Can the Miami Heat salvage Terry Rozier? | Five on the Floor

Can the Miami Heat salvage Terry Rozier? | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of five on the floor in the five reason sports network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple podcast and on Android Spotify or the five reasons YouTube channel. We do recommend that you download Spotify either way or at least download the podcast off of there. Stream it from there because that works on both platforms and lately it’s been getting there a little bit quicker. Also check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks per month. I actually got the idea for this episode from the Discord server. So yes, we are watching. We are listening. We are contributing. We are conversating. Whatever they call it. This is the place for the most heat. Check it out. It’s off the floor. Link right here in the description. You’ll bypass the $1 app up charge. Pay $299 a month. And the great thing is if you don’t like us, you can cancel at any time. Also, check out Prize Pick. That’s our official fantasy sponsor. 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Right, welcome back to Five on Floor. Here’s floor plan. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick and follow me at Ethan J Sknick. And at Five Reason Sports, I got Brady Hawk. You can follow him at Brady Hawk 305. The Miami Heat of course been out of the playoffs for a while. We’re now set for the final four. Indiana, New York, Minnesota OKC. Um none of the top seeds other than OKC. Um Minnesota was a team that came on later in the season after adjusting to the towns for Devanchenzo and Randall trade. in the East, of course, Boston, the Tatum injury. Cleveland just had some injuries at the beginning of the series and just never got themselves back into it. But in the Heats case, it’s what are they going to do this off season? And one of the things that they need to figure out is what to do with Terry Rosier. And can I reveal what you said when I suggested this topic? Am I allowed to say? You can say whatever. Okay. I said because I’m thinking about this because I’m old and I’ve covered the Heat since 1996 and I cannot think of another player that fell off so much and then rebounded. Like I I am struggling with this. Okay. I I there there are certain guys who’ve had off years. Okay. There are players maybe not didn’t shoot the ball quite as well. There a couple of those during the big three era. There was injury related stuff. Obviously Dwayne fell off when he got hurt. Um, but I I really am having a hard time coming up with a player who just sunk like just I mean just forgot how to play basketball essentially and then all of a sudden could and I I know that and and I put this on off the floor and I haven’t gotten an answer yet from anybody who can think of anything. Although most of our friends on there are about Brady’s age or younger but uh I can’t think of one. I don’t know if Greg can think of one. He’s kind of old like me. I don’t know most Heat fans will. But if you can think of one, send it to me. Uh because I’m struggling with a little bit. Again, there have been guys who took some time to adjust. Lel Deng was much better his second year uh in a different role than he was his first year. There are other guys who just improved dramatically in certain areas. Chris Bosch even was not a great defender when he came to Miami. He became an elite pick and roll defender by that time. But that’s not really what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a guy who like was sought after to a certain degree. I mean, the Heat were not the only team who would have had interest in Terry Rosier. And not only did they give up a first- round pick, which is regrettable, but they also gave up Kyle Lowry’s risk expiring contract, which if that had been allowed to expire, not that we were proponents of that, most of us in the network we were not, but if they had allowed that to expire, they would have been in a different position financially as well. Um Brady, I I guess before we get into whether or not he can rebound for this and whether that he can recoup any kind of value either on the quarter in a trade and he’s an expiring contract, he’s didn’t earn those extra incentives because he didn’t make the second round of the playoffs, didn’t play 70 games, but still roughly $24 million, which is a pretty decent chunk even these days. Um have you do you have any explanation for what happened here? I I mean without being a doctor and the neck injury, would you have any explanation? Because the guy he he was like certifiably awful last year. He was not certifiably awful after the Heat acquired him. Yeah. I mean, we could get into the specifics of like the neck injury. We can get into the specifics of Spo kind of orchestrating the offense around cutting out mid-ranges, which is something he has done for so long where he just takes tough shots where he takes those step back deep mid-ranges and Spo wanted to turn those into threes um and all of that. But I just don’t know if you can really point at any of those things. I think it was just a lot of factors into one uh where he just wasn’t playing good basketball. Look, like we could talk about specific parts of the court. The thing that stuck out more than anything is like you didn’t want to see him go for a layup. Like the the finishing around the rim was just kind of got to a point where it was just