Chicago Bulls: DeMar DeRozan already putting one narrative to bed

The biggest narrative around the Chicago Bulls this offseason was how they just wouldn’t work. They didn’t fit on offense. They wouldn’t play enough defense. All of these were written about extensively as they continued a full-on rebuild that began at the trade deadline the season before.

Perhaps no other theme was as well-publicized in that light as DeMar DeRozan’s being, not just a bad signing, but the worst of the offseason.

After all, the Bulls were somewhat bidding against themselves. Right?

Except is it bidding against yourself when the goal is to get a player to buy into what you’re selling? Especially when there is little in the way of a recent track record to back up the claims of prominence in the future should they sign.

That is where Arturas Karnisovas and the rest of the organization found themselves.

Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan has morphed his game and is shutting down narratives

DeRozan has been vocal about what led him to sign in Chicago. There’s no need to revisit that. Just know it was an all-around appeal that has a lot to do with what we are seeing from him now. But there was still the outside pushing the narrative that he wouldn’t play well alongside Zach LaVine.

Through six games, DeRozan second to LaVine with 23.7 points power game on 44.7 percent shooting. He’s also averaging 5.5 boards, 4.3 assists to just 1.7 turnovers, leads the team in free throws per game, and has the second-highest plus-minus behind Lonzo Ball.

Perhaps more surprisingly is he is shooting 30.0 percent on 2.2 threes per game.

For a career 28.1 percent shooter from deep range on 1.5 attempts, it is a modest but somehow still monumental tweak to his game that is paying dividends for him and the Bulls late.

In clutch situations this season, DeRozan leads the team with 2.5 points on 57.1 percent shooting while LaVine is at 2.0 on 66.7 percent. Even more impressive is neither has attempted a single three-pointer.

That means in clutch situations when the defense knows who the ball is going to and what they want to do with it, the Bulls duo is getting to their spots.

With a 5-1 record, and his 32 points on 59 percent shooting against the Utah Jazz, it is also safe to say they are making opponents pay.

Each of the Bulls ‘Big 3’ had eight points in the fourth quarter.

DeRozan’s reputation for “shrinking in the moment” came from the many exits the Toronto Raptors suffered at the hands of one LeBron James and his team-du-jour. But that was always a flawed logic that somehow saw Kyle Lowry come out looking better once he won a ring.

This despite being the one who couldn’t stay healthy for one of Toronto’s playoff appearances and fading himself in another.

Of course, in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately industry, the only thing that mattered was the four straight losses in his final run with the Raps and how, over the final two games of that run, DeRozan averaged 10.5 points on 34.8 percent shooting.

Lowry had five points on 28.6 percent shooting in the last game. It was also the point guard that missed the final two playoff games the year before. But it didn’t matter.

Then he won a ring the following year, cementing his and DeRozan’s legacies to a lot of people.

Now, after toiling away for three seasons with a transitioning San Antonio Spurs team, DeRozan is back doing what he did for nearly a decade prior, being one of the best offensive weapons in the Eastern Conference.