Toronto Raptors All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan has established himself as one of the premier players in the league at his position over the last few seasons.

The 28-year-old has continued to demonstrate in his ninth campaign putting another highly productive year. According to Sam Esfandiari of Warriors World, DeRozan is posting eerily similar numbers to one his mentors.

DeRozan has quietly been one of the league's best scorers over the last several seasons averaging 20 or more points in each of the last five years. In fact, he's coming off his best individual campaign where he averaged a career-high 27.3 points per game.

There are questions about his ability to consistently shoot from the outside, but he has become one of the league's effective scorers driving to the rim. On top of that, he is currently hitting a career-best 37.2 percent from beyond the arc while taking a career-high 3.2 attempts per contest.

DeRozan is also coming off earning the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the third time in his career after averaging an NBA-best 35.7 points while shooting 55.7 percent from the field and 55 percent from three-point range along with 6.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds during three games last week. This includes posting a franchise-best 52 points against the Milwaukee Bucks on New Years Day.

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Although he isn't nearly the same caliber of player that former Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant was throughout much of his career, the fact that he is currently posting similar numbers to him is quite impressive. DeRozan has been named an All-Star three times in his career, but this just further underlines the offensive talent he has that sometimes goes unnoticed or underappreciated.

DeRozan has helped make the Raptors into a constant in the playoffs, and they are currently among the top records in the Eastern Conference largely due to his play. With him being in the midst of his prime of his career, there could many more highly productive years ahead of him in Toronto.