![]() ![]() “As much as I love this game, when you look at it from that perspective, the game can be taken away from you at any minute. I look back on my career and the amount of players I played with that just kind of suddenly disappeared in the wind. “That’s the one thing I stress to the younger guys now. “I have never, ever taken this for granted,” DeRozan said. “We don’t get to hear him on the sidelines much because he’s always trying to catch his breath and then getting ready to go right back in,” Caruso said.ĭeRozan is quick to laugh off questions about his age: “I’m 33, I’m not dead.” But in his 14th NBA season, he knows he’s closer to the end of his career than the start and is taking more of a pause to soak in his accomplishments. Caruso joked that it was a strange sight to come off the court and see DeRozan on the bench, ready to espouse advice he rarely has time for in a typical game. ![]() So if the question is who do I want to take the last shot, give me DeMar DeRozan all day.Even when he incurs an injury - such as the strained quadriceps that forced him to sit out three games before the Paris trip - DeRozan has to be persuaded to give his body a break. If that doesn’t convince you of DeRozan’s status as one of the greatest late-game performers in franchise history, I don’t know what will. When looking at DeMar’s raw stats in the clutch last year, the only players who are even in the same realm statistically are Embiid and Nikola Jokic, the two runaway MVP favorites who each had a career year last season. However, DeRozan was transcendental at times last season and was easily the most clutch player we’ve seen in a Bulls uniform this century. Relative to the rest of the league, Zach was actually quite good in clutch situations. DeRozan also got to the free throw line twice as often as Zach and even posted an on-court plus/minus of 1.4 compared to LaVine’s 0.6 in the clutch.Īll of this is no indictment of LaVine’s late-game capabilities. Last season DeRozan shot a blistering 53.5% from the field - the highest mark any of the league’s top 10 clutch players reached last year - compared to LaVine’s 49.2% from the field. Not only does DeRozan have LaVine beat on raw production, he’s far more efficient as well. DeMar scored 4.1 clutch points (3rd in the NBA) in eligible games while LaVine contributed an average of 3 clutch points per contest (14th). It’s worth noting that DeRozan played in more clutch games, but even when you compare the averages there’s a clear gap between the two. LaVine, on the other hand, ranks 14th with 93 scored. Not only do they dwarf their teammates’ late-game production, but their performances also rank out exceptionally well compared to the rest of the NBA.ĭeRozan scored the second most of any player in the clutch last season, with his 157 points just barely losing out to Joel Embiid’s 158 clutch points. When looking at the Bulls’ clutch stats from last season, DeRozan and LaVine unsurprisingly stand tall above the rest. Per the NBA, “clutch time” is when there’s at most a 5-point differential separating the two teams with five or fewer minutes remaining in a game.īut the question remains, does DeRozan beat out LaVine for the title of Chicago’s most clutch player? When comparing the Chicago Bulls’ clutch stats from 2021-22, it becomes blatantly obvious who the most clutch player on this team really is. There’s evidence to support his claim as well, as the Chicago Bulls also posted the 4th best clutch time win percentage last year, with a record of 25-16. It makes sense that DeRozan would attract some attention in this category, after his pair of iconic game-winning buzzer-beaters on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. However, one anonymous GM cast their vote for DeRozan. As expected, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, and Kevin Durant received the most votes. In this year’s GM survey, managers across the league were asked which player they’d feel the most comfortable taking the last shot in a close game. DeRozan and LaVine ultimately came back to make their critics look foolish in the end, as the pair combined to score the most points of any duo in the NBA last season. Many media personalities doubted their ability to co-exist, which in hindsight seems quite ironic. Kurt Helin 8d DeMar DeRozan CHI Small Forward 11 DeMar DeRozan scores 26 in season finale vs. Following an exciting 2021 offseason, there was much debate surrounding the fit of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine on the Chicago Bulls. Overview Player News Stats Game Log 08:28 NBA Free Agency Tracker: Every important trade, signing, rumor, and report in one place James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Fred VanVleet and more are right in the middle of the action. ![]()
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