DeMar DeRozan… Point Guard?

In what’s become an extremely volatile offseason for most teams, the Raptors have stood pat for the most part. CJ Miles was brought in, Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll have been shipped out. Other than that, the Raptors are banking on internal development and small culture changes to push them to more success.
Dwane Casey was on the Andrew Walker show when he said: “We got to have a better mentality of ball movement, man movement and spacing, DeMar DeRozan, have him handle the ball a bit more as a point guard a facilitator, a passer.”
If you’re new to the Raptors, or even a casual fan, this may seem like jarring news. The truth is that DeMar DeRozan has handled a multitude of “point guard” duties for years now, and has thrived when given that type of responsibility.
Ball Handling
One of the main roles thrust onto point guards is that of the primary ball handler, and that’s something DeMar has been for something close to for 3 years. He’s also one of the NBA’s best pick and roll players, finishing top 5 in efficiency the last 2 years in a row. Using up 11 possessions a game, slotting him in as the 4th highest PnR usage player in the league.

The problem with DeRozan’s guard duties, is that they’re qualities you’d find in a top flight scoring guard, which is what DeRozan is. The Raptors, and Dwane Casey, are looking for more ball movement and DeRozan’s assist numbers are criminally low for how much of the ball he sees.



As we see here DeMar falls under Butler but sits above CJ and PG13. So it’s clear that there is work to be done, but he’s not starting from a bad place at all. One of the benefits of DeRozan being so shot-centric is that when he does make the pass, it often generates wide-open shots. The bad news is that his teammates often clank them. Almost everyone on the Raptors shoots worse on 3 pointers that DeMar DeRozan creates for them.

The Post-Up
Something both LeBron James and Kobe Bryant flourished at was passing out of the post-up. Kobe usually played with talented big men and was extremely good at finding them for duck-ins. LeBron James has almost always surrounded himself with sharpshooters and he sprays the ball all around the court, and is likely the best skip passer the NBA has ever seen.
DeRozan is already one of the leagues most prolific post-up scorers, and he could really grow as a passer in that area. We saw a lot of that after the All-star break when Kyle Lowry was injured, and during the Raptors-Bucks playoff series where Lowry was… abysmal. Again, the problem with that was the fact that the Raptors shot extremely poor from downtown.

Things are looking brighter for DeRozan though, the Raptors added one of the leagues best shooters of 16–17, CJ Miles. Kyle Lowry, and Serge Ibaka remain some of the best shooters at their respective positions, and Norman Powell figures to grow a little more as a shooter in the coming years.
Lowry is getting older, and the Raptors are looking to lessen the load on him. Not to mention they desperately need to diversify their offense or they run the risk of being figured out in the playoffs (again). DeRozan is a more than capable passer, and the Raptors have a few good shooters to lean on. Things don’t look so bad in T-Dot, and it’ll be fun to see if DeRozan has another step in his progression (beside the glaring need for a consistent 3 point shot).

Hope you guys enjoyed the article!
If you want more from me you can check out the podcast I Co-host “Deep Thoughts With Mascots” on iTunes.
Have a blessed day y’all.
