Toronto Raptors: 2017-18 player grades for DeMar DeRozan

Weaknesses

One of the biggest myths that pervaded the consciousness of basketball viewers was the concept of DeMar DeRozan, 3-point shooter. While he did average a career-high 3.6 attempts from downtown, he didn’t shoot better. At least, not by that much.

Derozan’s 3-point percentage increased to 31.2 percent, which still falls well below the 36 percent league average. He was particularly ghastly from the corner; shooting just 30 percent from those spots.

DeRozan still lived and died with the pull-up game and based on his percentages, he was mostly gasping for air. His attempts dropped from 10.9 last year to 8.4 this season (which still put him in the top 10) but made them at a near ineffective rate. In fact, DeRozan’s pull-up shooting rates got markedly worse; he made just 38.9 percent of them this year while hitting only 25 percent of his pull-up 3s (he made 45.7 percent of his pull-ups last year).

Looking at these numbers, it doesn’t surprise me that the Raptors only scored 3.4 more points per 100 possessions with DeRozan on the floor. Nor did it surprise me that DeRozan’s offensive win shares only increased by 0.1 this year despite him playing six more games than last year, or that his offensive box plus/minus went up by just 0.3 points. Those numbers prove that DeRozan doesn’t make that much of a difference offensively.

I haven’t even touched on his defense yet, or lack thereof. DeRozan did accrue 2.8 defensive win shares, but that was only 0.4 more than last year. Defensive box plus/minus wasn’t as bullish on his D; DeRozan finished with -0.9 DWS. Opponents shot 50 percent against him overall and 54.5 percent from 3-point range.

All of this ultimately hurt the team, as Toronto allowed 6.1 more points per 100 possessions with DeRozan on the floor. All of these offensive and defensive issues reared their ugly heads in the second round against the Cavs.