Through four regular-season games, Terry Rozier has the highest net rating out of any guard on the Celtics roster. His strong preseason has carried over the regular season, with the team playing elite defense (83.5 defensive rating) whenever he has been on the floor. Individually, his numbers are trending as usual -- his 3-point shooting remains elite (42.9 percent) while his shot attempts inside the arc leave a lot to be desired (35 percent). But overall, he's been one of the most consistent two-way players on the roster through the first week of the regular season.
On Monday night against the Magic, however, Rozier played just 15 minutes, seven below his season average and 10 below his average from last season. Part of that decline was likely due to an off shooting night (2-of-9). But it was a tough pill for him to swallow in the midst of a 93-90 loss to the lowly Magic.
"It's not the easiest," Rozier said. "Me being a competitor, me being who I am, (I) wake up every day and want to be the best I can be. Want to win and everything, (and) it's tough when I don't get the minutes that I may want -- like (Monday) night for example. I didn't play that many minutes, but like I said, Coach does not have the easiest job. He has the toughest job out of all of us. I can respect that. I control what I control. I still come in every day, bust my butt because I know it may be different on Thursday."
The tightrope that Brad Stevens is trying to walk right now is a challenging one. He's letting Kyrie Irving and Jaylen Brown play through their early-season struggles, even though Marcus Smart and Rozier have been the far superior duo, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.
"We have a lot of talent on this team, and coach does his best to try to switch up guys and who he wants out there together," Rozier explained. "It's not easy, because we have a lot of guys that can play, and we have only been together for a month. That might take a little process for that to happen. Us being who we are, when you look at the media and other stuff, we want to be good right now because we have all this hype. When we have games like (Monday) night and lose, it's frustrating. We can look at so many different things, but we just want to be good right now, and it might take some time. We got to play hard."
That biggest challenge right now for Stevens is simply finding groups that are playing well together. The bench has been defending, but their offensive abilities have been lackluster in longer stints. Marcus Morris has seen big minutes, but he's been a big liability on the defensive end in spots. Brown and Tatum have shown their defensive warts as well. With the rotation constantly shifting, Stevens is just trying to figure out what works.
"I think there’s no question that those are things that are real, but until we really play well, I can’t answer the question, because I don’t think we’ve really played well," Stevens said of the fluctuating minutes. "And so once we’ve really played well and people are having to deal with that, that’s really just an increased layer of difficulty, but reality.
"A lot of our guys know it may not be their night one night, and the next night they’re going to finish the game and play 30 minutes. That’s the reality of our team. And until we’re playing really well, we’ve got to figure out who that is, and I think that’s another reality of our team."
One of Stevens' few weaknesses, while he's been in Boston, is going too deep into a rotation too often when there is a lot of even talent on the bench. That was a reality in 2015-16 after the team acquired Isaiah Thomas and Jonas Jerebko, but he ultimately found the right mix there on a nightly basis. This group is far more talented than that one, but it remains to be seen which pieces complement each other the most, specifically from an offensive standpoint.
Rozier, for one, would like to see this group focus more on the team's offense, rather than their own.
"I just feel like we have to worry about the team's best shot, instead of individually, guys' shots," Rozier said. "I think it could be everybody caught up in that. Once we get over that and worry about the team's shot instead of my best shot, we'll be fine."
Rozier would probably be best served to listen to some of his own advice after going 2-of-9 from the field in just 15 minutes on Monday. Still, the numbers don't lie with him to this point. The team is performing best when role guys like him, Smart and Aron Baynes are on the floor. Whether or not that continues remains to be seen but Stevens is going to have to account for that shift at some point if the starters don't step things up. Playing time may not change for that group but that doesn't mean lineups won't.
"It is a reality that we can only play five at a time, and we just have to find groups that play well together," Stevens said.