Terry Rozier is struggling to score around the basket


Terry Rozier has shown some flashes of brilliance for the Celtics in the past season-plus. Last year in the playoffs he stepped in and played a big role when Avery Bradley went down with a shoulder injury, and this season again with Bradley missing nearly two months Rozier was called upon to play bigger role in the Celtics backcourt. Again Rozier has shown the ability to do a lot of things well. He's a terrific ball-handler, one of the best rebounding guards in the NBA, and he can be a dynamic scoring option off the bench with the ability to shoot from the outide or get to the rim. His biggest problem is although he can get to the rim, he hasn't been finishing consistently:


Rozier is making less than half of his attempts that are within 3-feet of the rim. That's not good at all. By comparison, let's take Marcus Smart for instance - not necessarily known for his scoring prowess Smart shoots 51.5% from inside 3 feet and Jae Crowder shoots a team best 78.2% around the bucket. Bradley nearly shoots as well from three (41.2%) as Rozier shoots inside 3 feet.

While Terry has impacted a lot of games this year, particularly in the last month plus, in a positive way he's played erratic and out of control at times. He's at his best when he provides a boost of energy off the Celtics bench with his quickness and hustle but he's got to stay focused and in check. Rozier has played enough this year that those statistics are no small sample size. With Bradley back in the lineup and expected to be at full-strength by early next week don't be surprised if Rozier starts racking up DNP's - Coaches Decision. That's mostly because of the Celtics crowded backcourt, there just aren't enough minutes to go around, but in the meantime Rozier needs to focus his attention working on his finishing around the bucket. His rebounding at the 1 can be a huge asset for a team that is terrible on the glass, but shooting 45% on layups is not going to get him back in the C's rotation anytime soon.


Photo Credit - Ned Dishman/GETTY Images

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