it was rough. It was rough to watch. And it it’s you talked about like players that get played well, fell off and bounced back. I mean, the thing that sticks out to me when you say that is it’s happened a lot when the player gets moved from one team to the next where maybe he can bounce back if he gets to another team. And I feel like from Terry Rosier’s perspective, because we keep bringing it from Miami’s perspective and saying, “Okay, like this just doesn’t work. They have to move on, whatever, whatever.” Uh, but from Terry Rosier’s perspective, uh, I mean, I think it makes most sense for him as well to get away from this team. I think he he needs a new opportunity. We’ve seen it. Look, even let’s say DaVon, who who was a guy that, uh, found a great, you know, situation for himself and he played really well with Miami this season. uh he’s had down moments in the past as well in in these past teams whether it was Sacramento or Toronto. Uh maybe not to the degree of what we saw this year, especially with the role that he had, the expectations that Terry had, but I just feel like the biggest thing is like maybe he can have a bounce back if he gets put in the right position on probably, let’s be honest, a bad team where he could kind of be in a position to put up a bunch of shots and do that and he get back to being what 16 point per game scorer. I think that that’s what he was when he was the the first year in Miami. Uh maybe that’s the case, but as you said, I just don’t think it it rarely happens when you’re able to do it with the same team, especially when you’re be given a role uh getting many minutes put like that. They were not restricting him in any way. They were pushing him up. They wanted him to be the guy. They put Tyler Theo who was an all-star this season and said, “We’re going to put him off the ball for Terry Rosier so he can the guy on the ball and can play his game and do all that stuff.” So once you do that and make those moves, I just don’t think there’s bouncing back with that type of team, that organization. So if he’s going to bounce back, it’s going to be with another team. I know what we’re going to hear, and it hasn’t come from the heat account yet, but we’re going to start to hear whispers in the offseason that Terry looks great. Be prepared because this is what happens when guys have down years, especially if they’re tradable commodities. Like, we’re going to start to hear whispers. He looks great. He’s getting his confidence back. uh which you know will be attributed he feels better physically than he did last season. This is all going to start to come out. Okay. Whether or not it’s going to be true or not, we won’t know until we actually see him on the court. Um but that is certainly going to be a thing. I no question about that because that’s what happens with these guys. And we’ve talked about Hakez a little too. That’s a little bit of a different situation because their financial commitment to Hakez is not what it is to Rosier. Even if Rosier becomes a little bit easier to trade. Now, let me go through some of the numbers. I’m still, one of the reason I’m distracted is I’m still racking my brain for that guy that bounced back with the Heat. And I I again doing this as long as I’ve been doing it. I I was thinking back to the Zo Timmy years. I mean, Mash had took some time. Mashurn took a little time to adjust. PJ Brown was consistent. Marley was consistent. You go past that, you know, Brian Grant, uh Eddie Jones, I mean, they they pretty much did the same thing the majority of the time that they were here. They were two of the anchors for that era era um in the Wade era even post championship. I’m having a hard time. I mean if people want so that’s why it’s like trying to find a precedent for this like where even like spoke could come in and say okay we did this with this guy and it worked. I don’t I don’t even know what that would look like honestly. Big three era there was nobody like that. That was the first thing that came to my mind. I was like nobody really played poorly. Rio had a year that wasn’t great and he had a better year the next year. But other than that, I I really again, like I said, I’m struggling with it. And then the fourth year, a lot of those guys were just worn out, tired, tired of Eric, tired of each other. And it is and then they didn’t really none of them really got the opportunity the next year to do that. So, it’s not the same. It’s not the same as like guys that have like rough patches and bounce back either. Like what was it Duncan? Wait, two years ago. Okay. Okay. That Okay. He he would Right. That’s I’m glad you mentioned him. He’s probably the closest, right? Probably the closest that I can think of right now, but I don’t know if I would call it to I mean, he he had a rough patch. I mean, he was really unable to shoot the basketball and it got to a point where he was kicked he was out of the rotation. I mean, he got replaced out of the rotation by Max and he was just not even getting any minutes and he was able to bounce back and and you see what he’s able to do. But I don’t know if it’s on the level of Terry because the expectations were different I feel like at that point and they actually had a decent replacement at set up behind Duncan at that point or this was like they were just kept putting him out there. