Toronto Raptors: DeMar DeRozan Needs To Step Up Defensively
By Justin Rowan
The Toronto Raptors are in a concerning defensive slump since the start of February. Any turnaround on that end of the court will need to come from one of their leaders, who’s also been one of the weakest links in the defense.
Part of the reason the Toronto Raptors have managed to have so much sustained success this season has been their commitment to a defensive identity. After being one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA last season, they’ve managed to be a top-10 defensive team for the bulk of this season.
But recently some of the bad habits of last year’s squad are starting to creep their way back into the play of the team, as they’ve been 26th in the NBA in defensive efficiency since Feb. 1 coming into Tuesday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets.
While it takes an entire team to play defense and there are multiple culprits when it comes to the defensive drop off the Raptors have experienced, the best defenses typically rely on their stars to lead by example and set the tone on that end.
The days of hoping for Luis Scola to improve on the defensive end are long gone and while Jonas Valanciunas has disappointed on that end, he has never really shown an ability to be a quality defender to this point in his career.
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Kyle Lowry has played great defense this season, ranking second in Defensive Real Plus-Minus (from here on referred to as DRPM) among point guards behind Ricky Rubio. But there is a limited amount of impact a point guards defense, positive or negative, can have on the team’s defense.
While Lowry has stepped forward defensively this season, the story has been dramatically different with the team’s other leader, DeMar DeRozan.
DeRozan’s defense has been a major disappointment this season, because unlike Valanciunas and other members of the roster, he has shown an ability to be a good defender in the past. However this season the story has been dramatically different.
While defensive numbers and metrics are far from perfect and don’t yet tell the full story, there’s no metric you can look at that doesn’t point to DeRozan being one of the worst defensive wing players in the NBA.
“There’s no metric you can look at that doesn’t point to DeRozan being one of the worst defensive wing players in the NBA.
When DeRozan has been on the court this season the Toronto Raptors give up 107.9 points per 100 possessions, according to Basketball-Reference. That number would be the second-worst defensive efficiency in the NBA, just ahead of the Los Angles Lakers. When he is on the bench, the team gives up 98.9 points per 100 possessions.
That number would be the second-best figure in the NBA behind the San Antonio Spurs. That’s a nine-point swing between when he is on the court and when he sits. While some of that drop off can be explained by playing with other poor defensive starters like Scola and Valanciunas, Lowry has improved the defense by 0.5 points per 100 possessions when on the court.
So it isn’t just a matter of the weaknesses of the starting lineup dragging his numbers down.
If you look at the DRPM for DeRozan, he ranks 84th out of the 95 shooting guards ranked by that metric. That is an abysmal figure for a player with his length and athleticism that has shown he can be a plus defender in the past. Last season DeRozan was ranked 29th in DRPM, which isn’t great, but it’s certainly much better than the figures he’s posting this season.
If either of those metrics aren’t your thing, the player tracking data on NBA.com does not paint a pretty picture either (numbers as of March 9):
| Defense Category | GP | G | DFGM | DFGA | DFG% | FREQ | FG% | Diff% |
| Overall | 61 | 61 | 4.1 | 8.2 | 49.2 | 100% | 43.8 | 5.4 |
| 3 Pointers | 61 | 60 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 44.1 | 38.80% | 34.8 | 9.3 |
| 2 Pointers | 61 | 59 | 2.6 | 5 | 52.4 | 61.20% | 48.3 | 4.1 |
| Less Than 6 Ft | 61 | 46 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 70.1 | 21.30% | 61.6 | 8.4 |
| Less Than 10 Ft | 61 | 53 | 1.6 | 2.5 | 61.3 | 30.90% | 55.5 | 5.8 |
| Greater Than 15 Ft | 61 | 61 | 2.1 | 4.9 | 43.6 | 59.40% | 36.3 | 7.4 |
The field-goal percentage (FG%) on this chart is the average field goal percentage of the players he has been defending for the season and the DFG% is the percentage those players have shot against him. As you can see, players have shot better than average with him covering them on every point of the floor and 5.4 percent better overall.
With so many talented wing scorers in the NBA this season, you can’t afford to have someone offer no resistance defensively and make things easy for them. It just causes too much strain on the rest of the defense, especially the interior defense.
This isn’t to say that DeRozan has been hurting the team. He’s stepped up his offensive game in a big way and has proven to be one of the best shooting guards in the NBA and he is tied for eighth in minutes per game. He’s a workhorse and a huge part of the success the team has had this year.
But this is the point of the season where players need to start sacrificing for the greater good of the team to prepare for playoffs. DeRozan has established himself as a talented scorer and an All-Star this season, but it might benefit the team if he were to redistribute some of his offensive load across the rest of the roster in exchange for an increase of focus on the defensive side of the floor.
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Off nights happen offensively, but with the defense struggling the way it has, the Raptors can’t afford to ever go cold on offense and still have a chance of winning the game. DeRozan stepping up on that side of the floor and leading by example will help reduce the load on the rest of the team and reduce the amount of offense they need to win on a night-to-night basis.