Why do Raptor Fans hate Demar Derozan?

[bballsparkin]

When DeMar's game is off it can be so ugly. And he had at times long streaks of really bad basketball when he keeps forcing shots. Keep shooting is the mentality a shooter has but he's not quite a good enough shooter to follow this mantra. And then there's the contract situation. DD is going to get paid big time. I think he would probably be a better fit on another team for that kind of money.

That said, when he looks to facilitate and takes less shots, I enjoy watching his game more. From the games I have seen so far this season he's been mostly good. So yeah, that upcoming contract is the elephant in the room.

[alfie123]

How can one possibly hate this man:

[bballsparkin]

Lol, you can't hate that face.

[Badonkadonk]

How can one possibly hate this man:

The more love he gives, the more hate he receives.

http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2014/02/04/demar-derozan-fight-city-toronto/

[bape_lovers]

pretty sure if KD was here, he would b hated too, Bosh was hated by most people as well

[Potential]

He needs some damn help. I know how it feels playing with a bunch of scrubs. Blame Masai.

[C_Money]

We need more firepower in the starting lineup so Demar isn't taking 20+ shots a game. It honestly hurts the team.

[Danchan]

Its quite simple. He's a third string player playing the role of Superstar because the Raps lack a true Superstar. On any other top tier, contending team this guy would be option #3 on the court in terms of scoring. But on the Raps he is option #1 and with his severe lack of talent we are stuck with the mediocrity that he provides. And if MU is stupid enough to give this guy $20 million a year for the next 5/6 years the Raptors will never get out of the first round for the duration of his stay in Toronto.

no team with 2 legit stars need a #3 option who can't shoot the 3 in the sg spot. If i have Durant and westbrook i rather have someone like Korver who doesn't need touches to be effective while spacing the floor.

[yellowknifer]

I don't hate him. When he plays smart basketball he is very effective. He relies on his jumper far too heavily though and his jumper is not good. When it falls he looks like Kobe. It rarely does. He has a lot of talent but his lack of body control limits his jumper and sometimes his ability to finish. Relying on getting to the line to score is a sure way to find yourself taken out of games in the playoffs. It is a valuable skill but NBA officiating is infamous and cannot be counted on to be consistent.

If he had a legit jumper, still played high IQ ball (not forcing long contested 2's) and upped his effort on D more consistently he'd be an elite player. Not sure the jumper will ever come though. Also not sure if he'll ever develop a consistently high bball IQ.

[tsherkin]

So in two posts, we can see the problem with this thread:

He's a pretty good scorer who isn't making a huge amount of money. So why do Raptor fans seem to dislike him so much?

So, most Raptors fans don't actually dislike him. Even a lot of the ones critical of him mostly critique him with at least some nod to the contextual factors that have led us to this current situation (e.g. coaching/management supporting him in a role to which he is not best-suited), and have made allowances for what developments he has shown us (improved draw rate, improved passing, flashes of post game, etc).

let's see:
1)"He's a pretty good scorer" - what makes you think he is a good scorer??? Do you look only at total points scored?
- fact: His is a very inefficient volume shooter who kills any offensive rhythm for this team by being a black hole in offense.

This is true; he's typically something like -1% relative to league average. Demar's efficiency chart:

Code: Select all

 Yr / Demar / lgav / Diff /

2010: 55.4 / 54.3 / +1.1
2011: 53.0 / 54.1 / -1.1
2012: 50.3 / 52.7 / -2.4
2013: 52.3 / 53.5 / -1.2
2014: 53.2 / 54.1 / -0.9
2015: 51.0 / 53.4 / -2.4
2016: 53.7 / 52.8 / +0.9



That's bad, particularly in volume. So now we have the opposite: we have the OP not understanding that Demar is actually a weak scorer overall in terms of efficiency. Acceptable, tier-two scorers are typically +1% relative to league average, even on really-high usage (e.g. 29, 30%+), and Demar is typically 2% in the wrong direction from THAT marker. He's clearly not the guy you want floating your team with volume offense, mostly. That said, in 2014, and so far this season, he's been leveraging the pass more effectively. In '14, he was a 110 ORTG guy and a +1.4 OBPM guy (the only > -0.2 OBPM season he has from 10-15), and he's at +2.4 this year now that he's back to passing more effectively AND has improved his efficiency (SSS, yes, yes).

So there's got to be some acknowledgement along with the criticism. In 2014, Demar was a net +1.3 guy on offense. So far this year, +8.1. It's early yet, but he's playing in a way which works for us, even if he still has stretches where you want to hit him with a phonebook. He's not elite and he never will be, but when he's within 1% of league average and passing well, he's a positive-impact offensive player; when he's above league-average, he's even better (durr), and since we're not dealing with a lineup of elite offensive talent waiting to join our team, this is what we've got for now... and we've generally been able to field decent offense with him on our squad. When Carroll is healthy and connecting from 3, we look pretty effective on offense. It should be noted that Demar has ratcheted his shooting volume back to his pre-2014 levels, something like 22 FGA100, which is much closer to where he belongs. He's at 15.8 FGA36 right now, and that's a comfortable level for us. 27.0% USG is the third-highest of his career, but it's also the lowest since the 12-13 season, and shaving even just a little bit off of his volume burden is a good thing.

2) "isn't making a huge amount of money" - agree he gets what he deserves right now, but he will be asking for over $20 mils/year, do you think he will be worth the max payment? I'm afraid MU is dumb enough to do it and Raps will be held back for years...

Is a concern, but given the cap increase expectations, it won't be as bad as the raw per-year salary otherwise suggests. It's not the ideal plan, but dropping him for nothing would actually be worse unless we somehow get Durant, which is a lottery option, not a real possibility.





This thread doesn't need to exist; we have some new Demar thread every week. "Woe is Demar, for he is hated." "ZOMG Demar is so awesome, quit hating!" "Demar works so hard, yeah!" And on and on and on.

We get the point. He's a polarizing figure for the fandom, but he's actually playing quite literally the best basketball of his career and he's getting a decent amount of positive commentary on these boards. This kind of thread? Such dreadfully bad timing, I can't even put it coherently into words.