Honest question : Apart from his on-ball defense (which is good but not spectacular), what exactly does Terry Rozier bring to this team?
Excellent rebounding and low TOs for a guard and a very solid spot-up 3-point shooter.
Rozier is a SG, not a PG. When Stevens finally realizes this, he could look a lot more like Avery Bradley and a lot less like a dude who dribbles the ball off his knee.
Both Brown and Smart are better rebounders than Rozier.
contested rebs
Brown 1.7
Smart 1.5
Rozier 1.1
contested reb%
Smart 34.9
Brown 25.8
Rozier 25.5
avg reb distance
Rozier 7.7
Smart 6.6
Brown 6.4
https://stats.nba.com/players/rebounding/?Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&PlayerPosition=G&sort=REB_CONTEST&dir=1&TeamID=1610612738
To put it another way, Rozier is mostly grabbing long uncontested rebs.
In what way is that at all relevant?
What matters is that he's getting rebounds, not how he's getting them. IF he's most grabbing long uncontested rebounds, then that means he's seeing those rebounds and getting in the right place at the right time to grab them If anything the fact that they are uncontested might be even more impressive - it means he's collecting the rebounds that other guys either aren't seeing, or are too lazy to chase.
And I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen him sky over multiple bigs to grab rebounds in the paint - the kid is a beast.
Also are you kidding me right now - Jaylen Brown is a 6'7", 230 hyper athletic forward who is playing out of position at the SG spot this year by necessity. You're comparing his rebounding to that of a 6'2", 190 pound point guard? Really?!?
I mean the Smart/Rozier comparison is fine, but comparing Rozier and Brown as rebounders is mind blowingly ludicrous. You may as well be comparing Jaylen Brown's rebounding to Joel Embiid's - this would be similarly ridiculous.
As for his low turnover rate, I bet it has to do with the fact that CBS isn't using him as the primary ball handler anymore. Kyrie-Smart are the primary ball handlers and to a lesser extent Larkin.
No.
Per Basketball reference, Terry Rozier so far this year has played 76% of his minutes at the PG spot and 24 at the SG spot. That's dead in line with his career numbers - and he's had low turnover numbers his entire NBA career.
By comparison Marcus Smart has played only 6% of his minutes at the PG spot. The majority (77%) have come at the SG spot and the next highest (17%) at the SF spot. So he's barely playing the point at all over the past two seasons - yet his turnover rate is (and always has been) significantly higher then Rozier's.
Rozier is quite simply a more careful and more intelligent passer then Smart - he doesn't have the court vision to see openings and scoring opportunities (hence the lower assist numbers) but he rarely makes bad passes or risky passes - he makes the simple play. Samrt by comparison is prone to makigng things more difficult then they need to be, and makes far more risky passes.
Per Basketball reference, here is the turnover breakdown for Rozier and Smart:
RozierBad Pass: 2
Lost Ball: 8
Other: 6
Smart:Bad Pass: 21
Lost Ball: 8
Other: 14
Smart has dished out roughly twice as many assists as Rozier this year (103 vs 45) and yet he has 10x as many turnovers off bad passes (21 vs 2). There is your answer as to why Rozier's turnovers are lower.
That puts Rozier at a rate of 22.5 assists per bad pass turnover, while Smart is at 4.9 assists per bad pass turnover. That's a clear indication that Rozier is a far, far, far more accurate passer.
This holds true for their careers too, albeit to a lesser degree (Rozier has made huge strides this year):
For his career Smart has dished out 860 assists and 198 bad pass turnovers - a rate of 4.3 assists for every bad pass.
For his career Rozier has dished out 213 assists and 33 bad pass turnovers - a rate of 6.5 assists for every bad pass.
So who is, in fact, the better point guard of the two? I haven't got access to see their Pure Point ratings, but I'd be willing to bet that Roziers is far, far better then Smart's this year.