Charlotte Hornets: Is there any way for Terry Rozier to justify his contract?

Terry Rozier’s deal with the Charlotte Hornets is as egregious as they come, but is there any way for him to justify it just a bit?

In the absence of Kemba Walker, the Charlotte Hornets were quick to snatch up their point guard of the future by agreeing to terms with Terry Rozier just as free agency kicked off.

Signing a 25-year-old playoff-tested floor general usually draws rave reviews, but for obvious reasons, that wasn’t the case with this pairing.

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Rozier signed a three-year contract worth $58 million. It’s a figure set to pay him close to $20 million for the 2019-20 campaign alone, more than three-time champion Draymond Green.

That’s not exactly the type of dollar anyone should be paying for a career 7.7 points per game scorer.

The Hornets have garnered a reputation over the years as one of the worst-run organizations in the NBA.

It’s a franchise that will give the trio of Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams and Cody Zeller an excess of $54 million combined next season — or an average of $18 million per — among other horrific contracts.

At the moment those contracts were signed, each player had essentially reached their ceiling on the basketball court, leaving little room for them to live up to their price tag. Rozier’s deal is an eyesore, but he’s at a point in his career where his potential might not be too far out of reach.

Throughout 272 regular-season games all spent with the Boston Celtics, Terry Rozier was a starter for only 30 of them. From Isaiah Thomas to Kyrie Irving, the former 16th overall pick always had someone ahead of him on the depth chart.

In watching him play for four years, Rozier’s not at his best coming off the bench, requiring consistent minutes to develop a rhythm with the ball primarily in his hands.

Boston wanted him as its sixth man, but it wasn’t in his DNA, a large reason why he struggled during his tenure with the team.

It’s for this very same reason Rozier thrived during the 2018 postseason. Kyrie Irving was on the mend with the starting ballhandling duties all but his.

He averaged 16.2 points 5.6 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game and was a big reason the Celtics made it to within a single game of the NBA Finals.

He now resides in Charlotte, with the franchise’s all-time leading scorer gone and the highest scorer from a season ago a tie between Zeller and Williams at 10.1 a night.

The Hornets already ranked 19th in scoring last year and will be in desperate need of buckets in whatever form they can get, with Rozier serving as the prime candidate to deliver.

The very noticeable issue for Rozier has never been his counting stats. Per 36 minutes, he boasts modest career averages of 13.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists a game.

It’s been his inability to produce those numbers with any resemblance of efficiency that’s made it difficult to entrust him with greater responsibilities at the offensive end.

Consider this: Of the 180 players from last season to attempt more than eight shots per game, Rozier’s field goal percentage ranked 106th. He’s got a career-best mark of just 39.5 percent.

Even during his famous postseason run of 2018, Rozier shot just 40.6 percent from the field on 14.0 shots per game.

Some of his glaring inefficiency can no doubt be attributed to a fluctuating position within Boston’s system.

As mentioned earlier, he needs to establish a rhythm, yet many others operated similarly, resulting in a hot and cold relationship with the ball that often fostered forced shots without the knowledge of the next one’s arrival.

Your game will always be your game, and maybe Rozier is prone to more erratic shots of the heat-check variety than most teams would like.

It’s possible, however, that with more control of the offense and a fresh contract in hand, he’ll function far more steadily knowing the ball will make its way back to him one way or another.

A select few NBA players manage to live up to their contracts. At roughly $20 million a year, Rozier won’t be one of them. It’s simply too big a figure for a guy who has rarely if ever flashed All-Star potential on a team that’s been the definition of mediocrity over the last three seasons

Does that mean he can’t at least prove some of the doubters wrong? This isn’t a guy on the downside of his career.

Assuming a certain level of health, Rozier’s best days are ahead of him with a role that will allow him to fully unleash whatever talent’s been lying dormant for all these years.

The Hornets probably could’ve gotten Rozier on a much cheaper deal, but many players need to move elsewhere to thrive. They won’t make the playoffs this coming season, but with any luck, Charlotte’s new starting point guard can do more than what’s expected from him.

It wouldn’t mean much, but for a team vying for ping-pong balls, it’s as good a win as they’ll get.