DeRozan dilemma runs deep
Game 3 response will say a lot about who’s calling shots
You’ll forgive DeMar DeRozan if he’s feeling a little conflicted as he takes the court for Game 3 of this deadlocked Raptors-Pacers series.
Yet another first-round playoff appearance isn’t going to script for the Raptors all-star. He’s shooting an ugly 27 per cent from the field. In two games he has scored 24 points, which is what he averaged nightly during the regular season. And given his struggle he has been presented with at least two distinct paths to salvation.
On one shoulder stands a tiny angel whispering in his ear. That’d be Dwane Casey, Toronto’s good-guy head coach, suggesting DeRozan have his eyes opened to a more virtuous brand of basketball. Casey has made it clear that DeRozan ought to stop banging his head against an Indiana defence that’s been specifically designed to frustrate him. Stop forcing shots. Stop fishing for fouls that aren’t being called.
“There are other things (DeRozan) can do,” Casey was saying the other day. “One is, be a facilitator . . . He can’t get so fixated on, ‘I’ve got to get into the paint or get to my sweet spot.’ ”
It’s a sensible, reasonable strategy, and who wouldn’t endorse it? But it’s possible DeRozan hasn’t even heard it thanks to the little devil yammering in his other ear. That’d be Kyle Lowry, Toronto’s best player and not exactly the coach’s No. 1 disciple. (“If he’s the coach, I’m a player,” was Lowry’s infamous non-endorsement of Casey after last year’s playoff debacle.)
Lowry spent a bit of Wednesday insisting DeRozan doesn’t need to do a single thing differently come Game 3.
Never mind common sense. Never mind 27 per cent. He needs to keep doing exactly what he’s been doing.
“I think he still has to shoot the ball. I think he still has to be aggressive and shoot the ball,” Lowry said.
And what of the idea that, with the world-class defence of the longer and stronger Paul George effectively rendering DeRozan irrelevant, the Raptors would be better off to punish Indiana by swiftly moving the ball into other hands?
“(DeRozan’s) main job is to score for us and make plays second,” Lowry said. “I think he’s going to be fine. If shots fall, it’s a different tone.”
That last part, at least, is true. If shots fall, if DeRozan gets closer to his regular-season field-goal mark of 45 per cent, if the referees are suddenly convinced his trips into the paint are drawing whistleable contact . . . if that all happens it’s very possible the Raptors do what they’re supposed to do, which is win a bestof-seven playoff series for the first time in franchise history.
But right now that’s an awfully big if. It’s important to understand that the scouting report on DeRozan says a couple of key things. One of them is this: Coaches around the league urge their players to go “under” every screen that’s set for Toronto’s most prolific scorer. That’s NBA jargon for “Let DeRozan have as many long two-point jump shots as he wants.” The long two is the least efficient shot in the game, and DeRozan has made it a specialty. So far in the playoffs, he’s shooting from even farther out than he usually does in the regular season. In essence, he’s taking a not-so-great habit and making it worse.
Another scouting-report staple regarding DeRozan goes like so: Once he decides to put the ball on the floor, he almost never passes. In the regular season, this wasn’t exactly a piece of information that teams always used to their advantage. Just because the opposition knew what was coming didn’t mean they could stop it. DeRozan didn’t pass much — he doesn’t handle the ball well enough with his head up to be anything close to a pick-you-apart playmaker once on the attack — but he still got to the free-throw line more than almost anyone in the league.
That’s the trouble here. DeRozan, who averaged 8.4 free-throw attempts a game before the playoffs, has been granted a combined six in two post-season games. And as long as George is assigned to guard him, it’s hard to imagine DeRozan finding a vulnerable seam to exploit. It’s hard to imagine him changing the trend. At least, that’s the way Casey seems to be viewing it.
“(DeRozan) can’t just continue to go in there and force the issue, or (keep) going in there and not getting the call and forcing that play,” the coach said.
Interesting, then, that Lowry spoke Wednesday of a different game plan for his fellow all-star. Be aggressive, he urged DeRozan. Keep doing what you’re doing. Score first. Make plays second.
Never mind that Jonas Valanciunas commands Toronto’s most favourable mismatch and needs more touches. After reeling off 19 points on 14 shots in Game 2’s first half, he was set up for just four second-half field-goal attempts; DeRozan and Lowry each took more shots than the big man while adding just one assist apiece after intermission.
Maybe there’s nothing wrong with the two best players getting their touches, especially in a win. And it’s possible all of this will be moot, that both the coach and Lowry will see themselves as the resident strategic deity, if DeRozan simply does a little bit of everything better.
If he’s intelligently aggressive and makes the most efficient shots the defence gives him, if he moves the ball around when those shots don’t come, if he drives the lane when it’s open instead of forcing his way in when it’s not, if the referees see it his way a little more often . . . if a few of those things happen, all this pregame fuss could sound silly in retrospect. The Raptors should easily be walking out of Bankers Life Fieldhouse with a win on Thursday night. Their home-court advantage and their status as heavy favourites would be restored.
Before any of those good things can happen, DeRozan will be faced with some big decisions once the ball is tipped. Given that he’ll need to react in a millisecond, under pressure in the moment, he should probably pick a side beforehand. Casey or Lowry, sensible or sameold, relying on teammates or retrying the one-on-one grind?
The choices he makes might just say something about whose vision of the game truly holds sway in Raptorland.