At a brief press conference before Wednesday’s game, Terry Rozier said he’s thrilled about the opportunity to play in Miami and he sees himself as a natural fit for Heat culture, relays Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Rozier, who was acquired from Charlotte on Tuesday, said he’s long been an admirer of his new team.
“It’s been no secret how much love I have for the Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade growing up,” Rozier said. “This is definitely a full circle moment. I’m happy to be back on that stage in a playoff race. It’s huge.”
Rozier was added to bring some spark to the Heat’s offense, which has struggled to produce points on a consistent basis. He averaged 23.2 PPG in his 30 games with the Hornets this season, and Jackson notes that combining him with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro makes Miami the only team in the league with four players scoring at least 20 PPG.
Rozier added that he’s “not here to step on nobody’s toes” and will work with coach Erik Spoelstra to determine the best way he can help the team.
“Definitely want to take my time. Things are not going to be perfect right away,” Rozier said. “I feel like I fit the Heat culture and I’m coming right in, can come in [and help] on the defensive side. We’re basketball players. We will figure it out.”
Spoelstra also spoke at the press conference, calling Rozier “one of the most dangerous X-factors” in Boston before developing his game even further with Charlotte. Spoelstra likes the idea of adding another extreme competitor to his roster.
“He has a lot of those competitive qualities that we respect and we think not only resonate with us but also impact winning in a big way,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a competitive guy. Winning matters to him. He respects our uniform. He really wanted to be here. Not everybody wants to play for us. So that matters. We want to have like-minded competitors that view competition in a very similar way.”
Spoelstra addressed his new-look backcourt, with Rozier and Herro both capable of scoring and distributing the ball.
“Skill level is extremely high with both of these guys,” he said. “Terry can play more naturally at the point. Tyler, his skill level, his ball handling, his play-making has improved so much. Terry knows how to play on the ball and he also knows how to play off the ball which is really important for our group. He’s had success doing both. This year, he had to do a lot more on the ball and it shows you what he’s capable of leading the attack.”
Spoelstra also discussed the loss of Kyle Lowry, who was sent to the Hornets in the trade after spending the last two and a half seasons in Miami.
“Kyle, you can never define him by his stats,” Spoelstra said. “His whole career, and particularly as an ultimate winner, you define him by whether your team is winning and how it’s functioning. … This is part of the business…. Sometimes you have to make a business decision. That’s what this was. He’ll be just fine. He’ll find his next stop … whether it’s Charlotte or anywhere else.”
I saw him play 1 game at Louisville, and then heard a pre-draft interview with him, and immediately was a fan. I wanted the Heat to trade for him in 2017, and everyone said I was insane, and it was a terrible deal for the Heat. Dude grew up idolozong Wade, and plays a lot like him when he was young. I have no doubt Heat fans here will love him.
That being said, I don’t currently think it’s a fit when everyone is healthy, as I’ve said, unless Herro is also being moved, so we’ll see how that works out…
Don’t want to repeat the same stuff, so I’ll just say I’m excited to see his growth here, and how being around certain people may help him evolve in areas he could improve in/has shown to be better at in the past that have gone away. Excited for him to be in a place I know he always has wanted to be, after getting to experience a couple of special moments from the other side in road games.
Looks like Spo disagrees with you. Time will tell!
Understanding spoisms takes some time. He knows what he is doing and saying. He explained a lot of this stuff a few days ago when he talked about bringing Kyle off the bench for those couple of games. He throws in actual basketball stuff every now and then, but otherwise toes the line, but you can tell when he means something and when he is messing around/seeing what happens
I mean he’s the coach so he’s not going to say “this combination won’t work”.
It’s literally his job to make the combination work. Who knows what he actually feels about the roster.
There’s a clear overlap with Rozier and Herro having similar games.
Spo should make it work ……. though I’d consider moving Herro if there was a good versatile big available – the HEAT just getting killed off the boards in most games.
Dont see Lowry staying with Charlotte. He is likely to be bought out and join a non-taxpaying contender.
If the Lakers duck below the luxury tax before the trade deadline, they could sign him after the buy out I guess?
Lakers would be eligible to sign him now, since the restriction applies at the first apron, not at the luxury tax line (there’s about a $7MM gap between the two).
The Lakers are actually already hard-capped at the first apron this season, so the only scenario in which they’d be prohibited from signing a post-buyout player would be if they wanted to offer him a contract that would push team salary above the apron.
And you lose to Memphis lol
Darn. Rozier was off last night. Get used to heat culture but gotta be consistent.
Rozier and Herro kept running to the same spots on both sides of the ball, and the spacong was bad, further showing what I’ve been saying