Danny Ainge shoots down rumors of Terry Rozier being unhappy and teams looking into trades
Terry Rozier is unhappy with his playing time? As many as seven teams are looking into potentially trading for him? That’s news to Danny Ainge.
The Celtics president of basketball ops shot down the rumors and reports regarding Rozier during his weekly interview with Toucher & Rich, which you can listen to above. It started with Bill Simmons, who tweeted that Rozier has been unhappy with his playing time and teams now know the C’s need to trade him.
Ainge acknowledged that Rozier would obviously like to play as many minutes as possible, as any competitor would. But he dismissed the idea that Rozier is unhappy to the point of raising issues with the team.
“I talk to Terry quite a bit, and I haven’t heard any of those types of things,” said Ainge. “I don’t know how reliable any of the sources or rumors are. Terry hasn’t shared any of those with me, and I think he would if he were feeling that way. Terry knew going in this year what his situation, what his role was going to be, and he was as excited and enthusiastic as anyone on our team for the upcoming season.
“I know for sure that Terry would love to be playing more minutes, but there’s a lot of guys on the team that would love to be playing more minutes. I feel like I have a relationship with Terry that he would come to me and talk to me or [head coach Brad Stevens] if he was really frustrated about his situation, and none of that’s happened.”
CLEVELAND, OH – MAY 25: Terry Rozier of the Boston Celtics looks on after being defeated by the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game 6 of the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Quicken Loans Arena. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
That wasn’t the only report that trickled out about Rozier this week. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday that “at least seven teams have been monitoring Rozier’s status this season … waiting to see if the Celtics could begin to field trade calls.” It’s not necessarily untrue that teams have been keeping an eye on Rozier, and this report indicates that the Celtics haven’t fielded any calls. But Ainge certainly hasn’t heard about any of it.
“I don’t know where any of this stuff is coming from, and I don’t know anything about the seven teams that are monitoring it,” said Ainge. “All that kind of stuff that just seems [like] stuff that’s been made up. I don’t believe any of it, put it that way.”
Ainge added that the Celtics haven’t gotten any calls on Rozier since the season started. You can listen to the full interview as part of Hour 4 of today’s T&R show in the above podcast.
Listen to Toucher & Rich weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Click here for all content from the show.
