Evaluating the Rookies: RJ Hunter and Terry Rozier

http://www.celticsblog.com/2015/9/29/9415415/evaluating-the-rookies-rj-hunter-and-terry-rozier



Evaluating the Rookies: RJ Hunter and Terry Rozier

By Evan_M on Sep 29, 2015, 12:03p +



There are a lot of questions heading into the season about this Celtics squad but two of the biggest question marks would have to be rookies RJ Hunter and Terry Rozier. On draft night, a lot of Celtics fans didn't seem too excited with the two players selected. And they shouldn't be overly exciting, I mean, a 16th and 28th overall pick doesn't sound too exciting. Most of the superstars of the draft come within the first 7-10 picks. As for the rest of the draft picks, you are either hoping you stumble upon a sleeper who over achieves or someone who can be a solid contributor to the team (Reliable 7th or 8th man off the bench). I feel that the Celtics found each of these types of players in the form of Rozier and Hunter.

To start, let's take a look at the mystery which is the 16th overall pick Terry Rozier out of Louisville. I'll exclusively look at Rozier's outstanding sophomore season rather than his freshman season where he had to play behind Russ Smith. Rozier and fellow senior Montrez Harrell were clearly the leaders of the Cards in the 2014-15 season which saw them going to the Elite 8. Rozier lead the Cards in scoring with 17.1 ppg. He also managed to put together 5.6 rpg, 3.0 apg, and 2.0 spg (Steals Per Game). All of these lead to Rozier being a steal at number 16 in the draft. However once you begin to look deeper into his game, you begin to see that for every positive Rozier brings to the table, there is a negative. The 17.1 ppg is impressive but he only shot 41% from the field and an inconsistent 30% from 3pt range. He rebounded well for his position but only managed 3.0 apg as a starting point guard playing 35 minutes per game. Finally, Rozier is a ball hawking defender, but also suffers from turnover issues from time to time. After all this, we're left with a lot of question marks for Rozier and what he can bring to the Celtics. He showed some positive production during Summer League in Las Vegas but it's not the smartest move to judge regular season success on Summer League success. My prediction: Rozier will be a somewhat productive guard off the bench playing the role Phil Pressey played last couple of seasons. However, if either Bradley, Smart, or Thomas get hurt, look to see Terry being placed in a more serious role on this Celtics team.

Now we have RJ Hunter, who led his Georgia State team to one of the most exciting upsets in the NCAA Tournament this past year over Baylor in the Round of 64. Be prepared for me to show a little bias here because I LOVE what RJ Hunter brings to the NBA game. First we'll go through all the positives. First, he's a scorer, averaging over 18 ppg throughout his three years at Georgia State, winning two Sun Belt Player of the Year awards. Second, he's a plus shooter. He did only shoot about 30% from 3pt range senior year but his junior year he shot an excellent 39% from downtown and he showed in the NCAA tournament that he can go off from downtown. He's also a very efficient player while on the court. I do realize that the competition in the Sun Belt Conference doesn't near compare to the talent of the power five conferences, but RJ Hunter had a career PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of just under 26 (25.9). To put that into perspective, the average PER is 15.00. Having an efficient player on the court is always a positive in the NBA game, especially a guy who is more than likely going to be coming off the bench. Finally, Hunter wants the ball in the clutch. There are a lot of players who take the clutch shot but not a lot of players truly want the ball in the clutch. We saw in the Sun Belt tournament finals and the first round of the NCAA tourney that RJ Hunter wants the ball in the clutch and can deliver in the clutch as well. There are a few downsides to Hunter however though. Despite the fact that Hunter is 6'5", he only ways about 185lbs. Hunter is going to need to put on some muscle if he wants to be able to attack the basket at all at the NBA level. Also, Hunter isn't the best rebounder at his position, only averaging about 4 rpg his senior year. That rebounding will definitely need to improve if he wants to see more minutes as the season goes along. Finally, the biggest question mark about Hunter would have to be the competition level he went up against in college. His numbers are fantastic, no doubt, but you do unfortunately have to take it with a grain of salt as he was playing in the Sun Belt conference. The only thing about this fault is that Hunter did show he could play against top level schools like Baylor and Xavier in the NCAA tournament. We'll have to see how he adjusts to the NBA game but here is my prediction for RJ Hunter: Hunter will play similar minutes to Jay Crowder and average about 10 ppg. Pretty bold statement but I think that the trio of Hunter, Thomas, and Crowder off the bench will be very effective for the Celtics and key for their season this year.


*All stats were gathered from sports-reference.com



bob



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The author is forgetting one thing. There can only be 12 active players. Plus Brad wants to establish a 10 man rotation and that will even leave off a player like jerebko, Sully or a Crowder for example. And then young or Perry are also on the back end of a deep rotation.

I do not expect to see either one of them get a lot of minutes. They are D league bound along with Mickey.

dboss