There didn’t seem to be much of a chance that All-Star DeMar DeRozan would leave the Toronto Raptors in free agency.
The team reportedly eliminated that slim possibility during the early hours of free agency Friday morning, signing the star shooting guard to a huge five-year contract worth more than $139 million.
DeMar DeRozan has agreed to a five-year, $139 million-plus deal with Toronto, sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2016
The deal can’t be officially finalized until next week. The Raptors are also going to have to shed some salary cap in order for it to be completed. But for all intents and purposes, the 26-year-old DeRozan will be remaining in Canada for at least the next half decade.
A first-round pick of the Raptors back in 2009, DeRozan has seen his game improve a great deal pretty much every season he’s been in the Association.
In 2015-16 alone, the shooting guard averaged 23.5 points 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
More of a mid-range specialist than anything else, DeRozan is one of those outliers at the guard position that doesn’t shoot from beyond the arc. In fact, he attempted just 139 three-pointers this past season.
If DeRozan can find a way to extend his shooting from that mid-range game, he will ultimately become one of the top all-around players in the entire NBA.
This was a deal Toronto needed to get done, and it did well not to let the face of the franchise linger on the open market any longer.