Doubting Derozan?

[golden]

Derozan is what he is. He's a replacement level player who does a few things pretty well while having some major holes in his game. Despite all the talk of improvement, his numbers this year, so far, pretty much mirror his production the last two seasons. Yes, he's shooting the ball slightly better this season than last (up from ~50 TS% to ~ 51 TS%), rebounding the ball at a better rate and has fewer turnovers but there are no significant increases in productivity. I don't have time to dig out all the isolated defensive stats but it's pretty clear from the box score stats that the overall impact of his game is no greater than last season.

People keep talking about how young he is but we know that historically players pretty much are what they are when they come into the NBA and, certainly, after 3 seasons. This is it. Just like with Bargs, you knew what you had after the first two seasons. Yet, you still had people, EVEN THIS OFFSEASON, talking about it being a breakout year for Bargs. It's ridiculous.

I have nothing against Derozan and I think he'd be a decent guy second or third guy off the bench but he's not a core piece of a successful team. I mean, he's been a core guy for the last three years and the record is what it is.

+1. Raps fans had similar love/hate/hope expectations for Mo Pete, but he ended up being just another average NBA player - easily replaced by Anthony Parker. The only difference is that Mo Pete was never gifted the minutes, shots and most importantly, the money that DD has.

[ball4life]

Hmm....Lots of stuff being said. A lot about what people think about Demar. No problem with that. But I think that there is a simple reality to his situation on our team regardless of how you see him as a player. Given his new contract situation, there's pretty much no chance he gets traded this season.
So doubt Demar or not, he's here for awhile. How long? Not sure. I seem to vaguely recall something about a trade kicker in his new deal...And obviously, both BC and other teams will want to assess next year if Demar seems like he'll be worth his extension. I think it'll thus be hard to find a good fit trade-wise for awhile. Most likely it would be teams looking to dump a bigger salary and get something decent back, at least for awhile.

Rudy Gay situation?

[white men can't jump]

Rudy Gay situation?

I don't think so. Memphis doesn't want to take on long term salary. I'm talking about a true dump. A guy who really doesn't fit on his team, or who's old and at the back end of a long deal. And where the team going after Demar would deem him an upgrade and useful piece to their roster. One thought is if Gasol keeps underperforming, and LA keeps D'Antoni around. They need athletes and scorers on the wing badly. Or Stoudemire in NY and his gimpy knees. These are of course, deals that are terrible on paper talent-wise for Toronto, hence I can't see anything happening for some time.

[TRex]

I posted this on teh Chicago/Toronto game thread.

What's the point of having DeRozan play late in the game in crunch time? the guy DISAPPEARS every single time. Offensively it seems like he's scared to shoot. Defensively he's a JOKE. The guy averages 18ppg because he plays TONS of minutes for some reason. If AA or Ross plays as much as DeRozan does i guarantee they would average 18ppg as well. Difference is, AA and Ross actually play solid defence.