Despite rough season, Heat’s Terry Rozier keeping positive attitude: ‘I don’t carry bad energy’
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, a picture said a lot about Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.
As Heat guard Davion Mitchell helped save the team’s season by hitting three three-pointers and drawing an offensive foul in overtime during the Heat’s playoff-clinching play-in tournament road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, Miami’s bench jumped up to celebrate Mitchell’s late-game takeover. The Heat posted a photo of the bench’s reaction on social media Friday night.
Rozier, who has fallen out of the Heat’s rotation after beginning the season as a starter, was among those on his feet in front of the team’s bench with a big smile on his face. The mid-season acquisition of Mitchell has helped lead to Rozier’s recent string of DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision), and Rozier still found himself celebrating Mitchell in that moment.
“I don’t carry bad energy with me,” Rozier said Sunday morning, with the Heat set to open its first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena on Sunday night. “I’m not a hater. How he’s playing, Davion, I think we’re all excited to see that. So I don’t carry bad energy with me and I love to see it.
“Even if I’m not playing, we still got to get in the playoffs and give ourselves another chance to be able to enjoy that dance at the end. I’m just happy to be a part of the process, even if I’m not playing. You never know, I could play in Game 2, 3 or 4. I know how that stuff works. Just making sure I’m staying ready. And definitely me being positive, me being a good teammate, I’m never going to change.”
Rozier started his first 12 appearances of the season and logged double-digit minutes in his first 58 appearances of the season, but he received nine DNP-CDs over the Heat’s final 17 regular-season games and did not play in either of the two play-in tournament games.
“I think it’s easy because of the team we got,” Rozier, 31, said of maintaining a positive attitude despite his diminished on-court role. “We got a great locker room. We all like each other, we all get along. Like I said, when Slow-Mo [Kyle Anderson] hit those two late-clock threes [in Atlanta], we were all going crazy over here. We all love to see it. My success is just as good as anybody else’s success on this team. So we all love to see it.”
It has been a rough season for Rozier, who the Heat traded Kyle Lowry’s sizable $29.7 million expiring contract and a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets to land midway through last season. Rozier has one season remaining on his contract after this one, with $24.9 million of his $26.6 million salary for next season already guaranteed.
Rozier averaged 10.6 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting from the field and 29.5 percent shooting from three-point range in 64 appearances this regular season. That’s the fewest points he has averaged and the worst field-goal percentage he has recorded in a season since his fourth NBA season in 2018-19, with Rozier’s three-point percentage his worst for a season since his rookie year in 2015-16.
“You just got to understand this is how the playoffs work,” Rozier said of remaining ready for a potential playoff opportunity. “You may not have played in the last three games, but you search for matchups and stuff like that. If things aren’t going well, you just got to be ready. I know how that stuff works and I’m making sure I’m staying ready.”
The Strus factor
Max Strus started in 41 playoff games during his three seasons with the Heat. But on Sunday, Strus will find himself playing in a playoff game against the Heat as a member of the Cavaliers.
That had Strus trying to offer some institutional knowledge to help the Cavaliers prepare for their first-round playoff series against the Heat.
“He was most vocal in film today and added three or four tidbits, a couple of strategic points on their style of play,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said of Strus Sunday. “He knows the personnel. Gave a couple of things the coaches didn’t bring up.”
But a lot has changed since Strus left the Heat to sign with the Cavaliers in free agency during the 2023 offseason. Only Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Kevin Love, Duncan Robinson and Dru Smith remain on the Heat’s roster from Strus’ time with Miami.
“I don’t know what he talked about,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday morning when asked how much has changed schematically since Strus’ exit. “Maybe it’s the stuff from this year. I don’t know.”
Herro sarcastically said: “I think everything is the same, the exact same. We’ve been doing the exact same stuff. He knows exactly what we’re doing.”
