Should the Philadelphia 76ers look to trade for Terry Rozier?

He may be a just a backup for now, but Terry Rozier could be the missing piece in the Philadelphia 76ers’ championship puzzle.

The Boston Celtics have one of the most frustratingly great situations a team could have: There may just be too much talent on the roster, going 10 deep with a multitude of guys who can handle the ball and create opportunities for themselves and those around them.

In a perfect world, there’s plenty of shots to go around and everybody’s happy. As we all know, that’s not how basketball works. More often than not, sacrifice is required to achieve the ultimate goal.

Early in the season, one player who seems to be sacrificing a bit more than the others is backup point guard Terry Rozier. Following his phenomenal play in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, Rozier has regressed quite a bit, largely due to his now reduced role with the return of Kyrie Irving.

Amidst trade rumors resulting from a report from The Athletic‘s Shams Charania, which claimed the fifth-year guard is unhappy with his reduced minutes, Scary Terry came out and stated otherwise, but that shouldn’t keep the Celtics from accepting phone calls.

Rozier is currently in the final year of his contract, and bringing him back into the fold would cost a pretty penny — one the Cs may not be willing to hand over given their current cap situation and the expected deals for Kyrie Irving, not to mention youngsters Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum when the time comes.

From his perspective, Rozier may want a bigger role in order to show his worth before he hits free agency in order to secure a larger deal.

While the point guard position is ridiculously deep around the league, there are still a few teams who could use the energetic floor general on their squad, including one that just so happens to be one of Boston’s direct competitors: the Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia has had a peculiar beginning to the 2018-19 season, starting off 7-5 but with cause for concern.

The biggest question mark for them remains the play of former No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz. The Sixers have decided to let him run with the starters as a way to accelerate his development. The only issue is he still has trouble shooting the ball, which would be tolerable if Philly didn’t also deploy a shot-hesitant Ben Simmons as well.

Fultz could wind up improving his outside shooting to a respectable level. He also couldn’t. There really isn’t any way to know. It’s about whether or not the Sixers are willing to take that chance. If they are, then giving up assets for Rozier would be foolish as it would likely decimate their point guard’s confidence.

However, after a surprise second round postseason appearance last year, expectations have risen for the 76ers, higher than most would’ve anticipated. They’re not just some young developing team on the rise. The NBA world is expecting them to contend for the conference crown, but with teams like Boston, the Toronto Raptors and even the Milwaukee Bucks in their way, Philly doesn’t seem ready for that type of leap.

Rozier would be the perfect complement to the rest of the Sixers roster. He brings along incredible quickness and grit that makes him a great perimeter defender. His athleticism helps him get to the bucket, and as someone who’s shot above 38 percent from deep this year and last, he can play off the ball and create space for Simmons and Joel Embiid.

Re-signing the 24-year-old wouldn’t come cheap, and it would eat into Philly’s precious cap space that it hopes to use on a star player. It wouldn’t require all of it, though, allowing general manager Elton Brand to go out and fill some other gaps that need to be addressed.

It’d be interesting to see what type of package would be needed to acquire Rozier, and maybe the asking price wouldn’t make sense for the 76ers, but given the questionable makeup of their lineups coupled with the very real possibility Fultz won’t ever pan out the way they’d like, it may behoove Brand to call Danny Ainge and test the waters.