Ok – I’ll admit that the title you probably read was made for the purpose of click-whoring. I don’t actually think DeMar DeRozan is better than Indiana Pacers ‘superstar’ Paul George, however the fact that this comparison is about to be written shows how far DeRozan has really come.
Let me start off by saying that George is not actually a superstar, contrary to popular belief. Having 0-9 shooting games against the Bobcats simply can’t happen if you want to be called ‘elite’. I would say George is a top 10 player in the league – the question that remains is, how close is DeRozan?
Let’s compare some stats for this season.
DeRozan: 22.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.9 APG, 43.4% FG, 80.7% FT, 30.1% 3PT
George: 22.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 3.5 APG, 43.4% FG, 86.6% FT, 37.2% 3PT
From that alone, George is the better player slightly. He brings more rebounding to the table. is a more reliable FT shooter and is a better three point shooter (which shouldn’t be a surprise). With that being said, DeRozan is actually averaging more points than George, and any argument that ‘George is on a better team’ can be discounted because A) they are shooting the same in terms of FG% while both averaging 17.3 and 17.4 shots per game respectively B) George has less defensive pressure because of his great team around him. Going back to the free-throws, DeRozan also averages nearly 2 more FTA per game than George. Thus, I would argue that DeRozan is at the very least on par, if not better than George offensively while being a worse rebounder.
Getting into advanced stats such as PER, DRtg, Win-Shares, etc all value George slightly more than DeRozan because he is a better player. George has a PER of 20.8, DRtg of 96, and a whopping 9.1 Win-Shares. DeRozan trails with a PER of 18.8, DRtg of 106, and 6.6 Win-Shares. These metrics value stats such as rebounding, 3PT %, and points allowed defensively – elements that George possesses the upper hand on.
Defensively, George is still miles ahead of DeRozan. It’s hard to argue against George being a great defender, however DeRozan is still making strides in that area. Dwane Casey has emphasized the fact that DeRozan’s defensive IQ has gotten significantly better, and as he continues to grow it’s apparent he will only get better.
To conclude this mini-post, DeMar’s growth has allowed us to make a legitimate argument for him as a top-10 player in this league. An improved 3PT shot and defensive presence would make him a near-elite talent, and Bryan Colangelo must be smiling right about now because he got this man on a bargain and a half . His team is winning pretty much due to him and Kyle Lowry, and he’s led the charge of bringing the Raptors back to relevancy.
6 thoughts on “Comparing Superstar Paul George To DeMar DeRozan”
What if I told you Paul George was overrated.
First off your are talking like it is easy to a elite defensively player, demar does not have the lateral quickness while Ross does. Demar has NOOOOO ball handling skills that is what he needs to work on most. He can’t beat anyone off the dribble, amir & Jv set billions of screens to get him open and set more for him to get a shot off. I can talk about more defiences in Demar’s game but i ain’t got time. George struggles sometimes cause he needs to work on mid range game, plus stephsson is the one with the the ball majority of the game, facilitating the game.
PG is also a poor ball handler and for a guy so heavily praised does a lot of dumb things with the ball that aren’t fundamentally sound. I love me some PG but he really needs to tighten up his TO issues to become truly elite.
Saying Demar has no Ball handling skill is false, he proved during the skill challenge that he had some skill, not elite, but it isn’t transperent either.
How do you calculate defence when you are just putting offensive stats in the mix. Demar isn’t half the defender George is.
You sound pretty foolish for writing this. Don’t care how long ago it was. If you were a good judge of nba talent you’d know that stats don’t mean anything in the short term. It was clear from day 1 (when they were both drafted) that paul george was a vastly superior player on both ends of the court and also had a much, much higher ceiling.