Rozier’s role reversal
Young star heads back to bench
Earlier this month, as one of the resident celebrities at a Drake concert at the Garden, Terry Rozier was called onto the floor, Wheel of Fortune style, by the hip hop star/hoops junkie.
Drake’s current tour has dared audience members in various arenas to try their hand at making three shots — a free throw, 3-pointer and halfcourt heave — for respective prize totals of $250, $500 and $2,500. Rozier missed all three under the glare of a strobe light.
But any doubt that this was the summer of Terry was quashed by the latest issue of GQ , which featured a fashion spread of the Celtics guard in a parade of cutting-edge garb, accompanied by a question and answer section.
From the grassroots fashion of Scary Terry to the player who blossomed in the absence of Kyrie Irving in the playoffs last season, a lot has come at Rozier lately.
“It’s a blessing what’s happening — the difference from last summer to the summer that just passed — so I just want it to keep coming,” he said this week. “I try not to let it settle in with me, not too high or too low about it. I’m definitely noticing a difference, though. Everybody knows who I am.”
But with Irving back and ready for a full training camp, and hopefully a full season, Rozier has to squeeze some of this heady feeling back into a bottle. He readily admits that there’s no debate — he is Irving’s backup.
“There was a time when I thought I was better than Larry Bird and people had to talk me off the ledge,” Danny Ainge, only half-joking, said yesterday.
Rozier, though, has understood this change from the point the Celtics walked off the floor following their Game 7 loss to Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals last May.
As much as he cherished the opportunity to start — indeed, thrived in it — he does not see any difference in mentality in terms of a role change.
“Don’t see the difference. If you’re a ballplayer you should prepare the same way,” he said. “Obviously my minutes will be different. If you’re not starting then you won’t play as many minutes as I did in the playoffs. But I’m still trying to finish games.
“I just have to make an impact when I come in the game. I can’t control playing time,” said Rozier. “Like the coach said, I showed everybody what I can do. It’s not me wanting to play so much that I’m going to be selfish. I’m all about the team.”
Not that Ainge is worried about Rozier, or for now anyone else in this lineup, fretting about dwindling minutes.
The BWA (Bench With Attitude), as Marcus Morris has coined the reserve unit, is talented enough to beat the starters on more than the occasional day with Rozier, Marcus Smart, Morris, Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis representing some impressive depth.
“Terry was really good last year, and Terry’s a winner,” said Ainge. “I expect Terry will have that swagger he finished the season with in maybe a lesser role with everybody healthy. He’ll be dynamic.
“They all get it,” Ainge said of the surety of reduced minutes. “Everybody has enough respect for the other players to accept a lesser role because the players on the team are really good . . . .
“The character of the player matters and the maturity of the player matters. I’ve been in the NBA for 40 years. Young players want to get paid, want respect from their players. Everybody wants to win, but sometimes players want to win on their terms. They have to understand that sacrifices have to be made.”
Celtics notes
The BWA moniker has won over every member of the bench unit. Said Smart: “We have the toughest team, the toughest bench, the toughest coach. I definitely have a lot of attitude, I know Morris has some attitude, I know other guys have some attitude. I’m rocking with the name.” . . .
Brad Stevens’ reputation in the college game considered, one might think the Celtics coach has visited all of the shrines. Not so. When the team plays Charlotte in the Dean Smith Center tomorrow night in Chapel Hill, it will mark Stevens’ first time inside the hallowed arena.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, though, they are a far more Duke-centric team. Irving has already talked of walking eight miles down the street to his alma mater. Jayson Tatum is also conflicted.
“Uh, it’s actually a nice place to play,” Tatum said of the so-called Dean Dome. “It’s a rivalry, so I’ve got to say I hate North Carolina. But I like Roy Williams, I knew a lot of the guys that went there. So we don’t hate each other off the court, but when we play each other, we do.”