RAPS NEED THEIR GO-TO GUY BACK
DeRozan’s reputation on the line as Toronto tries to climb out of 0-3 hole versus Cavs
The text message was sent at 1 a.m. back in late December, the message from Masai Ujiri to Dwane Casey.
They needed to meet that morning. The tone seemed urgent. Ujiri wasn’t happy with what he was seeing, even with the Raptors at 20-8 in the standings. He had just watched the Kobe Bryant retirement celebration and something stuck with him. Something he wanted to address.
He demanded a morning meeting and made sure Casey was there along with general manager Bobby Webster and assistant coach Rex Kalamian and the subject of the meeting needed to be there as well.
The subject’s name: DeMar DeRozan.
Ujiri wasn’t happy with the way DeRozan was playing, which says a lot about the kind of demands he puts on his players. He’s not accepting of mediocrity. He’s not adverse to pushing players as far as they can be pushed.
He wanted to see more Bryant in DeRozan’s game and, more than that, his attitude as well.
Ujiri can be demanding — more inwardly than outwardly — and he was demanding more of his resident gym rat and leading scorer, namely DeRozan.
At the time, in Ujiri’s mind, DeRozan wasn’t passing enough or passing well enough. He wasn’t defending enough, wasn’t shooting threes in any meaningful way, wasn’t shooting with what Ujiri called conviction and was settling too often for getting fouled rather than taking shots, was complaining on court way too much. So he decided it was time to address his own frustrations with the Raptors’ best offensive player.
He expected more passion from the normally passionate DeRozan.
The meeting was held and all who were invited were in attendance, but, really, only one person spoke. The rest watched Ujiri tear into DeRozan the way few NBA stars are ever torn into by big league executives. The president went through a laundry list of complaints. It was arbitration without the arbitration process. Masai was honest to the point of it becoming raw and uncomfortable. In some cases, that kind of attack might have ended the relationship between player and front office executive.
But not DeRozan. He’s not built that way. Quiet at the best of times, he said little as he was being dissected. “I hear you,” he said, looking at Ujiri at the end. “I hear everything you say.”
He went on a scoring spree right after that morning meeting — scoring 52 and 45 and 35 twice over the next 10 games. Maybe the best he’s played or scored in his career.
Now you wonder: is it time for another meeting, another teardown at this late playoff date with the Raptors trailing 3-0 to the Cavs? Or is it too late?
On Sunday morning, after the disappointment of the night before, Casey met with DeRozan. Just the two of them. There was no yelling or shouting. There was some explanation. Casey told DeRozan why he didn’t use him in the fourth quarter of Game 3 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Casey told him what he needed to do to be more efficient and more effective.
Still, it is remarkably rare for an NBA coach to sit a star for an entire quarter of a playoff game that comes down to the last shot.
Not many would make that kind of call. Casey doesn’t care much for the history or attention or this kind of decision making. He was trying to win a game. He wasn’t trying to embarrass anyone.
DeRozan had a rough game Saturday night and an even rougher night afterward.
He called it an “extremely long night.” This has been a year of growth for him, dealing with personal issues such as the illness of his father, going public with his own mental health challenges and now the annual playoff challenge for him.
“In general, in life, you always take the roughest things and face them head on,” he said. “As much as you may not like something, some people run away from it or hide from it. Me, I try to dig as deep as I can so I can understand and be one with the feeling that sucks. Sometimes you see me respond in a bigger way in those moments because I kind of dwell on those moments.”
Being down 3-0 is rough, especially when two games were winnable in the end. Being benched is rough. Hitting three of 12 shots, finishing with eight points and being minus-23 in three quarters is rough.
Not time for a meeting now. Time for Game 4 Monday night. Time for DeRozan to regain some reputation. Or no more time at all.