I'm not impressed by Rozier/Smart comparisons. Smart has an elite skill. Rozier is a dime a dozen player at this moment. He might improve greatly, but he is pretty generic right now. Smart gets more minutes because the coach thinks he will have a bigger impact on the game than Rozier. The players are the exact same age, 22 and born in March 1994, which makes it a little simpler when forecasting the future.
I'm not sure why people are bringing the term 'all-star' into discussions about Rozier. I suppose every single young player in the NBA could one day be an all star. But he is so far from differentiating himself. I feel like he will be a rotation guy by next season, but that is a very low bar.
Yeah, you see flashes from Rozier, but you're going to see flashes from even borderline NBA players.
The kid didn't shoot 31% from the floor in any single month, and didn't has a TS% above .375 in any month. That's wretched.
he's played 311 minutes for his career on a team already pretty well-stocked with ball handlers/guards. tiny sample size.
i've watched him play in maine live many times, those "flashes" will become a lot more frequent once he gets time at the NBA level. from what i've seen, he is good at literally everything, and is just "OK" at spot up shooting. he is a very good athlete and can impose his will physically, as we saw in game 2 against the hawks. add to that his defensive IQ, ball handling and diverse offense, and you have the recipe for a potentially very good NBA player.
and i do think those skills will translate. he's a much, much. better prospect than a guy like james young. just needs some PT.