DeRozan building solid case for MVP this season
Raptors guard spearheading the team’s ascension to top of Eastern Conference
The MVP case for DeMar DeRozan with the Toronto Raptors is as easy as it is obvious, a self-made player who has added a wrinkle to his game each season and boasts a mindset that only grows tougher when times turn tough.
With Houston’s visit to the Air Canada Centre Friday night, it’s only natural for DeRozan to be in the spotlight as the best in the West took on the best in the East.
Rockets star James Harden and DeRozan go way back to their days in youth basketball. Now they’re all-stars, among the very elite in the NBA.
Harden is among the favourites to win the MVP award, an honour he probably would have earned for the first time last season if not for the brilliance of Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook. Westbrook became the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a tripledouble for an entire season.
DeRozan should also be in the MVP conversation. The Raptors star deserves all of it — the recognition, the acclaim, the attention. He’s a low-maintenance player who always makes himself available to the media and is the kind of player/person who is always accountable and responsible.
Harden has Chris Paul as his backcourt partner while DeRo- zan lines up with Kyle Lowry in Toronto’s backcourt.
In the NBA, there are a handful of top-quality backcourt combos led by arguably the best in Golden State’s Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. The Rockets’ and Raptors’ duos are right up there.
The Raptors star deserves all ofit—the recognition, the acclaim, the attention.
Heading into Friday’s matchup, Houston had won an NBA seasonhigh 17 straight games, the most in club history, while the Raptors were winners of six in a row and 13 of their past 14 games.
DeRozan has been the focal point on a nightly basis for the Raptors, highlighted by his defining 52 points in an overtime win against the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year’s Day.
More recently, DeRozan poured in 42 points in leading Toronto to an overtime win in Detroit, the same night the Raptors became the first team this season in the NBA to clinch a playoff spot.
In that game, there was one dunk that saw DeRozan go coast to coast. Later, with the shot clock about to expire in overtime, he dished off to an open Fred VanVleet, who hit the winning bucket.
Each time the Raptors needed a play to be made, DeRozan delivered.
And with the Raptors finally getting some exposure in the U.S. — ESPN covered the game in Detroit — there appears to be a buzz around DeRozan.
If he’s able to take his game to another level in the post-season, which he must for the Raptors to go deep, the accolades will follow.
Lowry was asked about his good friend DeRozan following Toronto’s win in Detroit and DeRozan’s stature in the game.
“Three letters,” Lowry said. When the Raptors were making their comeback from a 17-point hole in Detroit, the many Raptors fans in attendance began to chant those three letters — MVP — each time DeRozan stepped to the charity stripe.
Toronto has a shot to win the East for the first time in club history, and the team is well on its way to eclipsing the franchise-best win total of 56 established two years ago when Toronto went all the way to the East final.
DeRozan is a better player than he was back then, while the Raptors are deeper and more cohesive.