Toronto Raptors swingman DeMar DeRozan has been torching defenses asunder during his torrid start to the regular season. Call it the post-Olympics effect or what have you, but the 6-foot-7 shooting guard has scored 32 points or more in eight of his first nine games into the young season, a true model of consistency.
DeRozan had been a low twenties scorer for the past three seasons, averaging a career-high 23.5 points per game last season. To go up from his previous scoring average to scoring over 30 points a game is a change rarely seen for a player of his quality, a Stephen Curry-like improvement, if you will — Curry jumped from 23.8 to 30.1 points per game between 2014-15 to last season.
Perhaps no one can explain it better than the man guarding him every practice, second-year guard Norman Powell. The 6-foot-4 guard is a pesky defender in his own right, contesting shots, grabbing, pulling and being a physical pest to the bigger DeRozan.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a hand in his face, he’s shooting his shot, you’re not adjusting his shot,” Powell told Doug Smith of the Toronto Star after a practice.
“So if you block it, you block it but he knows his angles on his fadeaways and stuff like that, he’s always making his shot more difficult (in practice) than it has to be (in games). He’s been a master at that, he’s perfected that. So it doesn’t matter whether I’m physical with him or not, it doesn’t phase him. He makes it difficult so in a game it’s easy.”
His practice habits can translate directly to a boxing saying that's been popular through the decades: “We train hard, so we fight easy.”
DeRozan became the only player since Michael Jordan‘s 1987-1988 season to have five 30-point games to start a season. He is shooting over 53 percent on mid-range shots and has amassed 306 points despite only making three three-pointers all season long.
“It’s like Neo in The Matrix,” DeRozan said of the way the game looks to him. “I watch so much film, I study so much — every angle, every defensive coverage, every opponent. Even nights before games, understanding if there’s going to be a big guy or a smaller guy on me, just really getting mentally prepared that way just sets it all differently when I go out there and play.”
The 27-year-old has scored double-digit field goals in eight of his nine games, despite getting different looks from opposing defenses — one-on-one coverage, passive and aggressive double teams, plus the occasional zone to throw him off.
“I really don’t pay no mind to it if it’s an open shot or there’s a guy in my face,” DeRozan said. “Norm actually asked me one day, how do I make so many tough shots and I tell him honestly, I don’t think about a hand in my face or somebody contesting me because I feel like that’s what a defender’s supposed to do. My job is to try to make the shot no matter what.”
The Compton native's game is starting to perhaps resemble one of his idols, Kobe Bryant — a fierce and relentless competitor with a hunger for knowledge and self-improvement.
“I don’t know if you guys can see on the bench, but every time I see him about to pull up, I’m like ‘Oh, he got him, that’s good.’ I’m already knowing that it’s gonna go in,” Powell said. “It just looks good, it feels good. You just see, when he’s in a rhythm, it’s almost not even hitting the net when they’re going in. It’s amazing the way he’s shooting the ball right now.”
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