too high to shoot the ball. So I just worked on that a lot over the summer.

“I was once told don’t just shoot it just to shoot it, shoot it to make it. That’s how every shot should be.”

No doubting Thomas
The Celtics bench was playing so well in the fourth quarter, Stevens kept Isaiah Thomas on the bench until there was 4:59 left and he closed the game out with 9 points, including seven free throws. Thomas was asked whether there would ever be a situation where he would tell Stevens to keep him on the bench because the reserves were playing so well. His answer was predictable.

“That would never happen,” Thomas said. “If [Stevens] said ‘Isaiah go in,’ I’m not going to be like, ‘no.’ But Brad has a feel for the game, too. If he feels that’s the best unit, then he’s going to go with that call. And if we lose that game, then I am going to have something to say.”

Meanwhile, Thomas was floored by a Gorgui Dieng screen at midcourt, and Dieng was called for an illegal screen. Thomas, at 5 feet, 9 inches, faced up with the 6-11 Dieng.

“That wasn’t a legal screen and he tried to hit me,” Thomas said. “It was the heat of the battle. We talked right after. He loves my game. I love his. So we’re good.

“It does [upset me, however] because I’m already little. You don’t got to hit me that hard to get your man open. But when they try to take me out, that’s when I get a little [ticked] off. That’s what they were doing to us for the first three quarters and we turned it around in the fourth quarter.”



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