Starting SG: Nicolas Batum vs. DeMar DeRozan

[wallz]

Batum is easily the better player right now, defensively and offensively. If he had the minutes that Demar has, his stats would show it. He's only a year older, so it's not like he's reached his ceiling

[jimmie]

he's not miles ahead. Maybe a bit better in areas other than scoring but thats it. You guys make this guy seem like god but the truth is he's not much better than DeRozan and he'll just make us a 40 win team, not to mention we'd have to over pay for him. He averaged 12.4 points, 1.5 Assists and 4.5 Rebounds last season. DeMar averaged 17.2 PPG, 4 rebounds and 2 assists plus a steal. Now you tell me who's better? if your talking about defense it'll improve for sure cause of dwane casey. In a season or 2 DeMar will be "Miles" better

Again, how sure are you that Demar will get better, and wind up much better than Batum? Because Batum IS better, now. And has the same opportunity to continue getting better that Demar has. They are pretty much the same age, and will command pretty much the same money. To me, that makes it a no-brainer: if someone wants to offer Batum basically straight-up for Derozan, you take it.

You're completely guessing at Demar's upside based on bias: you want him to stay in Toronto *and* become a "1A" player on a playoff team. I'd be quite happy with that, but in reality, "usual slow start/stronger second half" notwithstanding, he hasn't shown that he's on that road at all over the past 2 years.

There's no "hate" here for Demar -- he's been playing well on offense for the past couple of weeks, and I hope it continues. I also hope he shows some improvement on his horrid perimeter D in the second half, because I personally would like more from the starting SG than just 20 points per game.

[saints91]

I think having both would be the ideal situation. Both are great prospects, and bring different elements. If we draft a SF then we still could bring in Batum or Chandler to play the 6th man role or start at SG. You play the better player. DeMar easily could sub for both positions just as Batum or Chandler can. Further more if we draft a SF, it's likely they will need time to adjust and better their games. So you would have versatile depth at the SG/SF/PF/C positions. We have numerous players that can play multiple positions.

Jonas/Gray/Amir/Bargnani
Bargnani/Ed/Amir/J.J./Kleiza
Barnes or MKG or Miller/Batum/J.J./Kleiza
DeMar/Batum/Forbes
Calderon/?????/Forbes(possibly someone else on the veteran minimum.

That's a good line up with great depth! Most of the pieces are interchangeable. That's 12 good players and still have cap room or the midlevel exception to sign a backup PG.

[ReubenJRD]

B.C's outlook is that Demar is the future shooting guard for this team. So unless we are offered O.J Mayo or Eric Gordon, expect him here for a long time.

I'm sticking with Derozan. I really believe he can pick his groove back up, plus he has had some good pre-all star break numbers. Plus defensively he's done a much better job.