DeRozan Having One of the Worst 3 Point Shooting Seasons Ever

[Built Ford Tough]

Found this on RealGM.

 

College stats don't always project smoothly to the NBA, but DeMar DeRozan's three-point shooting has held up.

 

Unfortunately.

 

DeRozan, who made just 6-of-36 three-pointers (16.7 percent) in his lone season at USC, has been quietly putting together one of the worst three-point shooting seasons in NBA history. With six games remaining, DeRozan has made just 4-of-41 three-pointers (9.8 percent). Just 10 players have posted worse three-point-shooting seasons (minimum: 30 three-point attempts). Here are the 20 worst three-point shooting-seasons in NBA history:

 

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1628

 

http://www.sonicscentral.com/images/110405_derozan_1.jpg

 

He has only attempted around 70 threes combined over his first two seasons, so at least he knows he isn't a good shooter and still chucks up shots, but this is definitely the area of his game that needs the most work and will determine whether he will ever be more than just a solid complimentary player in this league. You can't be a shooting guard in this league without the ability to at least keep the defense honest from downtown, let alone be a complete liability from beyond the arc.

 

He is a known gym rat and made tremendous improvements on his mid range jumper from his rookie to sophomore season so there is definitely hope for him to add a respectable 3 point shot. I'm not saying that he is going to become Ray Allen or anything like that, but I can see him shooting around 30-35% from deep during his prime, assuming he works on his three point shooting.

 

It is pretty remarkable how he has averaged around 20 points for the 2nd half of the season despite the fact that he has no three point shooting ability and a relatively weak handle. He could really become a dangerous scorer if his mid range game continues to develop and he improves these three areas of his game to be at least average.

 

He definitely has some flaws and he will likely never develop into a franchise guy, but I do like what I see in terms of the future for him, assuming that he puts in the work required to improve on his weakness, which I have no doubt that he will.

[Real Deal]

Something to note, though, and sort of related to what you said about him knowing he's not a good three-point shooter: he has only five games attempting three a game, and that's the season high in attempts for him (2-15 in those five games, by the way).

 

And, just for kicks...that chart above shows the bottom 20. Jordan attempted 53 threes in 1987-88, shot 13.2%.

 

Also, Magic Johnson went 0-21 from three in the 1982-83 season.

[Dash]

If he can get his percentage up to a respectable 30% next season then I think he will be fine. Its not much but at least teams will consider him somewhat of a threat.

 

And this may be a bit off-topic but how has his defense been this year? I always thought he put a good effort in defending (sort of like Kevin Martin, he tries but he's still terrible, not saying that their defensive games are similar because DeRozan is much better than he is defensively) and he has the frame and size to be decent defensively.

[Built Ford Tough]

If he can get his percentage up to a respectable 30% next season then I think he will be fine. Its not much but at least teams will consider him somewhat of a threat.

 

And this may be a bit off-topic but how has his defense been this year? I always thought he put a good effort in defending (sort of like Kevin Martin, he tries but he's still terrible, not saying that their defensive games are similar because DeRozan is much better than he is defensively) and he has the frame and size to be decent defensively.

 

Pretty bad. I think he was better defensively last year as a rookie in comparision to this season. Even though there were times when he got absolutely torched last season, at least he looked like he was giving it his all every time. This season there have been times when he has clearly been coasting on the defensive end.

 

He has the length and athleticism to be a solid defender, but he has been pretty lazy defensively this season. His biggest problem on the defensive end is that he is absolutely terrible at fighting through screens. Almost every time a pick is set on him, his man will get open and DeRozan will be too slow to recover. In terms of straight one on one defense has has shown flashes of being average to above average at times this season, but he really needs to work on the ability to get through screens as he is probably one of the worst players in the league at this regard.

 

Of course, a large part of his defensive struggles can be attributed to the Raptors defense as a whole. Guys like Amir Johnson, Reggie Evans, Andrea Bargnani and Ed Davis don't exactly strike fear into opponents when driving into the paint (although Davis has the potential to be that type of guy) and defense starts from the inside out. That still doesn't excuse some of the lackluster efforts he has given on that end of the floor.

[Check my Stats]

I am not really concerned about it at this point, the improvement in his game (offensively) from first to second year alone is really all I need to know. He has great mechanics on his shot, he just needs to get to the gym with our shooting coach, which he has already said he plans on working on his 3 point shot, and work on his spot up 3 point shot.

