Former Raptor DeRozan is a man on a mission in San Antonio
DeMar DeRozan is not easing into his tenure as the next wave of outstanding San Antonio Spurs players.
The still-beloved Raptor is off to a blazing start with his new team; he was the first player in franchise history to score at least 28 points in the first three games of a season (take a look down the list of all-time Spurs to see what that means) and he’s averaging 26.5 points per game and 7.8 assists in his four games so far for his new team.
He’s been outstanding, as one might expect from a four-time all-star and a second-team all-NBA player a year ago.
It really should come as no surprise that DeRozan has hit the ground running in San Antonio. If nothing else — and there was substantially “else” in his time in Toronto — he was a guy who gave an honest effort for an honest day’s pay regardless of the time of year.
He was just as likely to give you 45 points on some dreary Tuesday night in January against some weak opponent as he was to light up a big game against a big team on national TV. It’s what he did.
Last season, he had three games of 30 or more points in his first 11, six more of 20-plus in the same time frame and he didn’t cheat the game in the first week of the season like he didn’t cheat it in March.
It’s not as if DeRozan has completely forgotten Toronto, nor have the Raptors forgotten him, regardless of how both the Spurs and Raptors have begun the season.
Kyle Lowry, paying homage to his best friend, still goes through a pre-game handshake ritual the two worked out during their time together and Lowry gave “ghosts daps” to invisible teammates after making technical foul shots last weekend in Washington.
And DeRozan paid close attention to a Sportsnet promotional video that aired before Toronto’s game against Boston last Friday before it was taken down from the network’s twitter feed. He was not pleased.
“I felt some type of way, for sure,” DeRozan told The Athletic website. “It wasn’t even for me, but for the previous guys. For Vince (Carter) T-Mac (Tracy McGrady) to Chris (Bosh), you can’t undermine anything that they did. Without them, there wouldn’t have been that team we had last year, two years ago, five years ago. There wouldn’t be the team that’s there now if it wasn’t for my time there, so don’t undermine the people that came before us. I just don’t like that.”
AROUND THE LEAGUE
Sublimely ridiculous: Golden State’s Stephen Curry is on his way to becoming — if he isn’t already — the best shooter in NBA history and added to the argument in his favour on Wednesday night.
Playing just three quarters of the Warriors’ win over Washington, Curry made 11 threepointers and had 51 points, the first 50-plus game this season.
Curry now has six games of 11 or more three-pointers in his career, in the entire history of the game, there have been seven others — combined.
And Curry has made 33 threepointers this season, which is more than the total for four other teams. Filling the ranks: The lone full-time female referee in the NBA this season, Lauren Holtkamp, is currently out after having knee surgery.
But the league had two women working games on Monday
night as part of its referee development program.
Neither of them, Natalie Sago or Ashley Moyer-Gleich, are full time NBA staff members but they will be called up as needed from G League assignments to fill out officiating schedules in particularly busy stretches of the schedule.
More than just a name: There may not be a player in the NBA with a more magical basketball name than an unheralded Miami Heat rookie who made is debut on Wednesday night.
Duncan Robinson is his name and how the San Antonio Spurs didn’t move heaven and earth to obtain him is unknown.
But he’s a bit more than a cool name.
Even though he’s on a two-way deal between the Heat and their G League affiliate in Sioux Falls, the 6-foot-8 swingman has shown enough promise to get some early-season run with the Heat.
Robinson began his journey at minuscule Division 3 Williams Ephs before spending three seasons at Michigan. He wasn’t selected in the 2018 NBA draft but impressed the Heat enough during a Summer League stint that he made the team out of nowhere.
A torrid start: There are more than a handful of players who are off to blazing starts this season but perhaps leading that illustrious list is Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic.
To some, he’s one of the most underrated players in the game but if he keeps producing as well as he has, that’s going to go by the boards.
The Nuggets are 4-0 and leading the Western Conference heading into play Thursday night and the smooth ballhandling and shooting big man in 23.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and astounding 7.0 assists per game.
He laid a proverbial beating on No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns this week, hanging a 23-11-6 line on the rookie. They’ve aged well: Some kind of night of nostalgia in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Even though Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki didn’t play as he recovers from injury, he was there to see his contemporary Vince Carter play for the Hawks.
Nowitzki and Carter are the only two players in the entire league who were drafted in the 1990s and there’s every chance they’ll retire together at the end of the season. Why do they play still? “I still love the game … it’s not for the money,” said Carter.
“I love the competition, still love the grind of it,” said Nowitzki.