Is Demar Derozan the real future of this franchise?

[hateslosing]

Time for a overly optimistic, unrealistic post!

As of today, Demar Derozan is now shooting 40% from 3 and 43% from the field on the year, scoring 21 ppg. That puts him 15th in the league in scoring.
In the last five games he is shooting 51.5% fromt he field and 50% from 3 and is averaging 28.6 ppg. These are eliiiiiiite scoring numbers and would tie him for first in the NBA in scoring with Keven Durant.

It's not just the numbers either. Adding the three has done what you would expect it to and now he is consistently able to beat his man off the dribble and draw a second defender. He's taking that step from being a good scorer to being the go to guy on a winning team.

It's not all rosy of course. Now that he's drawing those doubles he needs to start taking advantage and finding the open man, which is something he is terrible at right now. Still too many long two's. His defense is improved but is still just average and his rebounding isn't amazing.

All that aside though, this year seems to be one where Demar is set to take yet another jump. He is one of the only players I've ever seen come into every season with a major improvement to some facet of hs game. He added the midrange in year 2, the post in year 3, and now has added the 3-ball in year 4.

For those that argue it's Gay's presence that is opening things up for him, Demar actually seems to play better when he is off.

Anyway, for all the tankers, you can stop. We already have our guy.

[Nilanka]

The future of this franchise hasn't been drafted yet

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Apollo]

Depends on what you call real deal. He's producing on a bad team so we need to take this with a grain of salt. He's still a SG who can't handle or pass all that well. I consider real deal as making everyone around you better, creating for them, while producing. I think this production is great though, he's now an excellent trade asset.

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk

[psrs1]

Time for a overly optimistic, unrealistic post!

As of today, Demar Derozan is now shooting 40% from 3 and 43% from the field on the year, scoring 21 ppg. That puts him 15th in the league in scoring.
In the last five games he is shooting 51.5% fromt he field and 50% from 3 and is averaging 28.6 ppg. These are eliiiiiiite scoring numbers and would tie him for first in the NBA in scoring with Keven Durant.

It's not just the numbers either. Adding the three has done what you would expect it to and now he is consistently able to beat his man off the dribble and draw a second defender. He's taking that step from being a good scorer to being the go to guy on a winning team.

It's not all rosy of course. Now that he's drawing those doubles he needs to start taking advantage and finding the open man, which is something he is terrible at right now. Still too many long two's. His defense is improved but is still just average and his rebounding isn't amazing.

All that aside though, this year seems to be one where Demar is set to take yet another jump. He is one of the only players I've ever seen come into every season with a major improvement to some facet of hs game. He added the midrange in year 2, the post in year 3, and now has added the 3-ball in year 4.
It
For those that argue it's Gay's presence that is opening things up for him, Demar actually seems to play better when he is off.

Anyway, for all the tankers, you can stop. We already have our guy.

DD has shown some good qualities. But we are still a losing team. The problem with trading Gay is his contract. Lowry will be easier to dump.

[wallz]

<-------------- this guy is

[Nilanka]

Depends on what you call real deal. He's producing on a bad team so we need to take this with a grain of salt. He's still a SG who can't handle or pass all that well. I consider real deal as making everyone around you better, creating for them, while producing. I think this production is great though, he's now an excellent trade asset.

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk

Yup. DeMar's stock has never been higher.

[Masai Ujiri]

Time for a overly optimistic, unrealistic post!

As of today, Demar Derozan is now shooting 40% from 3 and 43% from the field on the year, scoring 21 ppg. That puts him 15th in the league in scoring.
In the last five games he is shooting 51.5% fromt he field and 50% from 3 and is averaging 28.6 ppg. These are eliiiiiiite scoring numbers and would tie him for first in the NBA in scoring with Keven Durant.

It's not just the numbers either. Adding the three has done what you would expect it to and now he is consistently able to beat his man off the dribble and draw a second defender. He's taking that step from being a good scorer to being the go to guy on a winning team.

