The best offence is a good DeRozan
Dwane Casey is nobody’s fool.
Sure, he could do all kinds of weird and wonderful things with the Toronto Raptors offence, jazz it up, try to make it prettier, draw kudos for creativity and attractiveness to increase its “ooh, ahh” characteristics. Or he could stick with what works.
“I’m not a total moron,” Casey was saying Tuesday afternoon, “we’ve got to play to our strength. We can put in cute offences that go to 15 passes, but at the end of the day, we want the ball in our best player’s hands . . . to do what he does and go to his strengths.” How innovative. That best offensive player right now is DeMar DeRozan, who is on a roll unprecedented in Raptors history. He is the first player in franchise history to start a season with three consecutive 30-point games, tying a personal stretch he accomplished in early 2014.
He joins Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook as the only players to score 30-plus points in three games out of gate this year. And DeRozan has accomplished his scoring spree without the benefit of a threepointer, making him the first player to start a season with three 30-plus games and no three-pointers since Kobe Bryant in 2005.
DeRozan can tie Mike James as the only Raptors to eclipse 30 points in four straight games — James had his run in April 2006 — when Toronto visits Washington on Wednesday night. He will get every chance to do that. “We get criticized with no ball movement, no assists, but we’re playing to our best players’ strength, both of their strengths,” Casey said, lumping point guard Kyle Lowry in with DeRozan. “And we’ve gotta take advantage of it.”
It’s doubtful that DeRozan’s production is sustainable because, eventually, defences will swarm him to get the ball out of his hands and, eventually, he’ll have to cool off from shooting at a 54-per-cent clip from the field on about 25 field goals attempts per game.
The hope is that when he does, there are teammates able to pick up the slack and that DeRozan will see that. In Toronto’s first three games, he has found open teammates on occasion, but few have been able to make a shot. Patrick Patterson isn’t shooting well, Terrence Ross isn’t shooting enough and Cory Joseph’s desire to become a more competent three-point shooter hasn’t manifested itself into reality quite yet.
“DeMar’s doing a better job of making sure he finds (teammates) when they commit two (defenders)”, Casey said. “He did it (Monday). They blitzed him and we picked them apart, Jakob (Poeltl) did a great job of quarterbacking in the middle of the lane, catching it, finding the weak side.
“At the end of the day, when the ball gets to the corner, Cory has to knock down that three-point shot but DeMar is smart enough to know that when they commit multiple bodies to him, to kick it out. If they’re playing him one on one, he has to play to his strength, which I’ll take all day.”
Wednesday’s game against the 0-2 Wizards — it is Washington’s home opener — will be a stern test for DeRozan and Lowry. The tandem of John Wall and Bradley Beal may not be seen as one of the great defensive backcourts in the NBA, but they are explosive and will test Toronto.
“Strength, speed, quickness with Wall, and shooting, athletic ability and somebody that can create his own shot in Beal,” Casey said. “So between DeMar and Kyle and . . . those two, it’s gonna be interesting. I’m biased, so I feel like we have the better of the two. But the team that imposes its defensive will will win the game.”
The two-on-two contest may be juicy for fans, but it’s not such a big deal to one of the participants.
“It was never really a thing for us, we never looked at it like our backcourt going against their backcourt,” DeRozan said. “We always try to go out and play, and if we win that’s all that matters.”