Bulls: B/R’s Top 100 once again an insult to DeMar DeRozan

Fresh off a career-best season and All-NBA Second Team selection, common sense says this would be the year DeMar DeRozan has finally earned the media’s respect and dispelled the narratives that have followed him his entire career. Things won’t be so easy for the Chicago Bulls star forward, however, as Bleacher Report seems to think he has work yet to do on that front.

In their top 100 player ranking for the 2022-23 season, B/R’s panel of analysts had DeRozan ranked as the 34th best player in the NBA. This is certainly not the worst ranking he could have received, as we all saw last year, but it still feels egregiously low given his recent performance.

Averaging 27.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game, DeRozan was one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the league last year. That didn’t go unnoticed by all of the panel members, as one had DeMar ranked as highly as the 12th-best player in the NBA. Only Zion Williamson and Anthony Edwards received a higher ranking from a panel member while still missing out on the top 20.

Directly ahead of DeRozan, we have three players he should be better than (on paper, at least) next season with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, LaMelo Ball, and Chris Paul at 33rd, 32nd, and 31st, respectively. Other highly-ranked forwards include Khris Middleton (29th), Pascal Siakam (28th), and Edwards (26th).

Bleacher Report seems to have learned nothing from last year, after once again criminally underrating Chicago Bulls star forward DeMar DeRozan.

If we’re accounting for just next season alone, I think it’s difficult making a case that any of those players outside of Siakam and maybe Paul will be more impactful than DeRozan for their teams next season. SGA, Edwards, and LaMelo are each gushing with potential, but they’re simply just not at DeMar’s level yet.

Here’s what B/R had to say to justify his spot here.

"“In his age-32 campaign, DeMar DeRozan set a career-high for points per game at 27.9. What’s really made him a problem since the start of the 2018-19 season, though, are his improvements as a passer and willingness to play as a nominal 4.”"

Since this excerpt offers no criticism of DeMar’s game, it appears B/R is banking on DeRozan to regress to the mean and decline with age. As we’ve seen with LeBron James, CP3, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry in recent years, however, advancing into your later 30s is hardly the death sentence on a player’s career that it used to be ⁠— provided their game depends on skill rather than athleticism.

For that reason, I fully expect DeRozan to outperform these low expectations once again next season. The same goes for his teammates Zach LaVine, who ranked 27th on this list (still behind Edwards, despite being a far superior player), and Nikola Vuvevic who comes in at 66th.

Perhaps most egregiously of all, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso miss the top 100 list outright. It’s fair to discount Ball’s impact this year with his expected long recovery from injury, but if all goes according to plan should be back and very clearly belongs somewhere in the 60-80 range. As for Caruso, there’s no way I can be convinced that 100th-ranked Jordan Clarkson is a more positively impactful presence than the Caruso. You can argue as to just where he belongs on the list, but belong on it he most certainly does.

This is just the latest instance in a long series of articles published by the media that discount the Chicago Bulls’ chances this year. Even after an outstanding improvement of a season, the Bulls will still enter this season as underdogs. In the end, that may not be such a bad thing.