It's not all rosy of course. Now that he's drawing those doubles he needs to start taking advantage and finding the open man, which is something he is terrible at right now. Still too many long two's. His defense is improved but is still just average and his rebounding isn't amazing.

All that aside though, this year seems to be one where Demar is set to take yet another jump. He is one of the only players I've ever seen come into every season with a major improvement to some facet of hs game. He added the midrange in year 2, the post in year 3, and now has added the 3-ball in year 4.

For those that argue it's Gay's presence that is opening things up for him, Demar actually seems to play better when he is off.

Anyway, for all the tankers, you can stop. We already have our guy.

Dude you've got to be kidding me, and I'm a huge DeRozan fan.

DD has shown quite a lot of improvement this year, but he's not a franchise player. I think he can be an excellent complement to one as a secondary or even tertiary scorer, but asking him to lead your team offensively is asking for <40 wins.

Now getting a player better than DeRozan in here (of which there are currently 0 on this roster), and having DD play off him? Now that would be much better. Which is precisely why I think we need to tank to bring in that level of talent. Moving forward with a core of DD+2014 Pick+Val+Ross, while adding to that via free agency and future drafts, sounds very promising to me.

[magoon]

"15th in the league in scoring" is by definition not the future of a franchise, because if your franchise guy is your go-to scorer (and DeMar doesn't do that much else) then he has to be better than 15th in the league in scoring. He is not "taking that step from being a good scorer to being the go to guy" because he wasn't a good scorer beforehand; he was an inefficient volume chucker. He's gone from being a mediocre scorer to being a decent one (and again: small sample size! Five games ago nobody would have taken this post seriously).

DeMar is not the future of this franchise. Right now, at best, he's an okay complimentary piece who might well play up to his contract.

[rocwell]

DeMar works his ass off, but makes only tiny improvements in his game. I'm not sure if he can be future franchise player. But there's always possibility. If he can start defending like a man, up his steals, shoot from three consistently then we'll talk.

He's still an enigma for me.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

I admit that I've been impressed with DeRozan's improved scoring efficiency lately. I honestly hopes he proves capable of doing so consistently throughout the course of an entire season (I'd settle for 50% FG% and 35-40% 3PT% for a season).

There are still some concerns that need to be addressed before I accept DeRozan as an elite player:
- his defense is still average at best
- he still contributes little other than scoring, at least consistently (ie: rebounds, assists)
- I still don't think his overall BBIQ/court vision/decision making is great and likely will never improve much (not a teachable skill)
- he's doing his scoring while not being the focal point of the defense; would he score as efficiently with the opposition's top wing defender guarding him (they usually guard Gay)

I am not nearly as adamant about trading DeRozan as I am about trading Lowry, Novak, Hansborough, Gay and even Amir. However, if a sweet trade offer comes along, I'd strongly consider 'selling high' on DeRozan (especially if a full rebuild is around the corner).

[Masai Ujiri]

"15th in the league in scoring" is by definition not the future of a franchise, because if your franchise guy is your go-to scorer (and DeMar doesn't do that much else) then he has to be better than 15th in the league in scoring. He is not "taking that step from being a good scorer to being the go to guy" because he wasn't a good scorer beforehand; he was an inefficient volume chucker. He's gone from being a mediocre scorer to being a decent one (and again: small sample size! Five games ago nobody would have taken this post seriously).

DeMar is not the future of this franchise. Right now, at best, he's an okay complimentary piece who might well play up to his contract.

Actually I would say that right now he's a very good complimentary piece that is playing at a level well above the value of his contract.

I think he's going to cool down a bit from 3, 40% is insane (although Rip Hamilton made a similar jump, shot like 29% total his first few years, then magically shot 45.8% one year). He'll probably increase his FtR back to what it usually is and start finishing better inside though.

Statistically though he's comparable to 2008-09 Carmelo Anthony thus far (besides rebounding, but his defense has actually been better than Melo's was), and Melo was the best player on a WCF team that year. I'm pretty sure that's worth more than 9.5M, but that's just me.

I expect him to regress a bit, but credit where credit is due please.

