DeMar DeRozan Credits Chris Bosh For Improved Play
By Bryan Rose
Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan says Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat made him the player he is today.
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When the Toronto Raptors drafted DeMar DeRozan with the 9th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, they knew they were getting an athlete but what type of basketball player were they getting?
They quickly found out the answer when DeRozan emerged on the scene as a rookie knocking down 49 percent of his shots. Unfortunately that’s about all DeMar DeRozan did as he struggled in just about every area of the game. However hard work as paid off for the former USC star who credits Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat for making him the player he is today.
“He was tough on me from the standpoint, I think he knew how good I could be,” DeRozan told Basketball Insiders. “I was the starting guard with him, (Hedo) Turkoglu, (Andrea) Bargnani, Jose Calderon. I was the only rookie out there. A lot of mistakes I made, he would just be hard on me about it so I could be better. He was a good dude. He’s a good friend of mine.”
In what proved to be a changing of the guard, Bosh ended up leaving the Toronto Raptors to join LeBron James in South Beach with the Miami Heat while DeMar DeRozan took over as the franchise player in T-Dot.
It wasn’t an overnight transformation by any stretch though DeRozan is currently playing the best basketball of his career, not only being a force on the offensive end (despite the sub par shooting currently) but also morphing into a terrific defender.
At just 25-years-old it seems as if the sky is the limit for DeRozan who has become one of the best shooting guards in the NBA.
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