Terry Rozier spent the past five months recovering from a neck injury that held him out of the Heat‘s first-round playoff series against the Celtics. But now, as Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes, Rozier’s been cleared for five-on-five play ahead of his first training camp with Miami.
“I’m still the same old Terry when I play,” Rozier said. “Whatever happened in the past, I won’t let it affect how I play. … I’m going to play how I play. But nothing affects how I go now. I’m still myself, so I feel good.”
The neck injury was first listed as stiffness but according to Chiang, further tests revealed the injury was more concerning than originally thought and would keep him off the court for a while.
“I mean, for me just playing fully and then to go to not and having to miss the playoffs, you get to questioning like ‘Damn, could this possibly be the end for me?’” Rozier said. “But obviously, I’ve been blessed with a really great body and I’ve been able to recover. So I’m going back to the drawing board and do this [thing] again.”
Rozier has two seasons left on his current contract and is owed $24.9MM this season. Rozier admitted it was difficult to be off the court for so long, especially after ramping up his production toward the end of last regular season. In his final 10 appearances, he averaged 18.8 points on 50.0% shooting from three on 7.4 attempts.
We have more from the Heat:
- Like Rozier, third-year forward Nikola Jovic‘s offseason has been derailed by injury. In a separate piece, Chiang explores Jovic’s health ahead of the season, who admitted his ankle injury slowed his offseason plans. Jovic was impressive in his 38 starts last season, averaging 8.4 points on .445/.400/.711 splits, but detailed his plans for improvement for 2024/25. “I would say the thing I was working on the most was probably just when I have a mismatch in the low post,” Jovic said. “When I have small guys on me, I just have to punish them, and that’s going to be something that’s going to help our team a lot.“
- In a two-part series, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald answers 15 questions about the Heat’s upcoming season. Of note, Jackson writes that the Heat aren’t worried about losing Jimmy Butler next season for nothing even if he opts out of his contract to become a free agent. Brooklyn and Houston are two teams who make sense for Butler on paper, but Jackson writes that both would have to jump through hoops to acquire him. While that’s certainly possible, Miami could explore sign-and-trade options in a worst-case scenario, but the two sides are motivated to make this season memorable.
- Former Rockets first round pick Josh Christopher received a two-way contract from the Heat after an impressive summer league and Ira Winderman of South Florida’s Sun Sentinel writes he’s appreciative of the opportunity. “I think they’ve given me the cheats codes [to] being successful,” Christopher said. Miami has a history of making the most of overlooked two-way/training camp players, helping turn the likes of Duncan Robinson, Max Strus and Caleb Martin into top-tier role players. Christopher’s former first-round pedigree makes him a different kind of player than the Heat have taken chances on before and he’ll join recently signed Nassir Little as recent first-round picks attempting to achieve their NBA dreams.