3toheadmelo wrote:KnicksGadfly wrote:3toheadmelo wrote:yeah same. it was me and you that was on that derozan train that summer. we probably beat miami in the playoffs with him.
DeRozan ain't beat anyone in the playoffs in his life. Unless it's his daughter. She's a beast.
he's led the raptors to the ECF before. im not a big derozan fan but he's a bit underrated now. he's literally ranked 36th of all time in points. right behind steph curry. there's no doubt he would've helped us in the post season. we wouldn't have to rely on randle so much if we had him.
I disagree heavily. Honestly, his 36th ppg ranking is good, but what's also interesting is that people are pretty adamant that he is not a hall of fame player, and that speaks to a disconnect as to how valuable DeRozan is. I think there's also a huge reason for that. He's a good scorer. Not a great one. He's not a good shooter and not a good defender. He doesn't make anyone better, not Lavine, not Vuc, not Aldridge, not Lowry. He couldn't even garner respect from Lebron when he was trying to recruit people to LA.
He has a history of failing in the playoffs, and that's a huge problem too. Like yes, we wouldn't need to rely on Randle as much if we had DeRozan, but the problem is that teams are perfectly willing to let DeRozan chuck in the playoffs because he chokes. I'd rather get a guy who empowers Brunson more.
Honestly, I think DeRozan and Randle are too similar. They like their midrangers, they need defensive backup, they need guys to clear the paint. From my POV, I see two options to empowering and maximizing Randle. One is to get more 3&D guys, especially at center, and see if that makes things easier for him as a 2nd option. Those guys are just so damn expensive, though. The second is to get a real star, and then hope Randle can go back to his bubble play, with great shooting and defense.
But yea, I don't respect DeMar as a playoff guy. 21 ppg, 4.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 41.8% FG, 21.4% Three, +/- average of -53 over 7 playoff appearances or -373 total...that's horrible, and I think it's getting into the space where we can't claim sample size as credibly anymore. Don't want to bring up Julius' numbers, but his +/- is not as gruesome as DeRozan's, if that helps.