The Toronto Raptors are still searching for ways to get over the hump, being ousted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs in consecutive years. They’ve turned over much of their roster and now they want one of their star players to have a bigger role.
Head coach Dwane Casey via Sportsnet:
“We got to have a better mentality of ball movement, man movement and spacing,” Casey said on Wednesday while on The Andrew Walker Show on Sportsnet 590 The FAN.
“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.”
The main thing to take away is Casey’s desire to have DeRozan play point guard at times in the upcoming season. Having seen the success of James Harden doing the same in Houston, Casey seemingly believes that may be the key to unlocking the Raptors’ full offensive potential.
Much like the Harden’s move, however, this is more about titles than the actual style of play. While Kyle Lowry is the starting point guard of the Raptors and a star in his own right, DeRozan does a lot of the initiating of the offense, already.
Calling DeRozan a point guard probably doesn’t change his role much, but it may spark a change in mentality from the shooting guard to be a more willing passer. That would be the biggest help to the Raptors, whose iso-centric offense becomes predictable and defendable in the postseason year after year despite regular season success.
