Just two months ago, many analysts and experts pegged the Sacramento Kings as one of the teams that made the best moves in the offseason by adding DeMar DeRozan. However, the first month and a half of the regular season has brought far more doubts than certainties about his fit with the team.
The Californians sit in 12th place in the Western Conference after dropping seven of their last 10 games. Their talent is beyond question, but some league executives believe it’s tough to seamlessly integrate DeRozan alongside Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox because of their individual skill sets.
“DeRozan is a highly skilled player, and he’s the kind of guy you’d give the ball to at the end of a game. Plus, it’s great to have someone like him in the locker room,” said a Western Conference executive, according to an ESPN article by Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst. “But his game hasn’t been the engine for winning, and unfortunately that’s been the case throughout his career. It’s one of the reasons he’s changed teams so many times.”
Unfortunately, the truth is that the Toronto Raptors didn’t make their final leap toward a championship until they traded him to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard. Since then, he’s only appeared in the playoffs twice, with the Spurs and the Bulls, bowing out in the first round on both occasions. Even so, he’s added two more All-Star Game selections along the way.
DeRozan is a player who primarily operates from midrange and, on paper, that seems to clash with the faster, more dynamic style the Kings have used the past two seasons. Even so, there’s still no reason to panic: the trio of DeRozan, Fox, and Sabonis outscore opponents by 6.5 points per 100 possessions in the 420 minutes they’ve shared the court.
