Getty DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls addresses the media during NBA All-Star Weekend 2023 in Salt Lake City.
Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan has often been described as something of a throwback, a designation he earned with his mid-range mastery. This season, the 33-year-old has taken exactly 60% of his shots from 10 feet away from the basket on out to the three-point line, and he has a conversion rate of over 47%.
For comparison’s sake, a 34-year-old Michael Jordan took just under 61% of his shots from this range and was similarly in the mid-40s during his final championship season with the Bulls in 1997-98.
This isn’t the only throwback aspect of DeRozan’s game, though. In an era where load management reigns supreme, the baller has missed just five games this season, and he has never appeared in less than 60 games in any individual season throughout his career.
As such, it should come as no surprise that DeRozan gave a decidedly old-school (hardcore might be the better word) response when asked about a games requirement for MVP candidates as part of an informal poll at NBA All-Star 2023 in Salt Lake City over the weekend.
Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan Thinks Players Should Appear in Nearly Every Game to Be MVP-Eligible
At All-Star Media Day, hoops scribes from The Athletic posed a series of questions to 22 different players, including some All-Stars and others who participated in the Saturday Night festivities. DeRozan was one of those who were probed for their thoughts.
When asked what kind of games-played requirement he’d enact (if any) for MVP honors, the Bulls star took things back to the “rub some dirt on it” approach of ’70s and ’80s.
“All of them. All 82… Minimum? 78,” DeRozan answered.
For the record, Jordan appeared in all 82 games during the aforementioned ’97-98 campaign, a year in which he also took home the MVP trophy. Using DeRozan’s criteria, he also would have been eligible during his four other MVP seasons in 1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1995-96.
These days, however, MVP winners are playing less games during the regular season. Obviously, the pandemic has affected things more recently, but the last time a league MVP actually appeared in 78-plus games was when Russell Westbrook took home the trophy following the 2016-17 season.
The most common number given for The Athletic’s poll was 62.
Star players missing games and/or being load managed was hot topic at All-Star Weekend, where NBA commissioner Adam Silver pushed back on the idea that players are taking it easy.
“Sometimes, to me, the premise of a question as to whether players are playing enough suggests that they should be playing more — that, in essence, there should be some notion of just get out there and play,” Silver said, via ESPN.
“Having been in the league for a long time, having spent time with a lot of some of our great legends, I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.”
Bulls’ Starting Five Gets Rated Poorly in League-Wide Ranking
Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey went deep on starting lineups on Wednesday, dropping his ranking of every opening five-man crew in the Association. And despite the combined number of All-Star appearances within the group and its positive net rating (they’ve outscored the competition by 1.9 points per 100 possessions), Chicago’s first-teamers ranked just 25th out of 30 teams.
Wrote Bailey:
The Chicago Bulls are among the NBA’s most disappointing teams this season. The absence of Lonzo Ball has a lot to do with that, but the first five are actually still winning their minutes…
Generally speaking, though, good teams win those opening minutes by more. And a bad offense that doesn’t generate enough free throws or get extra possessions with offensive boards doesn’t give the bench enough of a cushion to win games.
Top honors ultimately went to the Golden State Warriors.