Louisville's Rozier welcomes combine pressure

CHICAGO – The common perception among NBA draft analysts is that playing in the 5-on-5 scrimmages here at the NBA draft combine is a big risk for potential first-round picks.

There is a chance a player could boost his draft stock by performing well, with the games played out on national television and in front of scores of front-office personnel from across the NBA.

Or, and this is where the risk lies, a player could hurt himself by performing poorly, losing favor with teams that might otherwise like him.

But former University of Louisville guard Terry Rozier didn't even consider skipping Thursday's and Friday's scrimmages. That's not his style.

"It's just that I don't like the decision of backing out and not playing and being too cool, sitting on the side," the 6-foot-1 Rozier said, grinning.

"That's not me. I want to get some reps. I want to play."

On Thursday, Rozier seemingly helped himself in doing so, tallying 13 points, two assists and two steals in 21 minutes of game action.

He was 5 of 9 from the field, displaying an improved jump shot, and he calmly ran his team's offense in a three-point win.

Both of those points are key, and he knows that.

If Rozier wants to be selected on June 25 in the first round of the draft, and there is a chance of that, proving that he can handle playing point guard at the NBA level is priority No. 1. At U of L, Rozier slid into the off-guard spot, where he still handled the ball quite a bit but played the role of a scorer, not a distributor.

"I was asked to score the ball," Rozier said. "The ball was put in my hands a lot. Sometimes I would score the last 17 points of the game and sometimes I would press too much and come up short, but I always stayed aggressive and I tried to help my team.

"A lot of people may take that and say I can't play (point guard), but there's no doubt in my mind I can."

In addition to working on his ball-handling and court vision, Rozier has used a significant portion of his "two or three" workouts a day trying to shoot with more arc. He shot 41.1 percent as a sophomore at Louisville, including an anemic 30.6 percent from 3-point range.

During pre-game shooting drills on Thursday, the new loft to his jumper was on full display. Rozier made 64 percent of his NBA-range 3-pointers in a spot-up shooting exercise. He hit 60.9 percent of his off-the-dribble 15-footers.

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After barely scraping the rim on his first 3-pointer in the actual scrimmage, Rozier later bounced off a pick, stepped back to the 3-point line and swished a smooth-looking jumper. He was 1 for 3 from long distance.

"I'm confident," Rozier said. "Confidence is a big percentage of your shot, and I'm feeling real confident. Everything's going well. I'm not trying to be satisfied. I'm just going to keep working at it and keep improving, but it feels good and I'm confident, and that's the important thing."

A large chunk of Thursday was spent out of the spotlight and away from cameras, with Rozier working through a handful of interviews with representatives from several teams, including the Boston Celtics. Rozier said he has already interviewed with nine teams in all, and he has more scheduled for Friday morning.

The interviews here at the combine are simply part of the feeling-out process as teams comb through the scores of available prospects, but that doesn't mean the questions were easy or the environment all that comforting.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, for instance, watched game film with Rozier and had him break it down as if he were on an episode of Jon Gruden's QB Camp on ESPN. Oklahoma City's reps peppered him with rapid-fire questions.

"Oh, man, you're on the hot seat," Rozier said, laughing. "I did not know it would be like this. ... You just have to be real. You never know what's coming."

On the court, though, Rozier knew exactly what he was capable of, and in his mind, he delivered, with his agent Aaron Turner quipping later Thursday night that his phone was buzzing after the scrimmage.

Now he has to go out and do it again on Friday, when his team plays at the same time on the same floor against a different opponent. And from there, the private workouts with teams begin. Rozier said he starts with the Chicago Bulls early next week and has so many other workouts scheduled that he can't remember them all.

If the next few weeks are a march toward proving he can shoot a higher percentage and play NBA point guard, Rozier took a big step forward on Thursday.

"I've been playing point guard all my life," Rozier said. "I'm a guy who can play on the ball and off the ball. I look at it as a versatility thing. I just know what I can do. I'm looking forward to showing that."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).