Fantasy Basketball 2012: DeMar DeRozan DeDominating

Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan is off to a great start in the 2011-12 season. He has scored 20-plus points in each of his past two games and three of his past five.

In his past game he hit a career-high five three-pointer. Not just a career-high for a game, it matched his career high for a season. DeRozan hit a combined nine three-pointers in his first two years in the league. He’s already topped that number at ten.

DeRozan made a big scoring leap last year, going from 8.6 ppg as a rookie to 17.2 ppg. His playing time increased by 13 minutes so the increase was to be expected.

So far DeMar has played slightly fewer minutes than last season, but that won’t be an issue.

DeRozan is a scorer. He is athletic and he just has a knack for getting the ball in the hoop. Given his athleticism, he’s not a particularly good rebounder. In fact, his current pace of 4.0 rpg is a career high. Don’t expect a large amount of assists either. That’s not his game.

Until this year he was a two category player. He could give you scoring and a nice field goal percentage. Not that it’s not enough to have a guy that’s been an 18+ scorer since the calendars turned to 2011 last year, but his added three-point touch is a fantasy game-changer.

Suddenly he’s giving you three categories, plus his decent rebounding numbers and improved free-throw shooting (84.0 percent), making him more valuable than most of us thought he’d be.

I would not recommend trying to “sell high” on him. I think there is more to come from DeRozan. In fact, I’d do the opposite and see if you can get him at a reasonable price.

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