Last week DeMar DeRozan put up 46 points versus the Indiana Pacers to give the Chicago Bulls an overtime victory of 132-129. The Bulls have been hovering around for that chance to land the final spot in post-season or a chance at a whatever the NBA is doing things in today’s post-season format. DeRozan has been in the NBA for 15 seasons with three different organizations. With those 46 points, DeRozan passed up three players on the All-Time NBA points list in one game. Those players are Elgin Baylor, Dwayne Wade, and Adrian Dantley. DeRozan has tallied up 23,242 points which now is good for number 32nd all-time in NBA history. DeRozan by the end of his career may be in the top 20 on the all-time scoring list. DeRozan is a player who can create his own shot and he can put points on the board. He has longevity in the league playing at a high level at 34 years of age. However he’s always been in the wrong place at the wrong time in his NBA career in terms of chances to win championships.

Demar DeRozan was drafted by the Toronto Raptors in the 1st round of the 2009 NBA draft as he was 9th overall out of USC. DeRozan played his first 9 seasons with the Raptors and he earned the nick name Mr. I’Am Toronto. During the summer of 2018, DeRozan was traded to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Lenard. Lenard was the final piece of the puzzle for the Raptors to win their first ever championship in 2019. DeRozan, before going to San Antonio, played with some pretty good Raptors teams that were pretty close. He would find out the hard way in 2019 with the addition of Lenard that was the key to that championship. Usually San Antonio is a pretty good place to play with guys like David Robinson and Tim Duncan, winning championships who are now Hall of Famers. The Spurs have long time head coach Gregg Popovich. The Spurs won their first championship in 1999 as they won 5 total. In 2003, 2005, 2007, and finally in 2014. During DeRozan’s time in San Antonio for three seasons, it was dark times for him mentally. He was dealing with his father’s sickness. Then the passing of the man that brought him into the world. Mentally DeRozan was trying to find his NBA game, his perspective in life and what everything meant. He was obviously shell shocked with the trade from Toronto, a place he thought he was going to play his entire NBA career. Then the Raptors winning it all has to have a person second guessing everything like a break up with your first love. The feeling is naturally that it’s the end of the world . The sky is falling kind of shit.

After three seasons in San Antonio, Demar DeRozan would find a new home in Chicago wearing a Bulls uniform in the 2021-22 season. The Spurs and the Bulls would make a deal that would bring DeRozan to the Windy City. The Bulls gave DeRozan a nice long term contract to play with Zach LaVine. The Bulls had a new front office in place with a veteran coach working the side lines in his second season, Billy Donavan. The Bulls added a nice free agent pick up in Lonzo Ball. With Ball on the court, the Bulls were 22-13. Ball’s season would end with an knee injury. Ball had a torn meniscus. He has not returned to the court since that season as they even tried cartilage transplant in the knee. His career is most likely over. The Bulls finished the 2021-22 season with a 46-36 record and made the post-season for the first time since the 2016-17 season. The Bulls were the 6th seed and lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. If Ball was healthy, the Bulls may have had a higher seed and could have avoided Milwaukee in that first round. The next season the Bulls record was 40-42 and they qualified for the play in tournament in attempt to make post-season. The Bulls would beat the Raptors but lose to the Heat the next game which ended their season.

In 2015, the Chicago Bulls needed a guy like DeMar DeRozan, a guy who can create his own shot along side Derek Rose in his hey day. That year the Bulls made it to the conference finals as they played Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bulls played King James tough but Cavaliers prevailed. The Bulls are probably not going to make any noise in the Eastern Conference even if they make the post-season this season. The team has some of the same cast as the 2021-22 team. Zach LaVine is being paid superstar money and has not been Superman-like on the hardwood. DeRozan seems like the entire offense on most nights when the Bulls battle teams and win. They’ve shown they can beat good teams and lose clunkers to the bottom feeders. Not sure what this franchise has to do to fix this team. Most likely gut the team and start over in another rebuild. Maybe DeRozan finds that championship attempt with another team. Could DeRozan still be the scoring machine with others like himself that can score points on a playoff caliber team that can get deep into post-season? I think he can still get his share point on either a good, bad, or just ugly NBA team. He should easily creep up on the NBA scoring list as next in line is Hall of Famer Robert Parish with 23,334 points. Stephen Curry is still playing and is climbing the scoring list as well. He is ahead of Parish. DeRozan can also pass up another NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley by next season as he has 23,757 points. DeRozan could land on the mailman’s list Karl Malone. One of the best at delivering points to the basket but not winning a championship as Sir Charles Barkley is definitely on that list as well. I know the Chicago Bulls and just sports in Chicago in general. The Bulls will not be able to find the right pieces to give DeRozan a deep playoff push. He will have to leave town if he wants a ring. Maybe he will stay in Chicago until the end of his career and just keep doing what he does hovering around the 8th spot in the Eastern conference. At the end he may be in the top 20 all-time scoring list and a chance at the NBA Hall of Fame. When he leaves Chicago or retires from the game, I bet any money we will have another guy that can play well. We will suggest we need another guy like DeRozan that can create his own shot with the next player the Bulls build around.