The NBA announced Tuesday that they have fined Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan $15,000 for publicly criticizing officials following the team’s loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.
The entire Raptors team was unhappy with an inconsistent whistle and a number of late-game calls the league has since confirmed (they believe) were correct via the Last Two Minute Report, one in particular with an explanation that left some unsatisfied. DeRozan was not the only Raptor critical of the officials, but he certainly did the least to try to avoid a fine. Where Jakob Poeltl and Fred VanVleet pulled the “rookie contract” card and answered carefully, DeRozan didn’t hold back:
“It’s frustrating being out there feeling like you’re playing five-on-eight,” he said. “It’s just what it feels like, period. Some of them calls were terrible, period.” He’d later add, “I thought you couldn’t even do that. I’m not even a referee, and I know that rule. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong,” about the officials reviewing an out-of-bounds sequence with a loose definition of the term sequence.
This doesn’t figure to deter DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, and Dwane Casey from trying to work referees, an area they’ve been increasingly frustrated with as a group. Lowry, by the way, ranks 10th in the NBA with five technical fouls, while Serge Ibaka has three and Casey earned his first of the year on Monday. Despite the recent run-ins with referees, the Raptors are in the bottom half of the league with 23 technicals as a team.
They also rank ninth in free-throw rate on offense and 27th (fourth-worst) in opponent free-throw rate on defense. The Raptors have finished each of the last four years in the top-six for free-throw rate, ranked first last year, and haven’t been outside the top 10 since 2011-12 or in the bottom half of the league since 2010-11. During the current era (dating back to 2014-15), the Raptors rank sixth in free-throw advantage over opponents on a per-field goal attempt basis. All of this is not to say that some calls of late haven’t gone their way – it’s been pretty frustrating – but that a wider body of evidence suggests if there is an anti-Raptors conspiracy, it’s being executed incredibly carefully so as to not show up consistently in the data.
By the way, this is DeRozan’s second fine in a week, totaling $40,000. For those who have asked, NBA player fines are given to charities chosen between the NBA and NBPA.
