If the Celtics bring back the same cast next season, including the retaining of free agent Kyrie Irving, backup point guard Terry Rozier hopes to be elsewhere.
“No, I might have to go, I might have to go,” Rozier replied when presented that scenario Tuesday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “I put up with a lot this year. I said what I said after the season, and I think we all know that I’m not trying to step into that again.”
After Boston was bounced last week by Milwaukee in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Rozier candidly had lamented the “bulls–t” the team went through this season, claiming, “It wasn’t easy on [coach Brad Stevens] dealing with a lot of guys that want to be great, trying to get theirs.” He also stated, “I don’t give a f–k what nobody say, I sacrificed the most out of anybody.”
With Irving sidelined with a knee injury last spring, Rozier helped lead the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals with averages of 16.5 points and 5.7 assists over 36.6 minutes per game.
Rozier, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, saw his minutes cut in half during this year’s postseason to 18 minutes per game.
Irving, one of the top unrestricted free agents slated to hit the open market in July, shot 38.5 percent from the floor and averaged 21.3 points in nine playoff games this year, while his pending free agency — after publicly reneging on vowing to return to Boston long term — hung over the team.
While Rozier admitted “this was the most talented team I ever played on,” he believes it was “very difficult” for the Celtics to adapt to the returns from injury this year of Irving and forward Gordon Hayward and to reintegrate them into a young core that also includes Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
“I feel like that along with the coaches, them treating Gordon and Kyrie — I don’t want to say different than everybody else — but I felt like they just treated them like they were on that level where there were no adjustments that could be made because they are who they are,” Rozier said. “We never figured it out after that.”
Rozier, Boston’s first-round pick (16th overall) out of Louisville in 2015, said earlier Tuesday on ESPN’s “Get Up!” that he wants the chance to start next season, whether it’s in Boston or elsewhere.
“I’m looking forward to play, just play ball. I don’t care where I go,” Rozier said. “Obviously, the Celtics is the only organization I know for the four years and I love it there. We’ll just have to go from there. I expect for me to get my chance, whether it’s the Celtics or it’s anywhere else. I feel like I can be myself and play my game wherever I go.”
