Boston Celtics: 5 takeaways from the 2018-19 NBA season

5. Terry Rozier is not the point guard of the future

Trade Kyrie, they said. Let him walk in free agency, they said. The fact is, regardless of the Boston Celtics’ impressive record without Kyrie Irving and success in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, it would be a disaster if Boston moved forward with Terry Rozier as the team’s starting point guard.

This is really not to disparage Terry Rozier as a basketball player. After his postseason success last year and the flashes he has shown (however infrequent), he’s not bad at basketball. He’s just no championship-caliber point guard.

With somebody like Rozier, this a fit problem. Place him on a team with only a few players who would supersede him in the pecking order for primary offensive initiator, and he could be an effective lead guard and scorer. Boston saw that in the previous postseason, and that player is still just 25 years old.

Even if Kyrie leaves, it just not feasible for Rozier to take over as the team’s lead guard. With players like Hayward and Horford already better playmakers in the half-court, it’s not a practical fit to play a small point guard who likes to dribble around and create off the bounce rather than someone who can play on or off-ball consistently. That’s not even accounting for the other mouths to feed on the team, like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Terry Rozier should be a decent NBA player for years to come. For both his and Boston’s sake, it shouldn’t be with the Celtics.