Maybe the Jordan Comparisons aren’t so crazy after all…
Monday night, DeMar DeRozan continued to display the excellent scoring tear he is on. Against his former team in silver and black DeRozan dropped a 40 piece and added 7 assists, leading Chicago to a 120-109 win. It was his sixth game scoring 35+ points on over 50% shooting, passing MJ for such a feat. Just two days later, the Bulls played Sacramento, where DeMar looked to eclipse Wilt Chamberlain for seven straight games of 35+ points on over 50% from the field. Sadly for the Kings, there was no way to stop this freight train. DeMar added 38 points on 59% shooting in a Bulls win. With that performance, DeRozan etched his name in the history books with 7 straight games of 35+ points on over 50% shooting.
MVP Aspirations
According to nba.com, DeRozan is currently 9th in the MVP voting. He has the Bulls rolling, and given the city of Chicago something that they have not had in a long time: hope. The Chicago fanbase of late has had to endure some pretty bad times. However, new management has taken over and now Chicago is looking like a legit contender in the East, led by their new star. Through 54 games, DeRozan has rejuvenated himself, averaging the most points per game since his 2016 season in Toronto. As a result, this past week, DeRozan won Player of the Week in the Eastern Conference. In that span, the Bulls have gone 3-1 and DeMar averaged 36.8 points while shooting just shy of 60%.
Master of the Midrange
“A lot of (opposing) teams will live with it. I look at it like, if a team will live with that, why not try to figure out how to master that?”
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) December 21, 2021
DeMar DeRozan’s midrange mastery transforming Bulls in crunch timehttps://t.co/LxDjZcyKo2
As a result of the new analytic wave that has taken over sports, many people have abandoned the midrange game altogether. Although it has been considered dead for some time now, it is steadily makings its return. In the 2011-2012 season 30.3% of total field goal attempts were from the mid-range. Now in the year 2022, that number has decreased to just 13.1% (nba.com). DeRozan in this span of seven games, DeRozan has only made four threes… FOUR. While a majority of the league has moved away from the 15-foot jumper, an elite few have mastered it. DeRozan is at the top of the bunch. Not to mention that DeRozan has made 259 midrange baskets this season,103 more than the next closest. DeRozan has brought the Bulls to back to stardom and even some memories of that “ghost” who wore 23.
