Watch out, Kyle Lowry. DeMar DeRozan is coming for your job.
Not really, of course. But the Toronto Raptors do have plans to slot DeRozan at point guard more in 2017-18. As head coach Dwane Casey told The Andrew Walker Show on Sportsnet 590 The FAN (via Sportsnet)
“We got to have a better mentality of ball movement, man movement and spacing.
“DeMar DeRozan, have him handle the ball a bit more as a point guard, a facilitator, a passer. Kyle Lowry moving the ball a bit more, spacing up. We don’t want to give our whole ‘what we’re going to try to do next year’ away, but again it comes down to passing the basketball and better spacing more so, than we know, one-on-one play.”
This is a good move, because it’s a necessary move.
Sure, Lowry should spend ample time off the ball to leverage his catch-and-shoot accuracy. But the Raptors also dealt away backup point guard Cory Joseph without really replacing him. Though they have Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright on the roster, neither has proved he’s ready to orchestrate the offense of a quasi-contender for stretches at a time.
DeRozan, on the other hand, has.
The All-Star 2-guard has noticeably improved his decision-making out of the pick-and-roll over the last two years, using his handles, incision and slick hesitation moves to throw defenses off balance. He finished in the 84th percentile as the pick-and-roll ball-handler last season, shooting 46.7 percent and averaging a stellar 0.97 points per possession, according to NBA.com. And he was even better in 2015-16, finishing inside the 92nd percentile, with a 48.1 percent shooting clip and a scoring average of 0.99 points per possession.
Make no mistake, the Raptors will miss Joseph’s defensive intensity. He is more of a three-point threat than DeRozan, too. But they won’t want for playmaking.
DeRozan, along with Lowry, has that on lock.
