Would Derozan work in the 3 spot?

[ceez]

he doesn't do much at SG defensively either anyways

[Ambidextrious]

Yes he can! From the small sample of him playing at the 3, we can all agree he is effective at that position.

[NoPropsneeded]

nah I'd rather him play SG. He has a size advantage there and it is easier for him to get his shots off against smaller guards. If we move him to SF long term he is going to struggle on offense.

[jlongs]

Voted no since I don't think he works in the starting line up, at least not in his current state. He only gets the starting nod by default since we got no one else, but we need something better if we want to succeed in the playoffs or even get there. Now hopefully that something better comes from Demar himself improving, but if not we need to look elsewhere. Moving him to the 3 won't suddenly make his weak defense improve, just like moving Bargs to the 4 suddenly made him a more effective defender- it was his effort during the start of the season that was noticeably improved. I don't know if effort alone is enough for Demar though. Ball-handling, finishing in traffic, finishing despite contact, rebounding, going around screens, competitiveness - all of which aren't good enough to be our starting 2 OR 3.

The only reason I can see him being better at the 3 is because there are less scorers at that position that he has to defend. It's the same reason Jordan moved to the 3 over at Washington- he didn't have the legs anymore to chase around younger guards the whole game. But that would be more of a cop out than a strategic move. On the flip side is defenders will be much taller than him and can easily contest his shots, and since he doesn't have the handles nor the quickness to go around them, or even the strength to go through them, he'd be even more limited offensively.

Bottom line is we need DD to get better, or we need someone better to replace him.

[ReubenJRD]

I think his athleticism is the only advantage he is at the small forward, and plus his size being 6'7.

Defensively he has problems guarding bigger SG's, how about coming across guys like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony who would hand it to him on the post? Offensively I don't believe it's going to be a big problem at the 3.

[Hugmenot]

The real question for me is whether DeRozan will ever be an average quality starter at any position.