At no point would analytics ever spit out a DeMar DeRozan.
’s so two-point shot.
’s so midrange.
’s so … yesterday.
But DeRozan, the Toronto Raptors starting shooting guard, was also the NBA’s leading scorer coming into the weekend at 34 points per game. Here’s the punch line: Only 18 of his total 366 points came from beyond the arc.
Itap maddening for those who want midrange shots eliminated and for every team to be cloned in the same way – corner threes, volume threes, and spread at all times.
Well … “I never believed in that,” DeRozan says. “I never tried to stretch my game around that. I play to win, and whatever it takes to win thatap what I’m going to do.”
Toronto is winning, and DeRozan is coming out a winner by doing it his way.
This is his way: coming into the weekend, DeRozan is shooting 50 percent from midrange and in the paint above the restricted area.
His 63 midrange makes were more than four NBA TEAMS including the Nuggets, who entered the weekend with 60.
The question: Is DeRozan an anomaly in an analytics world? Or is he spawning a revolution in which the most hardened number crunchers have to at least acknowledge there is a bigger role for the shot than much of the league has relegated it to.
DeRozan’s coach, Dwane Casey, is a self-professed analytics guy. Has he ever asked DeRozan, you know, to shoot more threes?
“No, but I’ve never told him not to. Does that make sense?” Casey said, smiling. “’s who he is, and he knows there are 3-point shots he can make, take. ’s got the green light in that situation whether itap the corner three, top of the key three, wherever he takes it.”
For the record, DeRozan was 4-of-7 (57.1) on corner threes going into the Raptors game Friday against the Nuggets. Analytics tells us thatap the best shot on the court, and itap not as if making that type of attempt is a task beyond the scope of his game.
He just prefers what he prefers.
“I’m just being myself,” DeRozan said. “If thatap the player you are and you can do it at an efficient rate, do it. Whatever it may be. If you’re just a 3-point shooter then just shoot threes – whatever you’re comfortable with and whatever you’ve put in the work, do it.”
DeRozan’s a different kind of refreshing, a throwback player in a space age NBA game. And maybe, just maybe, injecting respect back to a shot that had almost lost it all.
UTAH AT DENVER, 7 p.m. Sunday, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on Rudy Gobert: The Jazz signed the young 7-foot center to a four-year, $102 million contract and he hasn’t disappointed at the start of the season. Going into Saturday’s games Gobert ranked fourth in the NBA in blocked shots (2.2 per game), ninth in rebounds (10.5) and scores 10.1 points per game as well to average a double-double on the season. Gobert had six double-doubles going into Utah’s game at Houston.
Nuggets: Nikola Jokic has been one of the Nuggets’ focal point players after having a solid rookie season in 2015-16. His early stats are decent – 8.6 points and 6.0 rebounds — but not what many expected. Nuggets coach Michael Malone, however, defended the big man, now in his second season. “You guys gotta understand, he’s not going to be the same player he was last year,” Malone said. “Gallo was out, Wilson Chandler was out. The last two months of the season we played our young guys 35 minutes a night almost. (Now) … we have guys playing, so everybody stop expecting Nikola Jokic to be something that he’s not. I think itap unfair to him. ’s playing well, he’s rebounding, he’s looking for his offense, he’s playmaking for other guys and thatap all we need him to do.”
Utah: The Jazz are coming to Denver on the second of a back-to-back that started Saturday night in Houston. For the Jazz, this is also the first of back-to-back games against the Nuggets. They do not play again until they host the Nuggets on Wednesday in Utah. The Nuggets, however, face Chicago on Tuesday before flying to Utah for the second of that back-to-back. … Former Colorado standout Alec Burks has missed the entire season because of left ankle rehab.
Russell Wilson: Spotlight on the Seattle Seahawks quarterback
Background: Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson announced last week that he joined a group led by investor Chris Hansen that is looking to build an NBA/NHL arena in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood. The intent is to be ready to attract the NBA back to the Emerald City.
What’s up: Seattle has pined for an NBA team ever since it lost the Sonics in 2008. There was always a question as to whether the Sonics were doomed from the minute the ownership group, led by Oklahoma businessman Clay Bennett, bought the Sonics and WNBA’s Seattle Storm from then-owner Howard Schultz. There certainly was enough circumstantial evidence to suggest Clay’s intent wasn’t to keep the team in town. He did, however, ask for $300 million in taxpayer money to help fund a $530 million basketball arena in Renton, just south of Seattle. That request never gained any steam.
And so the wheels were set in motion. Bennett filed papers to get the Sonics out of the last two years of their lease at Key Arena. Then NBA-commissioner David Stern didn’t help ease queasy Sonics fans’ stomachs when he said if the team leaves, another would probably never return. On April 18, 2008 NBA owners overwhelmingly approved the move to Oklahoma City. About two-and-a-half months later, a $45 million settlement was reached allowing the Sonics to leave immediately. No team was promised to ever be placed back in Seattle.
This past summer, current NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, continued a series of little-hope comments for relocation to Seattle, or anywhere else.
“The issue with the NBA right now, is every team in essence can have a global following,” Silver said. “The need to expand the footprint by physically putting another team in a market becomes less important from a league standpoint. And therefore, the way the owners see expansion at the moment is really the equivalent of selling equity in the (league).”
Dempsey’s take: Even with this latest development of Wilson’s interest and enthusiasm with a new ownership group, it still doesn’t look good for the city. The Sonics’ takeover and removal from Seattle is one of the league’s most controversial moments. Oklahoma City loves its Thunder. But Seattle has been left with a void that even Wilson, one of the most influential and positive-minded people around, will find hard to overcome. The new arena is a start. And privately funding it helps even more. But the obstacles don’t stop with the NBA wanting to strengthen its current 30 teams before moving or adding more. The constant conversation about a dilution in talent is a concern, too.
“And that’s something that I’m focused on as well,” Silver said.
