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When DeMar DeRozan went through Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas to watch the Toronto Raptors' summer league team last week, it was not unusual. Long before being a permanent All-Star, DeRozan made it a habit, always showing his support for the franchise – the one that drafted it, the one with which he wanted to end his career, that he just traded Wednesday – and his youngest players. Over the years, DeRozan has invited his teammates like Terrence Ross and Norman Powell to early morning workouts. He might never have been the most vocal leader, but he has always tried to give the example.
More about the Leonard-DeRozan Trade
For nine years with the Raptors, DeRozan set the standard for work ethic and dedication. He entered the league as a 19-year-old project, better known for his athleticism than for a series of Kobe Bryant movements in his repertoire. He worked on these moves every summer, mastering his footwork and making subtle improvements until they reached fame. Still, questions about his full game persist: could he be the type of player who raises his teammates, feeds himself in defense and stretches?
DeRozan has made progress in these areas, especially the first, but it is not a finished product. When the new Raptors coach, Nick Nurse, met him after getting the job, DeRozan barely let him out words from his mouth about needing to improve his defense. When asked if DeRozan was ready to be challenged for this purpose as never before, Nurse said that he would not necessarily say it that way, but he saw the determination.
"Here's how I feel: DeMar wants to improve," Nurse told CBS Sports. "And he knows that there is room to get better, in a number of areas, that's what I feel a lot of it, and I'm not saying that it's a good thing. is me, I'm just saying that it seems to have been invigorated, invigorated and something and ready to do something, I just see a different body language, a different tone in the voice and another flicker in the eye.
Suddenly, much more will be different for DeRozan. With this trade in the San Antonio Spurs he will be pushed out of his comfort zone, into a harder lecture with all kinds of pressures and, as at many other stages of his career, there will be many skeptics to calm down.
The immediate reaction to this agreement from the Spurs' point of view was essentially negative. Jack Maloney of CBS Sports gave San Antonio a "C & # 39; and Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated gave him a 'D. & # 39; The general consensus is that while DeRozan made the second All-NBA team and that he is in his heyday (he will be 29 in three weeks), the Spurs would have been better off with a package focused on the more young players and / or several first-round picks.
There is one argument to make, but the front office never seemed about to be rebuilt in its own right. By hiring Rudy Gay and signing Marco Belinelli this summer, San Antonio has hinted that he would try to stay competitive, with LaMarcus Aldridge under contract until 2021 and coach Gregg Popovich should not result in the team after the 2020 Olympics.
DeRozan's contract ends in 2020 with a player option for the 2020-21 season, giving the Spurs a window of two or three years to build around DeRozan and Aldridge while developing Dejounte Murray and Lonnie Walker. If your first thought is wow, that's a lot of mid-range shots that's understandable. But what if San Antonio helps DeRozan to have another career season? And if working with Popovich ended up being the best thing possible for his career?
San Antonio, more often than any other team in the league, has integrated players with a bad defensive reputation into a top-level system. At the attack, it's not always easy to adapt – just ask Aldridge – but Popovich tends to understand how to maximize the strengths of his best players. While the new Spurs must "surpass themselves" to invest in the culture, DeRozan should not have to worry a lot about his contacts. What will be interesting, is knowing whether or not he can take his game to another level in San Antonio, turning that spark in his eyes against Toronto and trying to prove that he did a mistake.
DeRozan showed with the Raptors that he can lead an elite attack. During the 2017-18 regular season in which he won 59 games, he left everything on his way to have a healthy relationship with the three-point line and let it fly. He tweaked his game to fit a new, more modern attack, returning to his long 2 years and becoming a better smuggler. He 's even improved as a defender even though he' s far from a cork. Since he still has a reputation as an empty statistics player, he is obsolete. If the Spurs were to acquire a high-level talent in a Kawhi Leonard exchange, there would be a real risk that this talent would never reach DeRozan's level.
Yet it is difficult to evaluate DeRozan in the context of other stars and franchise players. His playoff career in Toronto was uneven – while he had spectacular performances, his poor went beyond bad for a star . The Raptors sat on the bench in the fourth quarter of a second-round match against the Cleveland Cavaliers in May, while he was operating in defense and injured the flow and speed of their attack. For his detractors, these moments stand out much more than the playoff games in which they had little pace and he carried them with his aggressiveness.
In San Antonio, it's possible that everyone's perfect version of DeRozan – essentially the 2017-18 version with more accurate three-point shooting, more intense defense and more accurate decision-making – can play . If you believe in his approach and in the power of Popovich, it is easy to be optimistic about this partnership. The Spurs will look different with DeRozan, but I bet they will still play at a slow pace, allowing him to operate in the midrange and surround him with shots. If he develops chemistry with Aldridge, they could be one of the best teams in the West, even if they are not quite competitive.
DeRozan did not expect this to be the next chapter of his career. It's an opportunity, however, to take advantage of everything he's done in Toronto and establish himself as an undeniable elite. Despite all his individual success, he remains an All-Star divider. This adjective may disappear if he completes his game as the face of the most respected franchise in the league.
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