[Fully]

You had me right up until you said that there's no need to go get a franchise player because we already have one on our roster in DD. He's having a good season so far, and his last 5 games have been close to great... but he still should be your third/fourth banana if you have serious championship aspirations.

[Craiger]

If Demar is the future of this franchise, then this franchise isn't going far.

He's no Bargnani, but he's no Bosh either - and Bosh wasn't even close to enough.

[Masai Ujiri]

I admit that I've been impressed with DeRozan's improved scoring efficiency lately. I honestly hopes he proves capable of doing so consistently throughout the course of an entire season (I'd settle for 50% FG% and 35-40% 3PT% for a season).

This is a completely unrealistic expectation for any volume scorer that isn't Durant or LeBron. Even prime Kobe and Wade didn't touch these numbers. If he was actually shooting that, his TS% would be around 60%. And considering his volume of 17 shots per game, that would basically have him on or near superstar status as a scorer. He's paid 9.5M not 15-20.

There are still some concerns that need to be addressed before I accept DeRozan as an elite player:
- his defense is still average at best
- he still contributes little other than scoring, at least consistently (ie: rebounds, assists)
- I still don't think his overall BBIQ/court vision/decision making is great and likely will never improve much (not a teachable skill)
- he's doing his scoring while not being the focal point of the defense; would he score as efficiently with the opposition's top wing defender guarding him (they usually guard Gay)

I'm a big DD fan as a said before, but expecting him to become an elite player (at least based on my definition of elite which includes superstars and upper-echelon all-stars), is kind of unrealistic. He's a second or third option, not a franchise guy. Your last point is precisely why he's not a 1A guy, and that's not a problem, he's paid like a 4th guy on most contenders. We just need to bring in someone clearly better (not Gay) via the draft or some other means.

I am not nearly as adamant about trading DeRozan as I am about trading Lowry, Novak, Hansborough, Gay and even Amir. However, if a sweet trade offer comes along, I'd strongly consider 'selling high' on DeRozan (especially if a full rebuild is around the corner).

I think any logical GM would do this, agree with you here. He's definitely not a guy that you HAVE to trade, but yeah if a great offer comes along and it benefits your team, pull the trigger.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

This is a completely unrealistic expectation for any volume scorer that isn't Durant or LeBron. Even prime Kobe and Wade didn't touch these numbers. If he was actually shooting that, his TS% would be around 60%. And considering his volume of 17 shots per game, that would basically have him on or near superstar status as a scorer. He's paid 9.5M not 15-20.

I would much prefer DeRozan to become far less of a volume scorer and, instead, become a more efficient scorer. The combination of his improved shooting and eliminating some of the bonehead shot selection (which he has done the past few games), should make such numbers much more likely (and provide more shot opportunities for other players).

I'm a big DD fan as a said before, but expecting him to become an elite player (at least based on my definition of elite which includes superstars and upper-echelon all-stars), is kind of unrealistic. He's a second or third option, not a franchise guy. Your last point is precisely why he's not a 1A guy, and that's not a problem, he's paid like a 4th guy on most contenders. We just need to bring in someone clearly better (not Gay) via the draft or some other means.

It's good to see you agree with my assessment. The fact that he is not and will not ever be an elite player (should be a #2 or #3 option on a good team) is exactly the point I was making, in response to the OP.

To tie the 1st part to this 2nd part, if DeRozan continues to rely on volume scoring to be successful, I'd much rather trade him at peak value. I think his value to a team is when he is the #2 or #3 option and takes the appropriate number of shot attempts for that role, shooting and scoring far more efficiently (essentially shedding the 'inefficient volume scorer' label).

I think any logical GM would do this, agree with you here. He's definitely not a guy that you HAVE to trade, but yeah if a great offer comes along and it benefits your team, pull the trigger.

As someone who pushed all offseason for a DeRozan trade (for a more traditional starting PF) and was labeled a "hater" for it, I was simply complimenting DeRozan by illustrating how he has at least somewhat changed my opinion of him. I am not yet entirely sold on him, but he's been able to move from atop my personal 'must trade' list.