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s if it’s any different or if it’s just you know a shooter having a rough patch or if it is pretty similar. Well looking at the Discord I just checked it out. People aren’t even coming up with heat names. Like someone mentioned Markeel Fultz forgetting how to shoot. Like and that’s a confidence thing. If you want to say that this was all confidence and not injury, not off the court, not role, which like you said, they put him in a role to maximize him, which is one of the reasons I I have a hard time seeing what else they can really figure out here. Let me go through some of the numbers and then on the other side, we’ll kind of talk to we’ll talk about sort of how you approach training camp if he’s still on the roster. uh depending on who else is here, but I’m looking at the overall numbers and you would say, okay, career, he’s he averages 14 points a game on 42 36 83 splits. Okay, this past year he averaged under 11 points a game on 39 uh 29.5 and 85%. I just just just to give you some perspective on the on the three-point shooting. We talked about him being a streaky three-point shooter even when he got here that he had a game where he made like seven and then he had another game in Charlotte, two three games in Charlotte was like one of 16 and then he’d have another game where he’d make five. Like that’s who he’s been but the numbers always settled in a certain place and this year they didn’t. And it kind of felt like Spo was waiting for that like okay at some point like you’re going to get the back the snapback and it never happened because I’m looking at the three-point percentages. Let’s just start forget the first year in Boston. He’s a rookie, 21 years old. He played, you know, 39 games. But when he started playing consistently, okay, didn’t start at all his second year in 1617, but averaged 17 minutes a night. He was a rotation player, he shot 32% from three. All right. But from there, when he started getting more playing time, and from there, he’s never averaged fewer than 22 minutes in a season. Okay? 23 minutes. His three-point percentages were 38, 35, 41, 39, 37, 33, 36, 36. even with Miami in that short stretch after they acquired him in 31 games, 37. So, how how does he end up at 29 last year? That’s not who he’s been. I mean, it’s crazy even looking at the bare numbers of the entire season, including Charlotte and Miami when he got when he was here, averaged 20 points a game and he dropped down to 10. And so, you’re talking about like cutting his points per game in half. Uh there’s not really an explanation like it it like we said like where Duncan when I gave that example it’s like okay he just had a rough shooting from three but this was kind of this wasn’t one area of the basketball court where he saw a drop off like he just kind of I think there was a portion of him losing his confidence. I think he lost uh his whole game was confidence. Like that’s all Terrair was his entire career is the the swagger copying Dwayne uh being that type of just lightning in a bottle score. Uh and he just hasn’t been that. And it cut off kind of the every source. Like I said, he he was extremely bad finisher this past season. Three-point shots weren’t falling. Uh it got to a point obviously where I I was mentioning last season he was better off the dribble like I mean off the ball. he was better off the ball where he could kind of get into those those spot up threes and stuff. Uh but Terry, like putting Terry Rosir consistently in in a off, you know, off the catch role is just not what anybody thought that he would become. Like that that’s not what Terry Rose Rosir was supposed to be. Uh he seems like a guy honestly that has to be in a position where he’s on a Charlotte type team where because I’m looking at these shot attempts as well when he was with Charlotte. Yeah. uh he just he was just in a position where he was able to get a bunch of shot. He was averaging what 18 shot attempts a game uh before he was traded to Miami when he was in Charlotte. Like that that’s a big differencemaker to when he was here and he’s averaging just under 10 with Miami this past season, which is still a lot considering the fact uh of the position he was in, but he just wasn’t making them at a at a high rate at all. Uh so I don’t really know what the explanation is and that’s why this is interesting of what could happen next because yes, maybe he gets his confidence back. Maybe he does get some of his shotmaking back, but like you said, it’s just it’s very rare for that to happen with this organization. When you when you get your confidence shot, like when you when this happens to this degree, when the fan base kind of it turns on you, when it realizes what’s happening, uh there’s just a realization there where you just need something new. Like we’ve said for Miami all this time, when the things got stagnant as a team, they need something new. They need new scenery. They need new players. It’s the same thing as as individual players go. Sometimes they need new scenery. I just feel like that the fit uh they took a swing obviously when they went to trade for him think he’d be the extra scoring piece. It wasn’t it but it seems like it’s it’s really hit its end. It’s hard to see a recovery spike. Well now now it’s gone toxic right with the fan base and all that. Now, also DaVon’s moved ahead of him if they resign him to a contract, which isn’t, by the way, DaVon, even if he comes back, is not going to make more than half of what Terry already makes per year, which