DeMar DeRozan: (Literally) Taking a Step Back During Kings Winning Streaks

The Sacramento Kings are rolling under Doug Christie with 10 wins in their last 11 games.

There are many reasons for the recent winning streaks, from Christie galvanizing the players, Domantas Sabonis continuing his career year, and Malik Monk thriving in his starting role, but a shift from one of their best players has quietly taken place over the last handful of games.

DeMar DeRozan is widely known as the king of the mid-range. Between the turn-around mid-range jumpers and his pull-up shots in the paint, it's the key talking point for anyone dissecting the six-time All-Star's game.

But over the last nine games, DeRozan has taken a few (literal) steps back and is shooting the three-ball at a rate we haven't seen in years.

In the last nine games, DeRozan has attempted 41 three-pointers, good for an average of 4.6 per contest. That's the most threes he's taken in a nine-game span since March 4th-18th in 2018 when he was on the Toronto Raptors.

For additional context, over the first 29 games of this season, DeRozan took a total of 60 shots from beyond the arc (2.1 per game).

He's more than doubled his looks from deep. And it's not just that he's taking more, but making them at a 36.6% clip over the last nine games, compared to 30.0% over the first 29 games.

DeRozan began the nine-game stretch with seven three-point attempts against the
Memphis Grizzlies, something he's only done 15 games in his career. As a reminder, DeRozan has been around for a while, with 1,211 career games between the regular season and playoffs.

We just don't regularly see this type of shooting from DeMar DeRozan, and it's paying off for the Kings.

In the nine games, the Kings have an offensive rating of 119.8, which would rank second in the season rankings to only the 36-7 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Sacramento's offense is so potent that defenders are forced to help on De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Malik Monk. One of those avenues to helping clog the lanes used to be sagging off of DeRozan.

DeRozan not only taking more threes but making them at a higher clip opens up so much more for the Kings' offense, and it's no wonder they've catapulted up the standings. Time will tell if this is a mid-season anomaly or a trend that's here to stay. But for now, there's no question that the results are working for a surging Sacramento squad.

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