“The mid-range game of DeMar DeRozan is made for Playoffs!”: JJ Redick breaks down the skillset of Bulls MVP, calls it the best weapon to win it all

DeMar DeRozan’s mid-range abilities give Chicago Bulls a much higher chance to make a deep Playoffs run, believes JJ Redick.

DeMar DeRozan has been incredible in his 13th year in the league and is easily an MVP candidate. His mid-range dominance on the court is something that has made him one of the best players in the league, and Chicago Bulls – a top title contender from the East.

In the first game back from the All-Star break, the 5x All-Star continued being clutch and otherworldly from the mid-range. He took the Bulls over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night, by hitting a go-ahead and-one jumper with 15 seconds remaining.

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That three-point play gave the Bulls a cushion to win the game, and they did so with a narrow 112-108 win. This game not only piles upon the proof of his clutch abilities to win a game but also his ability to be a killer from the mid-range.

And one of his strongest admirers from the start of the season believes that ability is one of the best skills to have in the arsenal to take your team deeper into the playoffs.

JJ Redick believes DeMar DeRozan’s mid-range game is built for PlayOffs

Former Clippers star and ESPN analyst JJ Redick knows what he is talking about when he says the mid-range game helps you the most in the Playoffs. Being a 3-point shooter himself nobody understands it better than him, that most things do not go as well in the post-season as they do in the regular season.

On his podcast “The Old Man and The Three”, he explains how DeRozan’s skill set is the best for the Playoffs.

“As we have seen in the playoffs recently, whether it was Kawhi’s run with the Clippers or with the Raptors, Devin Booker and Chris Paul last year, certainly Anthony Davis, Jimmy Butler (in 2020), like you need guys that can operate in the mid-range, in the playoffs.”

Until now DeMar has attempted more mid-range shots than combined attempts of Booker and Paul, which is insane if you think of it.

“So much of the playoffs comes down to match-up hunting and creating off the dribble, all the easy stuff – the flow offense, that doesn’t always work in the playoffs, in fact, it rarely works, and so you need a guy like DeMar. I am not going to say Bulls are these or that, but he makes them the contender in the East.”

He certainly does. DeRozan finished with 37 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists on 15/21 shooting from the floor and 2/3 from downtown, in the playoffs type game against the Hawks. He has now scored 35+ points in 8-consecutive games, two games short of Michael Jordan’s franchise record.

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Doing all of it with most of the team’s core players out injured and still maintaining the best record in the East makes Deebo the best player in the league at the moment.

And he would much rather want to keep killing it and take the Bulls as deep into the playoffs as possible, rather than win an MVP and get an early exit.