Grading the Heat’s top 5 players three quarters through the season

Acquiring talented scoring guard Terry Rozier from the Charlotte Hornets midseason makes this a tough grading. A lot of Rozier’s stats have gone down going from Charlotte to Miami, but that should have been expected. He was going from a losing situation where he was the focal part of the offense to being the fourth option on a contending team.

Rozier went from averaging 23.2 points, 6.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds on 45.9% shooting and 35.8% from deep to 13.7 points, 5.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds on 38.6%/24.2% shooting splits going from Charlotte to South Beach. Although, since returning from the minor knee injury he suffered in that physical game against the Boston Celtics weeks ago, he has shown some real signs.

After he returned to the starting lineup against the Portland Trail Blazers a week ago, Rozier has averaged 17.3 points, 5.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds on 45.5% shooting and 33.3% from deep. He has a 56.8 true shooting percentage in this stretch, and the Heat have gone 3-1 since. Rozier is not a plug-and-play type of star who can get traded to a top team and immediately stuff the stat sheet. It has been a slow process getting him into the flow of things and that injury setback didn’t help, but as the games go on he is looking more comfortable.