After falling two wins short of an NBA championship, the Celtics surely will spend plenty of time thinking about what they could have done differently against the Golden State Warriors.
But if you ask one league general manager, Boston's Finals loss will also prompt the organization to look back to a crossroads it found itself at years ago.
Heavy.com's Sean Deveney recently caught up with an anonymous Eastern Conference GM who pinpointed a decision the Celtics might be kicking themselves about.
"If they had kept Terry Rozier and let (Marcus) Smart run the show earlier on? There would have been some rough spots while those guys learned but that has to be a big regret. Just pay Rozier, there's your sixth man, and make Marcus your starter. What a good combo that would have been. It is nice to see Smart develop but it probably could have happened sooner," the GM told Deveney.
The GM probably is right about Smart. The Celtics were at their best this past season when the Defensive Player of the Year was running the show on offense and serving as a great complement to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But as for Rozier, Boston might not be dwelling on letting him walk.
The Charlotte Hornets signed "Scary Terry" to a three-year, $56.7 million dollar deal in July 2019 and then gave him an extension worth $97 million over four seasons. The Celtics ultimately filled their sixth man role in the form of Derrick White, who is owed nearly $20.5 million less than Rozier through the 2024-25 season. White is longer and is a better defender than Rozier, and he seemingly is a better fit for the formula that clearly worked for the C's.
Could Rozier have popped off with a scoring burst a time or two in the 2022 Finals? Sure. But he definitely wouldn't have been the difference between the Celtics winning and losing against the Warriors.
