DeMar DeRozan was seen as one of the worst signings of the offseason by many major sports pages and analysts. He’s been silencing all that talk with his recent play.
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In a new era of Bulls basketball, DeRozan’s signing was definitely the flashiest, marking the first time the Bulls signed a player of his quality during free agency since Carlos Boozer. However, many people questioned how he would fit alongside Zach Lavine.
After all, their play styles are very similar. They’ve both been used to being the number one option on their teams and are scoring-heavy guards, not the ones you’d expect to play seamlessly along with each other.
Well, so much for that take. DeRozan is having one of the best years of his career, and he’s powered the Bulls to a strong 10-4 start in a year full of expectations.
DeMar DeRozan has to have the Los Angeles Lakers rethinking their offseason
The Bulls guard is thriving in the Windy City, much to the delight of a fanbase that has been starved for relevance in recent memory. However, there was a real chance we would have seen DeRozan back in his hometown, spotting the Lakers storied purple and gold.
All offseason long, DeRozan made no effort to hide his desires to go to LA. After all, he it is his hometown, and he grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant. It made too much sense for him to land there.
At least for him. The Lakers did strongly consider DeRozan, but ultimately, working out a new contract with him proved to be too difficult. However, it is important to note that DeRozan was willing to take a paycut to play with the Lakers. Los Angeles then honed in on either Buddy Hield or Russell Westbrook, ultimately going with the former MVP, a move that’s been under the microscope ever since the season started.
“I felt like going to the Lakers was a done deal and that we were going to figure it out. I was going to come home,” DeRozan would say to Yahoo Sports. “The business side of things just didn’t work out. A couple of things didn’t align. It didn’t work out. It’s just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well.”
Facing the Lakers on Monday night, DeRozan made sure to treat LA fans with a show, showing them what they could have had. It probably wasn’t personal, DeRozan doesn’t seem like that kind of a guy, but you could tell he was playing with a slight chip on his shoulder as he lit up the Lakers for 38 points and 6 assists on 15/23 shooting.
Westbrook didn’t even play terrible, his play that game wasn’t truly indicative of how his tenure with LA has been so far: subpar. The Lakers have limped to an 8-7 start (yes, LeBron is injured) and Westbrook still hasn’t meshed with the team the way LA envisioned he would when they traded for him.
It’s also safe to say that there’s no guarantee DeRozan would be playing the same way he is with the Bulls had he been a Laker. In Chicago, he’s either the primary or secondary ball handler and scorer. In LA, he’d be third behind LeBron and AD. The Lakers also don’t have the spacing the Bulls currently have which would have meant tougher looks for DeRozan.
Nobody knows how it would have worked out, but right now, Lakers fans have to be wondering what they could have had in DeRozan after his hot start to the year.
Lonzo Ball keeps up his hot shooting form, year after year development continues as him and Alex Caruso keep the Bulls defense on point
Lonzo’s playmaking and defense was probably the biggest reason why Chicago went after him this offseason, but a now very underrated aspect of his game happens to be his best: his shooting.
When Ball came into the league, people knew he could shoot the ball decently well, but they didn’t have high hopes for him entering the NBA. Most of those concerns stemmed from the fact that his shooting form itself was really wonky.
Those concerns showed itself in the NBA as his first couple of years in the league, his three point percentages were under 33%. Now, he’s a knockdown, lights out shooter. His three point percentage is the highest its been in his career at 44.4%, marking the fifth straight year he’s improved in that category.
It’s not like he’s barely shooting either. His 7.1 three point attempts game is one of the higher marks in the league, and it’s higher than his teammate Zach Lavine’s mark. Zo has committed to making his mark felt from the outside, and so far, the results have been phenomenal.
Lonzo had the best game of this season against the Lakers as he finished with 27 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds on 7 of 10 shooting from beyond the arc.
When Patrick Williams went down with a wrist injury, people worried that the Bulls already thin front court defensive depth would suffer tremendously, making them vulnerable. That hasn’t been the case as Alex Caruso and Lonzo have kept up their stinginess.
Alex Caruso ranks third in steals per game while Lonzo comes in at third. Together, they’ve compensated for the lack of a paint presence by being handsy at the point of attack and closing out hard on shooters. It’s effort over size or talent. Lonzo and Caruso also force an incredible amount of deflections, forcing teams to reset their offense more often than not. Their play has the Bulls ranked third in defensive rating in the league.
Zach Lavine and the Bulls continue to weather the storm in tough stretch
Although more of the attention recently has been on DeRozan’s, dare I say it, MVP-like form, Zach Lavine has continued to be consistent as the reliable scoring threat he’s known to be.
The Bulls have needed his consistency in the middle of a tough slew of games. The Bulls started the year 6-1, but one of the biggest concerns people had was that they hadn’t played particularly good teams.
However, the Bulls have now beat the Lakers, Clippers, Mavericks, Nets, Jazz, and Celtics, proving they’re more than just pretenders. They still have a ways to go though as the Warriors humiliated them. However, the Bulls have certainly solidified themselves as playoff contenders to say the least.
They face the Portland Trailblazers today and the Denver Nuggets on Friday to round a five game home stretch. If Chicago continues to stay hot and wins these two, there’s no telling how high they could climb.