is just crazy when DaVon’s going to be clearly starting playing ahead of him if both of them are still here. One other thing I want to mention and then the other side, we’ll wrap this up and say kind of where this goes, but is that I talked to Rosier uh in training camp in the Bahamas and he talked about how he thought he could be a highle player until his late 30s and he he might be in China next year. like if this doesn’t work out like I mean you gotta be honest like I mean I’m looking at the numbers here and okay he averaged 25.9 minutes last year and I know Heat fans every night felt that was too much right you go back to the last time he averaged that exact minute total he played 80 games in the 1718 season for Boston 16 of them off the bench last year he played 23 off the bench so fairly equivalent okay in that year he shot 39.5% this year he shot 39.1% although he shot much better from three that year, 38 versus 29. And he averaged 11.3 points in that case, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, only one turnover. Um, last year he averaged 1.2, but turnovers don’t really account for the decision-making problems he had. Uh, and in that year, he was 10th and six man of the year voting. And in this year, with roughly the same stats, he was unplayable. Okay. So, like it feels like he’s come all the way back around to where he was as a 23-y old in Boston. And I don’t really know where there is for him to go at this point other than probably somewhere else. Try to salvage it on one other team and then that might be it. Anyway, want do want to tell you about a great sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network, our friend Lynette. You can find her at 9545818800. 954-5818800. It’s insurance byl.com. Life insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance based in Lauder Hill. Services the entire tri county area and literally the biggest heat fan that I know. Um Lynette’s on all of our stuff. Okay, so check it out. insurancebylanette.com. He’s got to come on here as a guest or 954-581-8800. That’s two N’s and two T’s. insurancebyette.com. All right. So, like I said, there’s going to be noise that he looks better. It’s in the Heat’s interest for that to get out. Um, what is attractive to other teams potentially could be the clearing of the cap space at the end of the year. Of course, the Heat have that partial guarantee with Duncan after the season, which also makes him tradable, but there are teams that may be wanting to clear space for the 2026 class, depending on what that looks like, and Rosier may offer that. You’re not getting an asset back for Terry Rosir at this point. This is the water. It’s water under the bridge. So, whatever you don’t throw good money after bad, any expression you want to find, okay? They’re not getting anything close to what they gave up. They know that. All right? not getting a big expiring and a first round pick or anything remotely equivalent. Okay. Do you feel and then we’ll close it here. Do you feel that this is a player that the Heat just need to part with like whatever? Just just move him to move him or would you hold him maybe until the trade deadline where again maybe some team needs space? Maybe you can get some production out of him, rehabilitate him a little bit even though everybody kind of knows what kind of player he is. like do you think this is problematic if he’s in training camp and and and then the implication is that he’s going to get some kind of a a role this year? How would you handle that? I don’t think it’s urgent. I don’t feel like this is one of those cases where it’s like like let’s say like Jimmy where it was like hanging over the entire locker room or something where it’s like okay we need to get this done now because we’re not going to be able to operate. Uh Terry was a guy he was not like as much as you say like toxic because it was like the toxicity from the fan base on him. He was not he was not problematic at all. Like he he I’m glad you made that point. I because no Terry didn’t my understanding was Terry created no problems. So I don’t want in terms of role or anything like that. You saw him cheering on teammates. So I want to be clear as the way you handle as a human being. I don’t think anybody had an issue with it was just the the declining play and Spo right and Spo’s and Spo’s unwillingness to let go of the rope there because he thought that I guess something was going to turn around and I do know that Spo and Pat were two that were real big advocates of that trade. So it it kind of felt like Spo was sort of holding on to it. So So you don’t think it’s again I don’t think it’s toxic in that regard. No, the Heat aren’t going to operate based on what the fans want them to do. So you just hold him until you know ultimately he becomes another piece added to a trade, right? Is that that’s pretty much it? Yeah. And I mean it could get to a point I mean like it’s not like a case where like he’s a salary filler and you probably have to throw in an extra asset to get off in. Like it’s not I don’t think it’ll hit that range. I mean we’ve seen we’ve seen worse salary fillers get thrown in and teams accept it when they when when a go big trade gets through. Uh but there’s no like this isn’t one of those case like they’re as let’s be honest the position the Heat are in right now. They’re not in this position right now where they’re moving into contender status as we speak where they have