https://youtu.be/9_J_PccYkEI
When I semi-retired from the daily NBA highlights grind, I was looking forward to a gleaming and gilded future free from the players that had tormented me in the past. I would create only the videos that I wanted to create, unburdened from the ceaseless uploadment of repetitive and barely-consumed vids of players that no one really cares about. The Jeff Teagues (by the way I am not even mad that he just dropped 19 against the Bucks even though he sucks) of the league would go wholly ignored, the Will Bartons, the Dillon Brookses…
The Terry Roziers.
DAMMIT.
Even in semi-retirement, Rozier continues to haunt me. He didn’t waste any time at all. Basically, my singular criterion for the manufacture of a Rozier highlight vid this season was that he score 40 points. MAYBE 36 or 38 or something if he also added a couple poster dunks. 40 points is a lot for Rozier. He did it once before, but I considered that performance so anomalous that I thought I would be safe. Especially with the talent that the Hornets added during the offseason. With Gordon Hayward hogging the ball, LaMelo Ball (don’t even look at his statline, or his shooting form) getting top-five-pick minutes, and Devonte’ Graham making another leap, what room would there be for Rozier?
Yet here we are. First game of the season, and Rozier just goes out there and hits 10 triples like it’s no big deal. Sure, he kinda statpadded the last few, but he statpadded them SO HARD that they stopped being statpadded because he actually kinda dragged the Hornets back into the game by the end. Take notes, Chucksell Statpadbrook.
You know how Khris Middleton hates the Celtics more than anything and cooks them literally every time? I think we can say the same about Rozier and the Cavaliers. It’s not going to matter as much, because I’m not foreseeing a Cavs vs Hornets playoff matchup within the next few years, but the hate that Rozier has for the city that spurned (and spawned) him is clear. He scored 35 and 30 points in his two games against them last year, and now 42? If the Cavs were smart, they’d trade Thon Maker for him just so he’d stop kicking their booty.