Poll: Demar's first five games vs last five games

[Boogie!]

This is the main reason for the increase in assists.

Idk why people act like DeMar was just being selfish early on. No, guys weren't **** making shots so his assists were lower and he had to take more of the scoring load upon himself.

He can't MAKE guys make shots.

Both the quality and volume of his passing to shooters has been much better lately though. Really impressive.

The volume hasn't changed much. 33.0 passes per game in the last 5 vs. 30.2 passes per game first 5. Quality sure, maybe not of the passes but of the positions that shooters are finding themselves in. 10.2 potential assists vs. 6.2. But that has even increased for Lowry as well from 11.0 to 13.8. Seems like it has a lot more to do with shooters getting in position better and taking and making shots as opposed to DeMar suddenly passing a lot more.

i really dont understand what your stance is. demar has improved his passing the past few games and it has nothing to do with guys making shots. passes per game doesnt mean **** in regards to the situations the passes are being made and how quickly hes reading the defenses. if he quickly sees a double team and kicks it to the open corner 3 point shooter thats a pass. if he jumps in the air and is about to shoot over a double team and he realizes that hes gonna get blocked and kicks it back out to the point guard, thats still a pass... except theres a HUGE discrepancy in the quality and productivity of each pass...

the difference between the recent demar is his decision making has been a lot better than what we've become accustomed to. hes not forcing up horrible shots and when he realizes hes driving into traffic he finds open guys QUICKLY. hes been very very good at this lately and it has nothing to do with whether or not guys are making shots or not. i dont have to look at his assists to understand that hes been playing better overall basketball. conceivably, if guys are bricking all their shots and he still only averages 4 apg which is around his career high, if he plays the exact same way hes been playing the past 5 games, i would still praise him for the type of basketball hes playing. im not judging him on numbers.

i really dont understand the need to counter this argument either... the people who have been critical of demar for his entire career have done so on the basis of his play and theyve been referred to as haters. now that were praising him because its obvious his play has changed, instead of accepting it and agreeing with it, you feel the need to tell us that we're wrong and still wanna argue with us...

NO, HE WAS NOT THIS GOOD THE WHOLE TIME. WHEN HE WAS SCORING 100 POINTS A GAME HE WAS NEVER THAT GOOD IN THE PAST. AND NOW THAT HES ASSISTING MORE ITS AN IMPROVEMENT OVER WHAT HE HAS BEEN IN THE PAST. THIS IS A GOOD THING. I AM HAPPY WITH HIS PERFORMANCES LATELY. if guys are bricking shots and hes still playing the same way, i will still be happy with his performances. what is your beef now?

[GreatWhiteStiff]

I mean first 5 is good if he's making shots, however no human, even DEROZAN has mastered the midrange to that level.

[DarkKnight]

42% shooter over his last 10. His shooting hasn't changed. But he's doing a much better job of moving the ball at times and seems to be putting in more effort on the boards. At 18 FGA and 5 assists a game he's a much more valuable player than when he's taking 25 shots...because over a long enough sample he's gonna shoot 42-44%, guaranteed.

[Senbonzakura]

It looks like the people taking first 5 are saying they prefer that because the production is better and elite tier, which it is. People taking last 5 are saying the play style is better because it's more realistically sustainable, which is also true.

Really should've been more clear in the thread exactly what we're really picking here. Are we picking 82 games of DeMar producing like the first five? If so it would be stupid to pick the last five. Or are we picking 82 games of DeMar TRYING to produce like the first five, in which case he would likely not be able to do that so the last five make sense.

People aren't really discussing the same thing which is where the dissent is coming from. I assumed it meant we get first 5 DeMar producing like that regularly, which is why the first 5 would be better.

[Yallbecrazy]

1st 5 games was a generational superstar and I will take a generational superstar level of play

Nyet. 1st 5 games was a level of play never sustained over the balance of a season for a guard, particularly running in the face of over a half-decade of previous data. It was unsustainable. It's a disingenuous assertion to begin with, because it'd never happen.

But let's say we set that aside, in the spirit of the OP's question... as I already addressed ITT. Having an offense that unipolar from someone who wasn't passing all that well at the time, that's not a good strategy. Over a significant stretch of time, that underutilizes your other pieces and makes life easier on the defense. We also know that individual hyper-volume scorers don't actually correlate with top-end offenses, and Demar certainly isn't a defensive anchor, now or then. We don't NEED to have him do that over lengthy stretches of time, so it's much better done in little bursts (like the first 5 games) to cover for slumps in the rest of the team. Doing otherwise is a ticket to Mediocritytown, NBA. We've seen it often enough in the past that even setting aside the issue of sustainability, it's not a wise policy. I'd much rather have him scoring less, passing more effectively and doing a better job of picking his spots, as he has been doing over the last 5-10 games.

You are the first poster whom I recognize as being bad. I'm sorry, but this is an obvious answer. The entire team has played better of late, but you take the superstar every time! The Raptors with first 5 games Derozan and the rest of the team playing like they are now wins 70!+ games!!! It's ridiculous that people talk about sustainability when the question was who would you prefer. I will take the superstar that scores at will and anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand how to read or is just that thick (I sound like a douche, but it really is that simple) It is undebatable, no one said which Demar would you take in terms of shot selection?!? Which is how everyone seems to be taking it

[Cael]

First 5. Higher efficiency. And other guys weren't making shots. I'll take first five demar with last 5 team.