DeMar DeRozan has been terrific this season, but it seems like many have forgotten how good he was last season.

DeMar DeRozan has been terrific this season, but it seems like many have forgotten how good he was last season. Last season DeRozan averaged a career-high 27.3PPG while shooting 46.7% from the field.



DeMar DeRozan's stats over the last two seasons

Season GP MPG FG% 3PM 3P% FTM FT% RPG APG TPG SPG PPG 2017-18 78 33.9 45.7% 1.1 31.1% 5.8 82.5% 3.9 5.2 2.2 1.1 23.1 2016-17 74 35.4 46.7% 0.4 26.6% 7.4 84.2% 5.2 3.9 2.4 1.1 27.3

DeFense

DeRozan still isn’t a good defender by any stretch of the imagination. His defensive real plus-minus this season is -1.63. It’s not ideal, but there are plenty superstars in the NBA that don’t perform on that end of the floor like Kyrie Irving or James Harden. Prior to the season, there was a player ranking debate between Khris Middleton and DeMar DeRozan. The analytics people loved Middleton because he was this complete two-way player. Guess what? A healthy Middleton this season hasn’t been good defensively by any metric. Furthermore, his three-point shooting is down to 36% this season.

Rainbows & Unicorns

The talk of the summer was about unicorns and DeRozan's need to add a three to his game. He’s definitely worked on extending his range and he’s taking more threes, but DeRozan hasn’t exactly become a quality three-point shooter. On the season DeRozan is shooting 31% from three and since the all-star break, he’s only shooting 27%. The idea behind DeRozan taking more threes was to help open the floor and create space. In that aspect, I guess the experiment has worked, but if DeRozan is going to attempt 3 or 4 threes a game you’d probably like him to shoot a little better.



DeMar DeRozan's All-Star Splits

All-Star Break GP MPG FG% 3PM 3PA 3P% FT% RPG APG TPG SPG PPG Pre-All Star 57 34 46% 1.2 3.5 32.7% 82.7% 3.9 5.2 2.2 1.2 23.7 Post-All Star 21 33.7 44.9% 1 3.7 26.9% 81.8% 3.9 5.3 2.2 0.9 21.6

Isolations

The way isolations and DeRozan are associated you’d think there was some vulgar act here. Last year DeRozan played in isolations 17.1% of the time and he was excellent ranking in the 86th percentile. This season the Raptors have transitioned to a more ball movement-centric offense and DeRozan is only playing in isolations 13.3% of the time. He’s still excellent in isolations (83rd percentile), but the team has seen major benefits from sharing the rock. DeRozan is sacrificing his game for the sake of the team.

DeLightful

Inside the arc, DeRozan is a menace with the ability to score from anywhere. Furthermore, he’s one of the best in the league at attacking the rim and drawing fouls. But he was doing these things last year. What DeRozan has improved this year is his playmaking.

“DeMar is only averaging 5.2APG. Who cares?”

It might not seem like a massive figure, but it’s nothing to sneeze at for a primary scorer like DeRozan. Also, keep in mind DeRozan is not a point guard. But do you know who is an all-star point guard that averages fewer assists per game than DeRozan? There’s more than one, but the big name here is Kyrie Irving.

The MVP Race

Until very recently DeRozan was firmly in the MVP race. He isn’t going to win MVP and that’s okay. The main thing is DeRozan is finally getting the respect and recognition around the league he deserves.

Photo taken by Keith Allison



Playoffs

There is this narrative that DeRozan and Lowry crumple in the playoffs. It’s true over their careers neither has really put up good numbers in the playoffs.

“Lowry has been injured 3 of the last 4 years in the playoffs. What is DeRozan’s excuse?”

Contrary to public opinion DeRozan wasn’t bad in the playoffs last year. Yes, he put up duds in two games against the Bucks, but aside from those games, he was very good. Most stars in the playoffs last year also put up some duds. Maybe if John Wall shot well in the Celtics series the Wizards would have gotten to the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s actually a bad example because DeRozan is a much bigger star than a little-known player like John Wall. In the Thunder’s first playoff game last year the MVP, Russell Westbrook, shot 26% from the field.

“But Westbrook was so close to a triple-double that game.”

You are right Westbrook was one turnover away from a triple-double. On the flipside, Harden was pretty awesome in that series. However, in Houston’s next series against the Spurs, Harden shot 17.6% from the field in game two. Are Westbrook or Harden labeled as chokers in the playoffs? No. So why is DeRozan labeled as one?

The way blog boys wrote about DeMar DeRozan this summer you’d think he was some fringe NBA starter last season. He was a star last year and he’s arguably a slightly bigger star this year for changing his game to better fit the new Raptors offense.