to make this move to fix this. Like no, they’re they’re in a retooling position as Pat says. Uh this could linger into the season. They could see what they have with him that I don’t think it’s like you said as we talked about this episode being honest. I don’t think it’s going to be rehabilitated with this team. I don’t see him honestly getting a major role with this team. Like craziest thing that could happen is if they do make a big trade, Duncan is the salary filler and all of a sudden Terzier is the backup of point guard on this team. I mean that that would be the only weird scenario. Other than that, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to go that route. I feel like that uh he’s going to accept the role that he’s put in. He’s probably going to work hard in training camp, do all the stuff. Like we said, he was not problematic at all. Uh and then you can see what they have at the trade deadline, see what you can move off of them. if that, you know, these big names that that open up, the big changes that we keep mentioning, some of these names, you’re going to need a guy like Terzier throw in the mix. So, it it it’ll end up probably being helpful in the long run. So, uh yeah, I don’t I I 100% but it makes sense when you said before that they will it’ll linger out there like Terzier looks great. He looks healthy. He’s playing, you know, best basketball in in a Miami uniform, all that stuff. But it makes sense like there’s no reason for us or the fans to shoot it down because that’s like that’s the whole game here. That’s what you always do when you try to, you know, bump up, you know, any player into into trade talks or anything as an asset. Not saying he’s going to be a giant asset, but you have to try to build it up if you just if they did what the fans do. Uh they they could just I don’t just cut him. I mean, like there’s no point of even doing any of that. So, it makes sense for them to do go that route anyway. Uh and we’ll see what happens. But I don’t think this is something where they have to move forward immediately. And of course, what the fans don’t understand or some fans, I should say a small segment of the fans, is that you can’t just cut him. you would have to buy them out. Um, and I will say the Heat have a history of unloading much worse contracts than this. So, if it’s a if it’s unload, they could do that. I mean, just go back to the trade where they got Crowder and Iguadala. People forget in that trade, they also were able to and here’s a couple of other players who never bounced back. Okay, look at this. Winslow, okay, fell off and some of his injuries didn’t bounce back. Never bounced back. uh James Johnson and Dion Waiters were all unloaded in that one trade and those were three deals particularly Waiters and JJ but also uh to his degree Winslow when he fall off three players who fell off a cliff for one reason or another particularly waiters and Winslow uh fell off a cliff for one reason or another didn’t look like they were coming back and the Heat were able to unload them and they also have been able to unload Hassan Whiteside they unloaded Brian Grant’s contract at the end when Brian was not the same player that was So, they’ve done this over and over. They’re very good at that. Obviously, their entire team is um but sometimes in they’ve had to say dump a deadman or something like that and attach a pick and that I think that’s what the frustration becomes. But then people forget they made a trade where they unloaded Whiteside waiters and James Johnson and they got two assets that helped them get to a finals. Okay, if you want to include Solomon Hill cheering, they got three. So, I I I would be patient with them on this. Um it was a mistake trade. They know it was a mistake trade. It’s not a mistake you can repeat. And I’ll just finish with this. Um, don’t go get scorers from bad teams anymore. Do not do not. Charlotte, beware. Okay? Nobody has been traded from Charlotte recently has panned out anywhere else, right? Like this is not this is and and these sort of, you know, these scores, I know the expression is looter and a riot. his efficiency. Rosier’s efficiency made me believe that it could translate, but I would be because it wasn’t bad in Charlotte, but I would be very very careful about getting those kind of players. If you’re in a bad culture, bad system, uh, and you score a lot, it it doesn’t mean you’re going to contribute in the next place. I hope for Terry’s sake, cuz like you said, he wasn’t toxic as far as I know behind the scenes. He seemed outwardly uh to be again cheering on teammates. I didn’t hear anything negative. I hope he rebounds for his own sake. Um, but I think you’re right. I think the most likely scenario is you kind of manage it and then maybe you got occasional contributions. We hear those whispers that things look better and then he’s moved quietly in some trade before his contract expires. Uh Brady, appreciate it. We’ll have more episodes coming up. Again, our sponsors insurancebylanet.com and PriceFix. Use the code FIV.

Terry Rozier played reasonably well the first couple of months after the Miami Heat acquired him. But then, a neck injury, a loss in confidence, and one of the worst seasons we’ve seen from a player in a while. Ethan Skolnick and Brady Hawk discuss whether there’s anything the Heat can do to restore value, either on the court or in a trade.

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