The Toronto Raptors seem committed to changing their style of play on offense. In this series of articles, I’ll look at how each projected starter can fit into that “culture change.” Here, let’s examine DeMar DeRozan.
A little over two weeks ago, I implored Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey not to play DeMar DeRozan at point guard. The franchise is trying to enact a “culture change,” after all; giving more of the ball to an already ball-dominant player won’t do much in that respect.
Later on in that article, I pointed out a few ways DeRozan can thrive in a more movement-heavy attack. And since, I’ve explored how Jonas Valanciunas, Serge Ibaka and C.J. Miles might fit into Casey’s new offensive scheme. You can find those articles here, here and here.
DeRozan deserves that same kind of in-depth offensive preview. He is, of course, Toronto’s most potent scorer.
One issue with the swingman is that he’s built for the stale offense the Raptors have previously run. He’s an excellent scorer out of pick-and-rolls (85th percentile last season) and isolations (87th percentile). He cannot, however, shoot threes, which caps his off-ball value somewhere between “liability” and “non-factor.”
That reality can only change with individual improvement or more creative play-calling. Let’s start with the former.
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It would be helpful if DeRozan merely tried to become serviceable from beyond the arc, but he doesn’t seem interested in doing so. Last month, he said of the 3-pointer, “I’m not even really adding it. I just never really shot it because I always felt like I didn’t need to shoot it.”
As a guard who leads his team in scoring, he kind of does need a shot, at least to maximize his impact away from the ball. With that being said, there are areas in which DeRozan can improve aside from shooting that will add more verve to Toronto’s offense.
For instance, despite his strong 6’7” frame, DeRozan has always been a mediocre rebounder. Of the 17 players who suited up for the Raptors last season, he finished 11th in defensive rebounding percentage.
But DeRozan’s size, athleticism and controlled aggression make him a menace in transition and semi-transition. If he can pull down more rebounds and initiate fastbreaks himself, it’ll quicken Toronto’s otherwise sluggish offense:
He also needs to become more comfortable as a cutter. Kyle Lowry sees just as much of the ball as DeRozan does, so when the latter is uninvolved in the initial action, his only way of putting pressure on a defense is cutting. That said, cuts comprised just 0.8 percent of DeRozan’s possessions last season. He isn’t yet working the baseline like all non-shooters should.
The Raptors would also benefit from using him in more creative ways. Although DeRozan lives at the elbows, Casey rarely leverages his star’s mid-range jumper to get easy baskets. As I went over in last month’s piece, the easiest way to do so is to run DeRozan off down screens, creating either an open shot or a free roll to the basket for the screener.
If his defender chases him over the screen and the defense fails to rotate, DeRozan will have a free lane to the hoop. He’s strong, athletic and crafty enough to punish teams when they let him catch the ball with a head of steam.
He also has promise as a screener for other ball-handlers like Lowry and Delon Wright. In this play, DeRozan pops to the 3-point line and the defense, still recovering from the initial pick-and-roll, has no chance:
Casey might want to take a page out of Brad Stevens’ playbook, too. The Celtics coach uses Marcus Smart in a number of ways that mitigate the impact of his similarly shaky jumper.
For instance, Boston runs several variations of this play, which gets Smart in excellent post-up position underneath the hoop:
At 6’7,” DeRozan can bully most 2-guards. He already likes working from the mid-post, where he has an extensive arsenal of rip-throughs, turnaround jumpers and semi-legal chicken wing moves. But his size could allow him to simply lay the ball in over smaller defenders on Smart-esque post-ups. From within five feet, DeRozan is nigh unstoppable.
In fact, within 18 feet, DeRozan is pretty damn talented. He has some of the best footwork in the league, and his old-school game, as maddening as it may be, has real utility even in today’s NBA.
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The question isn’t DeRozan’s talent. The more pressing question is his commitment to diversifying his own style of play for the sake of the team. He pounds the ball because that’s what he’s used to, but there are clear issues in Toronto with ball-movement, pace and shooting that DeRozan can help rectify. We’ll see how it all plays out come October.