 

He already knows he has things to get better at, and is willing to put in the work, that is why I love this kid. He could easily just sit on his talent and probably get by and be in the league for 10 years, but he wants to be better than that.

 

You had only attempted 46 three-pointers in the first 78 games. Is that the next part of your game that you want to expand?

 

DD: Oh yes, definitely. It will come through time. I really don’t stress about it. Because once it comes, that is another part of my game that will develop. Will work on that this summer a lot and come back ready next year.

 

Honestly his 3 point shooting isn't even my biggest concern, because I am already concerned with the number of jumpers he is taking, he needs to stay in attack mode, that needs to be his bread and butter, the 3 point shot just needs to be a small part of his repertoire, not something he relies on.

 

Also, I attribute defense to coaching. The kid is athletic, he has mediocre lateral quickness but there is no excuse for his defense being less than mediocre. That is an accountability issue imo, I have seen games where Demar has looked really solid defensively, but Triano (maybe indirectly thanks to BC) lets him and Bargs, and pretty much everyone, off the hook for shit defense.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Check my Stats

[Buckets!]

DeRozan is going to be a beast. Get that 3 point shot he'll start to average 26 PPG mininum.

[Built Ford Tough]

^^^ A little optimistic, don't you think? I'd be shocked if DeRozan ever even came close to averaging 24 a game, let alone 26. He will probably peak at around 20-22 points a game, but even that may be a bit high as it depends on the type of players around him during the Raptors rebuild.

 

A nice article on DeRozan's mechanics changing when he steps beyond the arc and why this is something he needs to work on this offseason.

 

http://blogs.thescore.com/raptorblog/2011/04/12/demar-and-the-mechanics-breaking-down-his-three-point-shooting-form/

 

 

You might remember Hopla from his previous stint as a Raptors assistant coach during the 2006-07 season and you can now find him at davehopla.com where he promotes his camps, videos, his “Shooter’s Club” and an upcoming shooting app. Here is Hopla’s take on DeRozan’s three-point shooting form:

 

First of all DD doesn’t shoot a lot of 3’s, it is an area that he definitely needs to improve upon. From what I’ve seen, DD is inconsistent with his footwork from the three-point line. His feet are never the same, sometimes his feet are too close, other times they are too wide. Also at times, he is not aligned with his target. Then on his finish, sometimes he drops his hands, sometimes just his balance hand drops and then when he does freeze his follow-through he has a tendency to finish low with his elbow finishing below the eyebrow. His finish should be upwards and the elbow should be fully extended above the eyebrow, when a shooter does this, he gets good arc on his shot and is not a line drive shooter.

 

Because I feel like my job is to simplify this stuff as much as possible, let me put it this way: DeMar’s three-point shooting mechanics are all messed up. Pruiti, who writes for his own invaluable NBAPlaybook.com blog while also contributing to The Basketball Jones, Basketball Prospectus, SB Nation and probably a bunch of other places, saw similar mechanical issues with DeRozan’s form but seems to be optimistic that he can improve:

 

I think he can improve his shooting at least to the level of his long two-point shooting. The reason why I think that is he basically has the same form up with his upper body (whether that needs improving or not, it is hard to tell. He does have success with it from two), with him taking the ball way over his head and letting it go.

 

The problem I have seen with DeRozan is with his lower body, specifically his tendency to float forwards on his shot. What I mean by that is instead of jumping straight up and down, DeRozan jumps out. The other problem with this is that he does it very inconsistently, he’ll jump like five feet forward on one shot and a foot forward the next. It is really hard to adjust things like how much arc, spin, and strength you are putting into a shot when you are inconsistent with your motion (that is why Ray Allen’s borderline OCD helps him so much during shooting). If DeRozan hits the front rim on one shot, he doesn’t know how to adjust.

 

Since he’s shooting from a longer distance, it might be acceptable for DeRozan to have slightly different form on shots beyond the arc compared to mid-range shots — but he clearly needs to have his three-point shooting mechanics fine tuned so he can develop a consistent form and stroke. Like many disciplines in sports — whether it’s hitting a curveball, throwing a deep pass in football or hitting jump shots and free throws — one of the keys to success is concentrating on controlling your body so that your arms, legs and head move in-game the way you learned in practice. When you consider his impressive ability to control his body on drives to the basket and his reportedly strong work ethic and desire to improve, there’s no reason to believe that DeRozan won’t make significant improvements in his long-range shooting — with the right coaching, of course.

Edited April 13, 2011 by Built Ford Tough