Year 2 Delonte was putting up 12/5/4 as a starter, with 49/38/85 splits and played above average defense. He was a legitimate PG/SG combo guard.
Rozier is shooting a career high 38% in Year 3 and can't play the point. He's a better rebounder and more athletic.
I really hope Rozier keeps improving, and it's not like the rest of Delonte's career went according to plan, but if you could trade "right now" Rozer for Year 2/3 Delonte, you do it in a heartbeat.
Nope. Wouldn't swap Rozier for Young Delonte.
Rozier will improve, the game hasn't slowed down for him yet.
And he has something Delonte never did: two hands.
That's answering a different question, though, isn't it? You'd keep Rozier because you feel confident that Rozier will improve and, eventually, be better than Delonte was. But the debate going on was about whether or not Rozier is now better than Delonte West was.
And if I have the choice between 2017 Rozier and 2006 Delonte for one game or one season, I would absolutely take Delonte and I don't know what the argument for Rozier would even be.
As I've said, context matters. A lot.
Delonte West was the PG (sometimes SG) for a bad team, with 30+ minutes playing and the freedom to do many things. Rozier is playing for a PO team (in fact, a number 1 seed) limited minutes and he feels he has to do many things in so little time, which is not good for his game, very quick and sometimes reckless. Hopefully, he'll keep improving but the tools are there: extremely high athleticism, vertical jump, instinct and outside scoring. He also has the problem of playing a lot of minutes with Smart, which doesn't attract defenses to free him.
I feel Rozier's impact on the game is higher than Delonte and it will be even better as the season advances. Being the 7th-8th man on a 18-3 team (AND one of only three players in all 21 games) means something, at least for me.
BTW, I liked Delonte a lot. After his two first seasons, I thought he could be a good starter with around 17 ppg, 6 rpg and 7 apg for many years. Unfortunately, it wasn't so.