DeMar DeRozan News: Pro Sports Daily

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November 12

Toronto Star

columnist Dave Feschuk

"Excuse Toronto's basketball fans for their rare moment of raise-the-rafters ecstasy Wednesday night. No league championship was won. No division-winning banner was raised. But DeMar DeRozan, Toronto's rookie swingman, did jump and hang and throw down an actual, highlight-reel-worthy slam dunk at a key moment in a 99-89 win over the Chicago Bulls. And given how long it's been since the Air Canada Centre witnessed that kind of baseline-commanding statement from a high-flyer on the rise – given the Raptors' recent employment of rosters favouring jump shooters to the exclusion of high jumpers – DeRozan might as well have brought home a world freaking title."

Wright has plans to school the Raptors rookies

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October 22

Toronto Sun

"Now that forward Antoine Wright is totally healthy, the former Texas A"

Raptors' Wright anxious to unseat DeRozan

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October 22

Toronto Star

"There seems to be only one way Antoine Wright does things: to be a winner. With Raptors coach Jay Triano suggesting Wright has every chance to unseat rookie DeMar DeRozan as the final piece of the team's starting lineup, Wright isn't about to shy away from the challenge. "I don't expect to lose," the 6-foot-7 swingman said Wednesday. "Who goes into any situation expecting to lose?""

A mistake to start DeRozan

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October 21

Toronto Sun

"In a league where politics and hidden agenda rule, NBA teams are often guilty of making the wrong decision to save face. No sport is more fixated on image than the world of pick and rolls and back-door cuts. A team gets its hands on a lottery pick and feels obligated to coddle the toddler and give him the impression, in some cases the illusion, that he's the second coming of Michael Jordan. When a reputation needs mending, a team's general manager coerces his coach into playing the executive's hand-picked prodigy. As the Raptors get set to finish the pre-season and prepare for the marathon that awaits, there are many questions that remain unanswered. The team will have a tough time ..."

DeMar DeRozan a starter by default

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October 18

Toronto Star

"Antoine Wright's injury is making life easy for Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan. And that ticks off coach Jay Triano. Wright, the forward who has yet to play a pre-season game because of a swollen knee, should be making life miserable for DeRozan, who is being ceded a starting role almost by default. The coach is unimpressed by that because he wants competition for jobs."

Raptors' DeMar DeRozan proving to be quick learner

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October 12

Toronto Star

columnist Doug Smith

"The NBA pre-season is not about wins and losses or points and rebounds or even shots taken, missed or made. It is about what's known in some places as "learning opportunities" and they are coming fast and furious for Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan. In what's amounting to a nice dose of tough love from his coaching staff, DeRozan is finding himself in and out of games quicker that you can say "blown assignment" through four exhibitions so far."

Bosh ribs DeRozan

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October 6

Toronto Sun

"Raptors veteran Chris Bosh had a message yesterday for DeMar DeRozan on the eve of the rookie's very first NBA pre-season game. "Don't mess up," said Bosh, before breaking out in a big grin. "I just gave him some words of encouragement," added Bosh, of the 20-year-old, who may be the club's starting shooting guard this season. "I just told him what he already knows -- go out there and play basketball, work on our principles and be defensive-minded. (I told him) you're going to make mistakes throughout the game, so don't get down on yourself. Just play as hard as you can." DeRozan, who was picked ninth overall by the Raptors in this year's NBA draft, has been inconsistent in camp, but ..."

Raptors' mid-summer report

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August 5

Toronto Star

"DeMar DeRozan, are you ready for your close-up? When the Raptors meet in October to begin prepping for their season, no question outside of the ubiquitous Chris Bosh variety will be as pertinent to this team's fortunes out of the gate. If DeRozan can step right in at age 20 and replace the departed Anthony Parker at shooting guard, the effect could be electrifying. Parker was a solid but unspectacular presence. DeRozan, a 6-foot-7 high-flyer from Southern Cal, is the kind of athletic, above-the-rim project that hasn't been brought in around here since the 1998 draft and Vince Carter."

NBA Draft: Raptors' pick 'reminiscent' of Carter

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June 26

Vancouver Province

"It is not a name one brings up lightly in this city. Yet, eight minutes in to his nes conference after making the ninth selection in last night's NBA Draft, Toronto Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo threw it out there. "He's got the physical tools reminiscent of the player that everybody likes to say he kind of reminds them of -- and that's Vince Carter," Colangelo said of the newest Toronto Raptor, swingman DeMar DeRozan. "He's got that kind of raw, physical talent that hopefully can be honed and brought together." And with that, a comparison to the most polarizing player in franchise history, the 19-year-old is on his way to Toronto. "I think its very valid," DeRozan ..."

Raptors get athletic guard in DeRozan

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June 25

Toronto Star

"The Raptors got their man in tonight's NBA draft, an athletic freak who may breathe some athleticism back into the franchise. DeMar DeRozan, a 19-year-old freshman from the University of Southern California, was chosen ninth overall in the draft by the Raptors and will be given every opportunity to earn a starting spot next fall. The 6-7 guard-forward blossomed in the final month of his lone college season and was seen as one of the most promising players, raw but with unlimited potential, available in the draft. In choosing DeRozan, the Raptors passed on two other players they were seriously considering: 6-3 UCLA guard Jrue Holiday and 6-8 Wake Forest forward James Johnson. At 19 years ..."