Coming off his best NBA season, All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan is still among one of the most underrated powerhouse players of this league.
DeRozan was ranked 36th in Sports Illustrated's annual Top 100 NBA player rankings, finishing a spot after Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Khris Middleton, who missed the majority of the season and only averaged 14.7 points per game in 2016-17.
Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
The Raptors swingman put up 27.3 points per game last season, finishing fifth in the league in scoring while powering a Kyle-Lowry-less team to the playoffs.
This isn't the first time he's disagreed with SI's opinion of his standing within the rest of the league, as he did last season as well after barely making the top 50 at No. 46.
SI's tandem of Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney expressed their reasoning in a detailed player breakdown.
“Every year we relitigate the case of DeMar DeRozan, perhaps the league’s most polarizing player,” the column read. “Our verdict comes down to this: DeRozan is a refined, impressive scorer whose limitations create real problems. His best skill — and his only one that is above average—is one we’ve seen repeatedly stifled in a postseason setting, leaving us with lasting concerns about the ceiling DeRozan imposes on his own team.”
While DeRozan has become a craftsman at the art of the mid-range game, his three-point limitation have rendered him as somewhat of a one-trick pony, making him easier to frustrate and shut down where it counts the most — the playoffs.
Pointing to that evidence are an eight-point performance in Game 3 of the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks where he failed to score a field goal (0-for-8 from the floor), as well as a five-point game in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers (2-of-11 from the floor).
DeRozan made only one of 15 three-pointers attempted during the last postseason, a now essential tool in today's NBA, especially so at his position.
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