By every measure, DeMar DeRozan is having a career season in his first year in Chicago. We’re near the All-Star Break, and the 32-year-old is enjoying a career-high in points (27.9) and his second-best shooting percentage (51 percent), all the while taking almost 20 shots a game. DeRozan has been the one consistent bright spot on a hobbled Bulls squad tied for first in the East. Yet, something is missing. Something isn’t quite right.
(Looks around)
Where’s the MVP love?
Despite being the inarguable best player on the arguable best team in the East, DeRozan’s current MVP odds from Tipico Sportsbook are almost criminal. Right now, DeRozan is +3000 to win MVP, which would place him behind Devin Booker and Chris Paul and Ja Morant and Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.
Some of those are understandable. Embiid might be having one of the best seasons by a big man in decades. Giannis is also still Giannis. That’s fine, and all well and good.
But Booker and Paul, on the same team? Really?
The Bulls have basically played without two starters (Lonzo Ball, Patrick Williams, plus their Sixth Man (Alex Caruso) all season. Under normal circumstances, Chicago would be more in contention for the play-in games, or worse, rather than a shot at homecourt advantage throughout the entire postseason. They’re only in a comfortable position expressly because DeRozan refuses to let them wilt—especially as of late.
Two 40-burgers and six straight games with over 35 points on over 50 percent shooting — something the great Michael Jordan himself never did.
DeMar DeRozan last 6 games:
40 PTS | 67 FG%
38 PTS | 50 FG%
35 PTS | 64 FG%
36 PTS | 68 FG%
38 PTS | 59 FG%
45 PTS | 60 FG%That’s the longest streak of 35-point games on 50% shooting in Bulls history. MJ never did it. pic.twitter.com/h5d4ovgS9B
— StatMuse (@statmuse) February 15, 2022
The list of players who have managed that 35+ and 50 percent shooting mark is also quite extensive. It goes:
- Wilt Chamberlain
- DeMar DeRozan
Players in NBA history with 35+ points on 50% shooting in 6 straight games:
— DeMar DeRozan
— Wilt ChamberlainIf DeRozan gets one more, he’ll set the record. pic.twitter.com/5Bfb60sFbN
— StatMuse (@statmuse) February 15, 2022
The Bulls aren’t exactly blowing teams out either. Chicago is 20th in the league in defensive rating without stoppers like Caruso and Ball around. Instead, they’re outscoring, outlasting, and really, surviving while exclusively leaning on DeRozan’s killer instinct to close. A 19-point fourth quarter for DeRozan against the Spurs is but one emblem of that set-up.
DeRozan has been so proficient at keeping the Med-Bay Bulls afloat that he also leads the league in win probability added–a measure of how many wins a player has added to his team in correlation with the number of “clutch shots” they make. And it’s not even close. He’s ahead of other superstars.
By far. Well over even Embiid, Jokic, and Giannis.
A yawning chasm separating DeRozan from everyone else on this chart. https://t.co/mDl1OUiLhG pic.twitter.com/sSHuXjHaY3
— Mike Beuoy (@inpredict) February 15, 2022
So why all the spurning and frowning from the betting market on DeRozan’s MVP chances? Are the Bulls, who aren’t healthy in the least, not yet taken seriously? Have guys like Embiid and Morant simply been better on better teams? Probably, to both!
But that doesn’t mean we should bury this masterclass of a year by DeRozan to the point he’s not even in serious consideration for the NBA’s most prestigious award. Where DeRozan stands is flat-out disrespectful of the work of a man enjoying a Red Renaissance.
Oh well, I guess he’ll have to drop another 40-burger or three. Maybe that’ll get the message across.
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