How Good Is DeMar DeRozan? A Deeper Dive

[SpursFan0728]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[PhoenixSpursFan]

Great post timvp

[Mr. Body]

I still wish we could have pulled Anunoby.

[spurs10]

Thanks much for this great in-depth insight. I’m sure it was extremely difficult trying to get an even trade, but I’m very happy we have DeRozan and have a team that wants to play!

[JakeCuenca]

Wow talk about sheep..stupid massess following anything postive to cope.

Lowry despite not scoring much has always added more value to the Raptors than derozan. He's the better shooter, playmaker, defender etc and his metrics prove this.

Among non-casual personalities in the NBA journalism, lowry is known as a better player. And for a perfectly good reason.

The spurs would have gladly taken lowry over derozan IF he had a longer contract, younger etc...

Derozan being a better trade than Lowry doesnt mean hes the better player.

[ragas]

The spurs would have gladly taken lowry over derozan...

You sure?

[r0drig0lac]

will you quite this Forbes development schtick? He doesn't need development, he needs to get lost. The guy is a flat out scrub. I've seen traffic cones bolted to concrete play better defense than Bryn. He doesn't even belong on an NBA roster, but I can assure you that because of his existence, he will cut into the playing time of players who actually do need development.

[r0drig0lac]

I still wish we could have pulled Anunoby.

the potential Kawhi / OG on the wings is scary

[MaNu4Tres]

Great write up, and welcome back again. Im anxious to see if Pop & the coaches will add a few tweaks to his game to enhance his efficiency.

The season needs to get here already

[FireMicoHalili]

Cliffsnotes version:

DeMar is a great scorer, an underrated facilitator, a horrible defender, and a playoff choker. Will probably do a lot of damage on the offensive end in the regular season but has a lot to prove come the playoffs, if ever the Spurs make it.

[TDomination]

Great write up timvp. These kind of threads are the ones that made me sign up with spurstalk.

Over the years I felt like we lost the art of driving to the hole to create a foul. Parker and manu were so great at that. When nothing is going right and nothing going in, you sometimes just need to put your head down and attack the basket, dont settle for the outside jumper.

It sounds like DMDR has that ability. And of course to keep the defense honest you need at least 2 guys that can hit the 3 but I feel like it's not too big a deal if DMDR doesnt take many 3's. I'm excited to his ball handling abilities, perhaps he will be running the offense a lot.

And with defense, this will be Pops biggest challenge yet but I'm sure hes up for it. Cant wait for game 1.

[Truth4sale$]

Great write up TIMVP....love your write up brotha
DeRozan is very good player, and I believe were all spoiled with a great two way player like Kawhi. But honestly, the offense was too reliant on him as shown when he was injured in the WCF. Great players make so-so players good and better around them. Kawhi never did that. DeRozan along Lowry elevated a so-so team better. He struggled against king James, who hasn't other than Kobe, Durrant and Kawhi. That is less than 5 guys in the league. Those guys are athletic wonders, and have more muscle to match up with anyone. DeRozan is on the thin side, and being less athletic does not help. The Raptors had a revolving door at small forward. That is who was supposed to guard Lebron, not DeRozan. It's a tough task for anyone, and even the great Kawhi had a strong defensive system for support. A great cog in a great defensive machine. So, I will give DeRozan some slack, I think he will have a career year, because he is motivated, and will have a better team defensive system. It will take time to jell, but when it does....look out!!!!

[ginobilized]

TIMVP!!!!
Great to hear your voice on here again. You are one thoughtful dude.

This season could go a lot of different directions. Something tells me that there will be some real magic at times. Hopefully enough.
Can't wait to watch it unfold. There is a power that comes to a group when negative energy is removed. Just watch!

[phxspurfan]

I still wish we could have pulled Anunoby.

[phxspurfan]

You sure?

Murray says o

[Pavlov]

Wow talk about sheep..stupid massess following anything postive to cope.

Lowry despite not scoring much has always added more value to the Raptors than derozan. He's the better shooter, playmaker, defender etc and his metrics prove this.

Among non-casual personalities in the NBA journalism, lowry is known as a better player. And for a perfectly good reason.

