Terry Rozier is accepting his bench role for what he says will be a "truly special" season



After Kyrie Irving was set to miss the 2018 NBA Playoffs, the spotlight was on Boston's backup point guard, Terry Rozier. The Louisville product was handed a great opportunity, and he took every advantage of it.

Filling in for an NBA Champion and five-time All-Star was no easy ask, but Rozier did as good as anyone could've hoped. He went through all three playoff series averaging 16.5 points, 5.7 assists, and 5.3 rebounds while building his "Scary Terry" brand on a national platform. Now with Kyrie expected to be back at full health, the 24-year-old who was trending upwards will return to a backup role for the Celtics' 2018-19 season. And he is fine with it.

At his youth basketball camp in Hanover Massachusetts, Rozier spoke with the media about his likely cut in playing time:

"I'm not worried about [his role]," Rozier said. "Kinda control what I can control. We all got one goal, and that's to win. We all get love when we win. That should be everybody's mindset. It's going to be a lot of fun."

"If you want to win a championship, that's what it's going to take -- sacrifice. ... We're all going to have one goal, and it's going to lead us to the promised land."

It's always refreshing to hear athletes put the team over individual accolades (not like he really had much of a choice). At the end of last season, people were wondering what was going to happen with the backcourt when Boston was back to full strength. Some extremely rash fans even suggested trading Irving to let Rozier maintain full-time starter duties. Yet, Danny Ainge has held onto both point guards, plus Marcus Smart, with the idea that Rozier can be a spark-plug off the bench.

While TRo is ready to provide production from any role he is in, he is clearly focused on team success, and with a healthy squad returning, he believes that the team success they are striving for is very attainable this year:

"We can be special. Truly special," Rozier said Saturday during a break from his youth basketball camp in suburban Boston. "I think you know that. I think everybody knows that. Obviously, we [are] good on paper, we just gotta get it together and make sure everybody comes in and has that same mindset. But I feel like it's going to be a special group."

When asked if a trip to the NBA Finals is inevitable, like teammate Jaylen Brown admittedly thought, Rozier simply reiterated his belief that this Celtics team will be special, without really quantifying what that would mean:

"We look good on paper. The same team back from last year adding two main guys, two main pieces, with a lot of the guys we added from this draft and re-signed," Rozier said. "It's special. It's special. Like I said, I don't want to talk too much about [what the team can accomplish], but it's going to be special."

Hey, I'm not sure what "special" means, but I certainly like the sound of it. Without making any clear promises, Rozier really talked highly of his team and the potential they have entering the fresh 2018-19 season. Here's his full comments from his basketball camp this weekend:





Follow Erik Johnson on Twitter: @erikjohnson32

Photo via Getty Images
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