
The Los Angeles Lakers will need a replacement for when Kobe Bryant leaves. Or maybe they should look in their own backyard and prop Jordan Clarkson up as the new starting shooting guard?
Whatever you think the Lakers will be very active in this year’s offseason and according to the Toronto Sun, DeMar DeRozan is on their list, and has been for some time now.
While his hometown Lakers surely will be one of those suitors — they long have had interest in the swingman — DeRozan has always been fiercely loyal to the organization that drafted him, paid him what at the time was considered above market value on an extension (eventually it became one of the shrewdest bargains of then general manager Bryan Colangelo’s career) and made him the face of the franchise.
“I think I’m just excited for being in Toronto and people really getting a chance to see what Toronto is like,” DeRozan said Thursday after practice about his thoughts on the upcoming all-star weekend in T.O.
“The city, the culture, really, to put us on the main stage and let this city get the credit that it deserves that I feel like it never got.”
I wonder if the hometown factor will provide any swing in DeRozan’s mind. We talk a lot about Kevin Durant and Washington but what about DeMar DeRozan?
I think it’s safe to say whether it’s Toronto or Los Angeles he’ll be the face of the franchise so it’s a pick’em.