Remembering DeMar DeRozan’s first rodeo

Can DeRozan’s MVP-caliber start to 2018-19 be replicater?

The short answer has to be yes. Players can stumble into an All-Star appearance once by fortune, a hot spurt or two or by mere popularity. Four-time All-Stars, though? Sustained production of that level becomes pattern.

As we made note of with Aldridge, trying to gauge DeMar DeRozan’s 2019-20 season off of a limited, albeit impressive, preseason would be foolish. But seeing DeRozan not only buying in on shooting 3-pointers, but also making them gives off the vibe that he’s due for a season unlike one we’ve seen before.

https://twitter.com/spurs/status/1185358137135681537?s=09

By mere reputation, all accounts point to DeRozan having yet another high-quality season in 2019-20. That being said, trends are nothing to play around with.

So, allow me to play Monday Morning Quarterback — the know-it-all observer who has the answers after it has already happened — and list off three principles that could lead to DeRozan sustaining that greatness over a deeper course of the season.

1. Get Aldridge and DeRozan at their best, at the same time

Needless to say, this one is always easier said than done. Scientifically, it feels difficult to definitively prove, but we’ve all seen it, regardless of whether we noticed. With the exception of the all-time, Pantheon duos — think Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal (see 2001), Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan — it’s rare to see both stars at their absolute apex at the same time.

But for the Spurs, when both Spurs stars were clicking simultaneously, the rest of the Western Conference should have been on notice.

That idea should be preeminent in 2019-20 in beyond. Let’s just think offensively, for example: last season, DeRozan averaged 21.2 points per game on 48.1 percent shooting from the field. Aldridge averaged 21.3 points on 51.9 percent shooting. A year ago, DeRozan hit or surpassed on that statistical barrier 26 times a season ago, and Aldridge surpassed his on 31 occasions.

Surprisingly, the two perennial All-Stars surpassed those season averages in the same game only 10 times, and just once in the postseason.

Unsurprisingly, the Spurs went 9-1 when they did, the lone loss coming during the end of their nightmare road stretch, a 101-85 loss to Brooklyn on Feb. 25.

And that’s not to say that the games in which they came a fraction or so short of those selective marks were problematic, but rather, it shows just how impactful it is when he get even average DeRozan and Aldridge at the same time.

Think about that Game 7 against Denver: the two combined for 35 points on 35.1 percent shooting in a four-point loss. If we get even a ho-hum, typical performance from either, the Spurs are in the second round, and we aren’t having this discussion. The defense rests its case.

2. Don’t allow shooting slumps to impact passing and creation

The Allen Iverson diehard in me has been defending this notion for the better part of a decade. The moment a player becomes “inefficient,” nothing else — their defense, their creation, their leadership — matters.

Iverson’s Game 7 against Toronto, the biggest game of his career to that point, comes to mind. Amidst double teams and Toronto’s “force-everyone-else-to-beat-us” mentality, the league’s Most Valuable Player takes 27 shots and hits only eight of them. But the fact of turning that into a positive; he found his teammates for a career-high 16 assists and does enough to get his team over the hump.

If you’re DeMar DeRozan, now’s the time to take notes.

The slump that effectively gave DeRozan’s All-Star case and early Most Valuable Player bid the proverbial boot produced a few too many negative patterns. That month, DeRozan’s drives and post-up opportunities were down and then here’s the big one: even in spite of that, DeRozan’s turnover rate hadn’t been that high since he was in the third year of his career.

This feels especially important for DeRozan, since creation has arguably become not only the most underrated facet of his game, but also the most welcoming development.

It makes the 8-for-20 games all the more understandable if he’s setting up teammates to that high of a degree. So, when the 11-year vet — predictably at least — has his yearly slump in January, if he can at least remain an elite creator, perhaps he’s still done enough to be recognized for Chicago’s All-Star Game.

And speaking of January…

3. Read the trends and find rest time beforehand

Here’s a spoiler alert and a hot take at once: the Western Conference in 2019-20 is good. The middling, but somehow still elite, teams can vouch for it: a loss or two can take you from third place to ninth in the blink of an eye. As for what that means for teams like the Spurs, perhaps C.J. McCollum said it best in his interview with The Oregonian:

"“The race in the Western Conference is extremely tight. I don’t know if we can afford to Kawhi it, so to speak. You’ll Kawhi your way out of the playoffs.”"

Finding rest for DeMar DeRozan in this jam-packed a conference will be burdensome; the Spurs do have what the league feels is the best coach in all of basketball, though. Should this rest come, it would be because the Spurs took to business with a sense of urgency.

That means: winning the games at home, taking advantage of injured teams (their first road game is against a Paul George-less Clippers team) and setting the cushion before the Rodeo Road Trip.

And thankfully for us, the schedule makers have perhaps ensured it could turn out that way: the Spurs opponents before Christmas Day and before the All-Star break average out to at or below a .500 win percentage. Take care of business, avoid losses like this, and as they say, that’s that.

Rarely does life, or basketball, ever afford us all the positive outcomes. But for whatever DeMar DeRozan’s upcoming season and all its storylines entail, the way he began his tenure in 2018-19 deserves a moment of silence. Until opening night, when it’ll be time to stand up and cheer.