Maybe it’s his quiet disposition. Maybe it’s the fact that he plays in Canada, where the most famous person at most of his games is Drake.
Whatever the case, you probably don’t really pay Demar DeRozan the attention he deserves. Until he drops 30 points on your favorite team.
It happened to the Celtics on Wednesday night. DeRozan went for 34 points as the Raptors beat the Celtics 115-109 in Toronto. It was the team’s sixth win, and the third time in those six games that DeRozan has scored more than 30 points.
The young man from Compton by way of USC is quietly having the best season of his career, averaging 22.8 points per game. He’s also averaging more assists (4.1 per game) than he has in his first six seasons. He’s still not a great 3-point shooter (27.4 points per game), but he shoots fewer than two per game, so it's not that big of a deal.
He’s the perfect star for a Toronto team that at 27-15 is just two games behind the first-place Cavaliers in the East.
So you can keep sleeping on DeRozan, but it will be hard to do so once he knocks your team out of the playoffs.