Dwane Casey wants DeMar DeRozan to play some minutes at point guard next season
By Nam Tran
Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is going to have DeMar DeRozan play some point guard next season.
DeMar DeRozan has improved his game a lot over the past few seasons. At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, much of the media and many fans were comparing him to the G.O.A.T, Michael Jordan, because of his outstanding scoring numbers.
But with this growth comes more responsibility. According to the Toronto Raptors’ head coach, Dwane Casey, he wants DeRozan to run some of the point guard duties next season.
On Tuesday, Casey appeared on the Sportsnet 590’s “The Andrew Walker Show” and said that he wants the All-Star shooting guard to get more minutes at point guard, hoping that this will alleviate some of the Raptors’ troubles with ball movement.
"“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.”"
In Game 3 of their playoff series with the Milwaukee Bucks, it was their lack of ball movement that caused them to lose 104-77. It was one of the worst games in Raptors’ history, but it is not the first time that the team’s lack of ball movement cost them a game.
DeRozan, who averaged 3.9 assists last season, is a capable playmaker. When Kyle Lowry was injured and out for 20 games from late February to mid-March, DeRozan handled much of the playmaking duties and averaged 4.4 per game during that stretch.
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With Corey Joseph traded to the Indiana Pacers and Delon Wright needing more time to develop, having DeRozan spend some of his minutes on the court as a point guard is a good move by Casey.