Fact: DeMar DeRozan is a pillar of the golden era of Toronto Raptors basketball.
Along with Kyle Lowry, Dwane Casey, and Masai Ujiri, among others, DeRozan helped morph an endlessly belittled franchise into a respected one. And as the wins piled up season after season, his game, fortified by his insatiable work ethic, continued its own upward trend. In fact, it was his final year in Toronto (2017-18 at age 28) that saw him begin to tap into the playmaking excellence that he went on to sharpen with the San Antonio Spurs and is now using to full effect with the Chicago Bulls.
The ripples from those two things—his deep Raptors roots and his undeniably potent game—are still being felt by members on the current iteration of the team, whether they played with the former franchise icon or not.
For a young player like Scottie Barnes, who has hopes of becoming a Raptors legend in his own right, the experience of guarding DeRozan (which he was largely tasked with doing on Wednesday night) is a visceral one. Attempting to bog down a player who has spent seasons refining his game is an unenviable task, but a simultaneously wonderful learning opportunity.
“I know he’s one hell of a basketball player,” Barnes said. “Tonight he played really good. He did a lot of scoring, got to the foul line, did a lot for their team to help them win the game.
“(I was just trying) to not really allow him to get space, really just trying to take up his space, not allow him to get his moves, get his spacing, because he can score the ball so well when he has space. He has a deep bag where he’s able to make different shots that are contested.”
In two tightly contested games against the Raptors this season, DeRozan has come up big on both occasions. In the first, he shot the ball poorly, but savvily worked his way to the free throw line 10 times (finishing with 26 points) and eventually helped ice Toronto with an impossible clutch-time dagger. On Wednesday, he was far more efficient (57.9% from the field), comfortably and patiently cooking the Raptors from all of his favorite angles on the way to dropping 29.
Unlike Barnes, Pascal Siakam was a teammate of DeRozan’s, and is now getting to experience the role the latter held when the two played together seasons ago. There are, of course, few players in the league acting as the focal points of their respective teams, and that shared understanding has provided Siakam with a heightened level of appreciation for the 32-year-old veteran.
“He’s always been one of my favorite players,” Siakam said. “The way he plays the game, I love his midrange game and his patience. And I think his passing has been on another level. Just making reads and understanding the double team. So he’s definitely one of those guys you watch.
“He’s been in the league for a while, he’s done it, and I think one of the things he does is get to his spots, which is something that I’m learning to do. And he does it at a very high level. So if I can even get close to that, I think I’ll be in good shape.”
Indeed, any player who reaches the heights that DeRozan has would have to be pleased with their accomplishments. After all, the Compton-native was named an All-Star (a starter, no less) for the fifth time in his career on Thursday.
But that’s no surprise to the Raptors. It’s just the latest achievement in a career chock full of them.
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