The spurs would have gladly taken lowry over derozan IF he had a longer contract, younger etc...

Derozan being a better trade than Lowry doesnt mean hes the better player.

Vanilla contrarian take.

[Keepin' it real]

Cliffsnotes version:

DeMar is a great scorer, an underrated facilitator, a horrible defender, and a playoff choker. Will probably do a lot of damage on the offensive end in the regular season but has a lot to prove come the playoffs, if ever the Spurs make it.

Cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version:

He good, but he ain't all that. We suck.

[JPB]

Cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version:

He good, but he ain't all that. We suck.

Cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version :

Bwah.

[Keepin' it real]

Cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version :

Bwah.

[LkrFan]

23/5/5

[LkrFan]

Cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version of the cliffnotes version :

Bwah.

[FireMicoHalili]

Wow talk about sheep..stupid massess following anything postive to cope.

Lowry despite not scoring much has always added more value to the Raptors than derozan. He's the better shooter, playmaker, defender etc and his metrics prove this.

Among non-casual personalities in the NBA journalism, lowry is known as a better player. And for a perfectly good reason.

The spurs would have gladly taken lowry over derozan IF he had a longer contract, younger etc...

Derozan being a better trade than Lowry doesnt mean hes the better player.

But he doesn't have a longer contract, isn't younger, and would create a logjam at point guard. I'm all for objective takes but the man isn't trying to cope, he's trying to make sense out of the situation because DeRozan clearly isn't the typical Spurs player. He did admit the Spurs got fleeced.

[buujness]

Thank you so much for the effort that this took. This is a pretty awesome breakdown. There's really only one thing that I'd like to add and it's in this chart you made here:

The players whom were most helped by DeRozan were Valanciunas and Ibaka, who are primarily pick and pop bigs. The Spurs also have a pretty decent (slightly underselling) pick and pop big in LMA, and one who is pretty much only a pick and pop big in Gasol. DeRozan should help both of them quite a bit, as LMA's low post dominance should help DeRozan from having to always be the main playmaker.

[Kawhitstorm]

If the Spurs are going to succeed with Murray at point guard, they needed a swingman playmaker. DeRozan is exactly that. In fact, while he technically split his time at shooting guard and small forward for the Raptors, he was essentially the team’s point guard – even moreso than Kyle Lowry.

Lowry and Derozan both controlled the ball for approximately five minutes per game for the Raptors (Lowry was at 5.1 minutes, while DeRozan was at 4.9 minutes). However, DeRozan ran more than double the number of pick-and-rolls per game: 9.3 for DeRozan to 4.2 for Lowry.

It’s fair to say Toronto became the second best offensive team in the league by taking Lowry off the ball more than they ever had before while giving DeRozan a larger share of the playmaking duties. The numbers point to a gradual yet unmistakable shift over the last three seasons.

Yeah that happened b/c Lowry is on par with Curry/Kyrie as far as being lethal while playing off the ball while DeFrozen is basically an average threat.

Last season, the emphasis was to move the ball thus it made sense that DeFrozen ran PnRs instead of his typical ISOs especially with VanVleet & Lowry shooting well over 40% from deep along w/ Ibaka leading the league in midrange efficiency. Good luck yielding anywhere close to league leading PPnRs w/ Dejounte playing off the ball

[Man Mountain]

Great thx tvp!

The numbers show just how clutch DeRozan been over the years. Last year, he averaged 53.3 points per 48 minutes of clutch time (defined as the final five minutes with neither team up by more than five points). Only LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Chris Paul averaged more. The previous season, DeRozan was also fifth in this clutch category with an average of 50.4 points per 48 minutes.

DeRozan has been the Raptors best clutch scorer the last four seasons. Last season, it wasn’t even close – Lowry averaged less than half the number of clutch points.

For the Spurs, Aldridge led the clutch time scoring with a mark of 33.5 points per 48 minutes. San Antonio never had a player during the Tim Duncan Era (or since then) who averaged more than 50 points during 48 minutes of clutch time basketball. DeRozan has done it the last two seasons, which should put in perspective how much the Raptors have leaned on him to win games and how well he’s performed in those situations.

Even better than you said.