In the NBA, players don’t just wake up with an extra 6 or 7 points per game in their pockets.ĭeRozan’s improvement is especially rare for a player who already scores a lot: Among all the players in NBA history who improved on their existing career high in scoring by at least 5 PPG in a season, DeRozan currently has the 18th-highest scoring average. Considering that DeRozan set a career high in scoring last season with 23.5 points a game, his sustained run at the 30-point level has been a revelation. And given how much freedom to shoot he’s been granted in the Raptors’ offense, he’ll probably flirt with the 30-PPG barrier again before the season is over. Joining that rarified club, or even coming within striking distance of it, is a big deal.īefore he had an off night against the Sixers on Monday, Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan was positioned to join that group. Not including this year’s early hopefuls - Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder - it’s been done 65 times in all of NBA and ABA history, most often by the Michael Jordans and Wilt Chamberlains of the world. If averaging 20 points per game is the traditional benchmark of the NBA star, scoring 30 a night vaults a player into another category entirely.

Demar derozan stts