The 19-year-old forward from the USC Trojans, a projected top-10 pick, is one of several top prospects that have opted to go it alone during pre-draft auditions.
"I felt like coaches get the chance to see everything I’ve improved on without paying attention to other players, their whole focus is on me," DeRozan said on his decision to go solo.
DeRozan is an athletic player who’s one of the draft’s most-hyped prospects.
The Raptors, given the option, would have loved to have seen DeRozan work under some sort of game conditions, even though they had scouts and front office personnel see him a handful of times in the college season.
But they didn’t get that option yesterday and getting him in the gym, even alone, was worth the effort.
"I guess that’s the agents trying to protect their players a little bit. The top guys would normally do that, we’ve seen that with him and (Arizona forward Jordan) Hill and (Connecticut centre Hasheem) Thabeet and all those guys projected to go in the top five, six," said Masai Ujiri, Toronto’s assistant general manager of player personnel.
Ujiri said he needs to work on his shooting, but sees in him a bit of Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala, Portland’s Travis Outlaw or Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace.
“Those are guys we kind of compare him to, athletic guys in the beginning, they were crazy athletes, but the game was yet to be put together,” Ujiri said. “I think those guys have put their games together. He has to work on a couple of things, but I think he’s a great athlete, a great kid.
“It almost always pans out. They work hard, it might take a couple of years, but I think he grows into being a good player.”
9. Toronto Raptors - DeMar DeRozan SG/SF
19 years old, 6?7?, 207 lbs.
USC, Freshman
Remember, if the Raptors choose to jettison Shawn Marion and spend their cap space on someone else, they would also surely lose the following — Anthony Parker, Joey Graham and Carlos Delfino.
So the option of re-signing Marion, should be considered Marion plus potentially those three plus the possible use of the MLE against the one $7.2-to-$9.2 million signing.
9. Toronto Raptors: DeMarr DeRozan, SF, USC – With Anthony Parker and Shawn Marion headed for free agency, the Raptors need an athletic wingman to fill the void. DeRozan really came on at the end of last year and showed some of the promise he had coming out of high school. I am not sure how the move across the border would affect a guy who is always been in the Southern California area. DeRozan is fairly raw still, but should get a good amount of playing time next year. Other possibilities: Holiday, Gerald Henderson, Earl Clark.
Which brings me back to the explosive and athletic Gerald Henderson. The former Blue Devil would immediately upgrade Toronto’s athleticism while giving them solid defender who still has plenty of upside. He could easily develop into a Richard Jefferson type player. Henderson flashed his all-around game last year with Duke; scoring 16.5 PPG, grabbing 4.9 RPG and dishing out 2.5 APG.
He still needs to work on becoming more consistent with his jump shot and his ball-handling, but he has the skill-set to excel in both of those areas.
Former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell played 10 seasons for the Wolves and is one obvious candidate. He is considered more of a disciplinarian than a players’ coach, but center Al Jefferson said McHale was both of those.
"He was the type of guy who could communicate with you and also, if he was upset, he would get in your face, too," Jefferson said. "Most definitely I think it’s good to have a coach like that because some of us players are knuckleheads and some of us need a coach that is going to really get down on them and get in their face. … I think we need both of that."
Mitchell didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday, and Kahn insisted that the process of finding a new coach
Australia’s men’s basketball team, the Boomers, will begin its first training camp for 2009 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra tomorrow.
The Boomers will be without the services of 208cm Toronto Raptors power forward Nathan Jawai until possibly Sunday due to a stomach ailment.
The Raps newly appointed Assistant Coach joins Jack and the always witty Doug MacLean to talk about how is hiring came to fruition and what Reggie Evans brings to the team.
12 Raps
Is that chair on sale anywhere?
I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Raptors Dreamseat Leather Recliner from the ESPN Shop. (Note: $1400 with S/H)
http://www.espnshop.com/catalog/productdetail.cfm?model_nbr=92656&sku=68226475&SID=6196&inceptor=1&cm_mmc=SEM-_-Feeds-_-Bizrate-_-null
Based on Ujiri’s quotes in the Globe, DeRozen is looks like a good pick at #9. Even though his agent has created a red flag by not allowing him to take part in competitive workouts, everything being reported lately says he’s got a great attitude and a true desire to work on developing his game.
DeRozen seems to be more like Rudy Gay than Gerald Green.
i dont think jawai is gunna make the NBA next year, its like he thinks hes good, he should be practicing @ a big-man camp or some shit..im living in Australia right now, if i see him im gunna tell him to get his Oliver Miller ass back 2 toronto before they cut him.
A while ago everyone said that this draft isnt that deep but i think it looks pretty good 1 through 15….we haven’t had a draft pick in what seems like years. Is this draft good or am i just delusional because we haven’t had a first rounder inna bit…
what do you guys think?
I think this draft is weak on potential superstars but strong on role players who could develop into marginal all-stars. That was the same overall opinion about last year’s draft class too.
But with every draft class, each has to be given 3-4 years to accurately assess who’s earned a contract renewl and who’s going to be living off their rookie contract for the forseeable future.
You say its weak on potential superstars right? If we do draft Derozan he has the POTENTIAL to become a superstar. You have to remember he was hyped comeing out of highschool as the next “big thing”, but so was Tyreke Evans.
Through all his workouts coaches have said he has a great work ethic, and loves to play D. If he likes to play D and can play it well, he can be a beast on that alone just because of his size and athletism alone.
If NBA executies feel DeRozen and Evans have superstar potential I expect they’ll be off the board before our pick.
rubio and griffin are very likely to become allstar calibre
evans harden and derozan have allstar potential.
players like hill and thabeet have a ton of upside(could throw bj mulens in the mix)
upper teir pg material out the ass in the draft(flynn, lawson, jennings, curry, teague, holiday, it don;t stop)
wings out the ass with borderline allstar/starter potential (t will, gerald henderson, budinger, sam young,
earl clark/johnson hybrids
i think this draft is going to be much better then advertised a few years down the road.
It’s hard to really say with young, ahtletic guys like that.
I mean, you’d have to assume NBA executives knew Kobe Bryant had superstar potential. Same with Amare Stoudemire. Some guys slip not due to a lack of superstar potential, but due to the belief that they may not fill that potential for whatever reason.
From what I’ve heard, Evans and DeRozan (Evans especially) do have that superstar potential, but are higher risk picks than James Harden or Stephen Curry because their games are less developed at this point. So if these two put the work into improving, either of them could emerge as a top 3 player out of this draft class. Of course, either of them could be buried on the bench within a couple seasons as well, a la Rodney White, another superstar potential guy who got picked at 9.
I think the safest pick would be Gerald Henderson, but top-10 picks chosen on the basis of a prospect’s potential ceiling.
He’s my favorite wing if Tyreke and Derozan are gone…. he doesnt fit our system/needs but if Brandon Jennings does slip outside of the top 10 like projected I have to feel like teams are going to be kicking themselves over it in a year or two…