Unraveling some of the finer points of the offensive skill set of the four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan always makes for an interesting analysis. DeRozan is one of the most unique talents in the NBA today and he’s having quite the resurgence this season with the Bulls.
Through 34 games played this season with the Bulls, DeRozan is having a bounce-back campaign that is putting him in the realm of an All-Star starter, All-NBA Team selection, and potentially an MVP contender. He ranks in the top 10 in points per game, total points, free-throws made, and in the top 20 in win shares, win shares per 48 minutes, and player efficiency rating.
And the fact that the Bulls currently sit in first place in the Eastern Conference standings ahead of the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets just makes DeRozan’s impact on this team that much more impressive so far this season.
Where DeRozan is really standing out for the Bulls this season is with his ability to create offense seemingly out of nowhere. He brings a very unique skill set to the table that combines insane footwork and court vision with an amazing midrange shooting ability.
Before getting into any of the numbers here, it’s very obvious that DeRozan can create his own shots and is an extremely lethal shooter from the midrange. As we work through the numbers, though, we get deeper into the interesting parts about where his game is trending.
There is one stat that clearly shows how independently DeRozan can operate on offense this season.
According to Cleaning the Glass, DeRozan only has around 28 percent of his field goals assisted this season. That places him in the lowest percentile in terms of percentage of field goals assisted among all players this season.
A lot of those unassisted field goal makes for DeRozan can be explained by the fact that he works out of iso looks so often. He averages around four iso possessions per game, good for top 15 in the NBA this season. In those roughly four iso possessions per game, DeRozan is averaging around 4.5 points. That is good for top six in the NBA.
DeRozan is also very effective in iso looks so far this season. According to NBA advanced stats, DeRozan ranks in the 86th percentile in terms of his efficiency in iso looks this season.
What is even more interesting regarding DeRozan’s frequency of unassisted field goal makes is just how often he creates his own shot from deep inside the arc. He takes more than 39 percent of his field-goal attempts from deep two-point range. That is good for the highest frequency from that range of any qualified player in the NBA this season.
It’s hard to argue with the results he’s produced with this type of distribution in his shot chart, though. DeRozan ranks in the top 15th percentile in terms of shooting percentage from deep two-point range (north of 46). He also ranks in the top 20th percentile in terms of shooting percentage from the midrange in general, hitting his looks from that range at a clip around 50 percent.
However, none of what I’ve detailed so far is a huge adjustment in DeRozan’s game compared to the prior few seasons. Where he really transformed his game was at the beginning of his run with the San Antonio Spurs a few seasons back, where he started to become an insanely effective creator and facilitator of the offense from inside the arc.
What has changed, though, is the ability of DeRozan to really be an insanely efficient shooter from deep two-point range and from certain spots beyond the arc. So far this season, DeRozan is taking a career-high 30.7 percent of his field-goal attempts from 10-16 feet from the rim. He’s also taking a career-high 10.8 percent of his field-goal attempts from beyond the arc.
He’s also hitting his shots from both of those ranges at career-best marks. He’s shooting 55 percent from the field on attempts between 10-16 feet from the rim. And he’s shooting a career-best 35.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan is changing the narrative behind his shooting efficiency this season
It looks like the two major keys to DeRozan becoming more effective from those ranges are his shooting locations and the moves he’s making to create space from deep two-point range.
First and foremost, DeRozan is taking a career-high number of attempts from beyond the arc this season from the left corner and above the break. Those are by far his two most effective spots shooting from beyond the arc. He’s hitting his looks from the left corner at a mark of around 50 percent and from above the break at a mark of around 39 percent.
Meanwhile, he’s hitting his looks from the right corner from three-point range at a clip of just 22 percent.
This trend is something that shows up in bits and pieces in prior years with the Spurs and Toronto Raptors. The Bulls are just taking more advantage of those shooting locations for DeRozan this season.
And where DeRozan is excelling in terms of his ability to hit his looks from deep two-point range at a career-best clip of 55 percent this season largely stems from the bag of moves he’s got in his arsenal. DeRozan is on pace to take nearly take a career-high percentage of his two-point field goal attempts this season in the shot style of a turnaround fadeaway, fadeaway, and turnaround jump shot.
With DeRozan having the ability to dig into his bag of tricks to create his own shots, he’s able to find more room to get open and find his groove. And that’s providing some really solid results so far.
For example, DeRozan is hitting his fadeaway jump shots at an efficient mark of 53 percent this season. And he’s hitting his turnaround jump shots at an insane clip of 65 percent this season.
All in all, following the trends and allowing DeRozan the freedom to really dig into his offensive arsenal in terms of footwork and moves to get open space to find his spot from the field is something that has paid dividends for the Bulls so far this season. DeRozan really is flipping the script in terms of the way he’s finding his shot compared to year’s past.
DeRozan and the Bulls are off to a solid start this season, sporting a record of 26-11 after having a lengthy winning streak snapped by the Dallas Mavericks last weekend. The Bulls are set to face the Detroit Pistons in a makeup game at home on Jan. 11.