Raptors success be damned, I just want DeMar DeRozan back

A lot has been said about homecomings this offseason. Kyle Lowry retiring a Raptor, Kawhi Leonard in limbo, but ostensibly one step away from joining the team. However, all this talk about the greatest Raptors has left me feeling like there’s something missing. And that’s because my favourite Raptor of all-time might potentially be back on a squad, facing off against his greatest rival in LeBron James. And I’m here for all 82 games of it.

DeMar DeRozan has had a long NBA career that has, frankly, been characterized by unfortunate flame-outs in Toronto, unrealized team potential in Chicago, and being traded away from the Raptors in exchange for Kawhi Leonard and our championship. In many ways, I feel that this is the Faustian bargain or original sin of the Raptors, that we had 20 years of stars wanting to leave, and we traded one of the only stars that wanted to stay so we could win. But now, things are different, and it looks like we might be able to have our cake and eat it too.

Earlier this month, Shams Charania reported that DeMar DeRozan was waived after the Kings couldn’t trade him, meaning that their most reliable scorer would be hitting the open market, and potentially, making his way back to Canada. Insider Jake Fischer has suggested that this certainly could be the case, with DeMar on a veteran’s minimum potentially heading either North to Toronto or South to South Beach.

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DeRozan has always been adamant about his love for Toronto, and I believe that if he had never been traded, he’d never have left the team. And I think now, the best thing for both parties here is to get DeRozan back – ideally off the bench – and try and make a push for a championship. Toronto would be a crowded place for him, with Kawhi theoretically slotting in at the 3 ahead of DeRozan. Kind of like moving into your ex-wife’s basement while she lives on the main floor with her new guy. But, I believe that professional maturity will win out, and DeMar could successfully embrace a reserve role and do very well in it. I like DeMar for a lot of reasons. The guy is California Cool. He’s played in the Michael Jordan archetype, dropping in middies and dunks that scratches the old-school itch for me. He’s upfront about mental health, and wrote a damn good book on the subject. And he reps Toronto better than maybe anyone else ever has.

Bill Russell said it best: “What these young bloods have to understand… that this game has always been, and always will be, about buckets.” And Toronto does a lot of things really, really well. Defending, passing, playing team basketball. But when it comes to getting buckets? Sometimes, that just doesn’t seem like a priority for us. The whole point of getting Kawhi Leonard is doing just that, getting someone to score and do the heavy lifting our guys can’t quite do. And from a bench perspective, DeMar DeRozan might be the best guy for that. Our most productive bench scorer was Sandro Mamukelashvili, who averaged 11 points in 22 minutes. I find it hard to believe that with him and Gradey Dick gone, Demar couldn’t give us at least 15 off the bench and be a real flamethrower. Since 2011, DeRozan has made his living off of being able to score, and even at 36, he can still do just that.

For me, this isn’t just a basketball decision. It’s a morale pick: it’ll be good for the fans and good for the city to have a star from the days of a real, entrenched culture of Raptors Basketball to be back. I’m not suggesting we go back to We The North; those days are long gone. But, DeRozan still has gas left in the tank, and to have him get one last chance to team up with Lowry, to play actual meaningful basketball (sorry Kings), and to have a chance to exorcise his demons on the hardwood would be a really great thing for everyone involved. But, the matter that now looms over a potential DeRozan return is the new reality of the old wolf of the Eastern Conference, LeBron James, back in his old hunting grounds for at least 2 more years.

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I am not someone who wants to sit around defending the Raptors’ playoff collapses of yore, but we were being quite simply outmatched and outclassed by what the Akron Hammer in his prime was doing. And now, we seem to be staring down the barrel of the most loaded Philadelphia team that’s been assembled since 1983. LeBron James has been the kryptonite of the Toronto Raptors, and of DeMar DeRozan at that. But, at the same time – James is getting older, and would not be feasting on a young Raptors squad. Rather, he’d be facing off against the team he lost his 10-point streak against, a team that would be adding Kawhi Leonard, a player he famously doesn’t like to play against, paired with Scottie Barnes, for some of the most suffocating forward defence in the league. All that’s been said by the front office about assembling a real two-way team is going to be put to the test in the crucible that is Philadelphia this year. But, with a good enough team around him, it’s entirely possible that DeMar DeRozan could use his talents and make it to the NBA Finals, and past LeBron James, finally closing a chapter in a book written in blood, that is shamefully titled “LeBronto.”