The DeRozan paradox
Toronto Raptors can’t progress unless old-school star adapts to the times
TORONTO — During the first-round of last season’s NBA playoffs, as the Toronto Raptors were yet again struggling to put away a weaker opponent, I had a conversation with a member of the basketball operations team.
He was confident that the Raptors would still beat the Milwaukee Bucks, and relieved that Toronto hadn’t drawn Indiana, where Paul George loomed. Against the Bucks, he said, the Raptors simply had to play smart. Pass out of double-teams and traps, and make the Bucks pay for their aggressiveness.
The name DeMar DeRozan was not mentioned, but it didn’t need to be. The Raptors’ star shooting guard has long been one of the biggest reasons for the team’s success while at the same time exposing its limitations. And, as a new player ranking — 36th in the NBA, up from 46 last year — both rankled DeRozan and kicked off another round of debate over his value, it’s worth noting that Toronto’s offseason retooling hinges very much on whether the 27-year-old can be something other than the very good player he has proven to be so far.
First, a word about rankings: Silly. They exist entirely to kick off the squabbles that they inevitably kick off, so there’s little point in fighting over where DeRozan should be on list. He is, as the publication noted, an impressive scorer who has drawbacks to his game, particularly on defence.
But what makes DeRozan “polarizing,” to use word, is that he is an old-style star in a new-style era. Today’s NBA is one where players earn the most praise for shooting from three-point range and for passing effectively within a ball-movement system. DeRozan doesn’t do much of any of that, and as a result his team doesn’t. Golden State and Boston, the top seeds in each conference last season, had the highest percentage of assisted baskets. Toronto was last in the NBA.
One can understand DeRozan’s frustration: He’s out here taking a ton of shots (3rd in the league), scoring a lot of points (5th) and drawing a pile of fouls (5th), the epitome of the kind of player the league once lionized, and the fancy-stats crowd all but rolls its eyes at his production. That’s of particular importance in the NBA, where advanced stats have won the day. DeRozan may have often heard M-V-P chants at the Air Canada Centre last season, but he received exactly one vote in that race, a fifth-place one at that.
None of these are new developments. When the Raptors gave DeRozan a five-year, US$139-million contract two offseasons ago, they were committing themselves to trying to win in the modern NBA with a key player whose game was decidedly Amish.
Despite the summer roster overhaul, that is still the plan. Or, at least, the hope is DeRozan can be less Amish. Consider that discussion from last spring. The team was worried about Indiana, because George had been an effective DeRozan-stopper a year earlier. And it was frustrated early by Milwaukee because the Bucks were stifling Toronto’s half-court offence. Both of those things have to change if the Raptors are going to become more than a very good regular-season team that ekes out playoff wins over low seeds in the early rounds. They can’t run an offence that is so vulnerable to an excellent one-on-one defender like George, and they can’t run an offence that lacks the ball movement that is the hallmark of the league’s best teams. Because DeRozan gets so many plays — 3rd in the league in usage rate — much of that will come down to him. Can he get others involved when the defence keys on him? Will he pass up inefficient shots in favour of getting his teammates efficient ones? It would, obviously, also help the Raptors tremendously if he has spent the summer learning how to effectively shoot threepointers.
Team president Masai Ujiri threw down some kind of gauntlet when he vowed at season’s end that the Raptors would change their ways, since it was clear that what they were doing wasn’t good enough. But having brought back the team’s three biggest uncertainties this offseason — coach Dwane Casey, plus Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka — it is evident that if change is coming, it is coming in a significant way from the guys who were already here.
Can DeRozan be a part of that change? I am reminded of the 2016 playoffs when, mired in a shooting slump, DeRozan kept firing away with long two-point attempts, even as they weren’t falling. He was proud of his willingness to keep gunning.
It’s that instinct that he will have to fight this season. Long two-point attempts have made DeRozan an All-Star, and a very rich man. But they aren’t going to make the Raptors any better.
This is just the latest challenge for a player who has a history of exceeding expectations. But if he can adapt, the Raptors should change with him. And he might even get a couple more MVP votes, and some love from a certain magazine’s player rankings.