DeMar DeRozan hears you.

Sure, there are days he wishes he didn’t. He knows better than to let your opinion of him affect his mood or his work, and usually he’s secure enough in his own skin to pay it no mind.

But nobody’s that strong all of the time, and DeRozan admits he slips every now and then. When you point out that it was no coincidence that Toronto finally won an NBA title after he left, well, that stings a little.

When you call him one of the most talented offensive players in the league, he understands the compliment comes with an asterisk. He knows you think he’s not quite good enough to carry a great team, and that even when he’s playing well you see him as the face of a franchise that has taken a step back.

To be clear, though, he has no interest in arguing with you.

“My whole career has been that narrative of a question mark on it,” DeRozan said Sunday after helping lift the Spurs to a 107-102 victory over Miami at the AT&T Center. “I remember early on in my career it always used to frustrate me. I stopped trying to think about it so much.”

DeRozan makes you want to believe him. He’s playing the best basketball of his career now, having just reeled off the longest stretch of games with at least 20 points, three assists and 50% shooting of any NBA player not named Wilt Chamberlain. That streak came to an end at 13 on Sunday because he missed one shot too many, but he still almost ended up with a triple-double.

But the shame of it is that DeRozan is kind of proving your point, and he realizes it. He’s dazzled on a consistent basis for the better part of a month, and he’s absolutely asserted himself as a worthy All-Star, and yet the Spurs are still lingering in ninth place in the Western Conference, stuck with a losing record.

This might make you want to sympathize with him, just a little bit. You might want to point out the unfairness of pinning all of the Raptors’ previous playoff losses on one guy, and you might want to note that it doesn’t seem right that the Spurs’ dip from title contention to the middle of the pack is his fault.

And if you’re saying DeRozan has a right to be bothered by the common perception of him as a player, he’s not going to argue with that, either.

“Trust me, I know exactly what you mean,” DeRozan said. “One thousand percent. And I’ve never spoke on it, because I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I’m complaining.’

“I’m playing a sport that gave me every opportunity in the world to be able to take care of myself, my family, put me in a place that I never thought I’d be. You look at it in hindsight, and it’s really not that bad.”

See how hard he makes it to knock him for his priorities, or for his outlook, or for his perspective?

Not too long ago, he heard you when you accused him of whining. You couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t stop talking about how hurt he was by the trade that sent him away from the only city he’d ever known as an adult, and a place where he was happy. You thought he needed to get over it.

But the thing is, he knew all along you were right. He knew it didn’t do him any good to keep looking back, but he couldn’t help being honest.

He never asked anybody to feel sorry for him. And earlier this season, when an eight-game Spurs losing streak led to murmurs that they might be better off shipping DeRozan out of town and getting something for him before he hits free agency, he made a decision.

More than ever, he was going to try not to listen to you. He was going to try not to listen to you saying he wasn’t playing well enough in the clutch, and he was going to try not to listen to you speculate about whether he’s an All-Star anymore.

“Thinking about that used to affect me,” DeRozan said. “Now, it’s just, ‘Find your enjoyment in the game.’ At one point in time I lost it, and was trying to force it. Now I just go play. That’s not even me trying to be politically correct or anything. That’s just my thought process.”

He hears your skepticism. And when you suggest that he surely has to be pondering an upcoming choice this summer, when he’ll be able to opt out of the final year of his Spurs contract and become one of the biggest names on the market, he understands that you might not believe his answer.

“There’s no way I’m leaning,” DeRozan said. “If I had to make a decision today, I truly wouldn’t know.”

There’s no reason to rush it, of course. The Spurs and DeRozan will learn a little more about each other over the next few months, and if it keeps going as well as it has gone lately, they might see the upside of sticking together.

You probably have an opinion on that scenario.

More and more each day, DeRozan is comfortable with that.

mfinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @mikefinger