DeMar DeRozan’s Potential Return Would Require a Different Version of the Raptors Legend
· Yahoo Sports
For years, DeMar DeRozan represented the face of the Toronto Raptors. If he ends up back in the city this summer, though, the role waiting for him would look nothing like the one he left behind.
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That shift is really what sits underneath the growing noise around a possible reunion. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers are all showing interest in the six-time All-Star. At the same time, multiple experts have linked DeRozan back to Toronto as a legitimate possibility, in theory opening the door to a return to the franchise where his NBA story began.
When DeRozan last suited up for the Raptors, the offense ran through him in a very direct way. He was the primary scorer, the late-clock answer, and one of the most heavily used wings in the league. This version of Toronto is built differently. Scottie Barnes has stepped into the center of everything, Kawhi Leonard is expected to handle a large share of the closing possessions if his trade becomes official, and Darko Rajakovic’s system leans heavily into spacing, ball movement, and generating threes rather than isolations.
DeRozan remains one of the more reliable shot creators in the league, putting up 20.3 points per game on 48.6 percent shooting across his two seasons in Sacramento. The production is still there. The style, though, hasn’t changed much. He still operates primarily in the mid-range, still prefers to work with the ball in his hands, and still tends to settle into a rhythm that comes from touches rather than off-ball movement.
The Raptors don't necessarily need another player to dominate possessions. They do need another scorer capable of settling an offense when transition opportunities disappear. That was one of the reasons Leonard became such an attractive addition in the first place. DeRozan could address that same issue in shorter stretches without carrying the same nightly workload.
The question becomes whether both sides are comfortable with that version of the relationship.
Toronto’s roster is still on the younger side, even as expectations start to shift upward in the East. Collin Murray-Boyles, Ja’Kobe Walter and Allen Graves are all projected to be part of the rotation, and Rajakovic is essentially trying to fast-track a group that’s moved from “interesting” to “we should probably take this seriously” in a fairly short window.
That’s where the conversation around veteran presence starts to matter a little more than it did even a season ago.
Part of the appeal in a potential DeRozan return is less about what he does on the floor and more about what he brings into the room. Garrett Temple’s voice is no longer in that space, and that kind of steadying influence doesn’t just get replaced automatically. Leonard, for all his accomplishments, has never really been a vocal tone-setter in the traditional sense. DeRozan, on the other hand, has lived through just about every version of NBA basketball over the last 15-plus years, from rebuilding years in Toronto to playoff runs in multiple stops since.
That kind of experience tends to show up in small ways over the course of a season, especially for a team still learning how to handle the weight of expectations when the games start to matter in April.
Of course, none of that erases the basketball questions that come with it. DeRozan is 36, his game still leans heavily on the mid-range, and he’s not the type of defender Rajakovic can plug into any lineup without thinking through the matchup on the other end. Those limitations don’t disappear just because the fit is familiar.
Even so, if Toronto does seriously revisit the idea, it probably won’t be framed as a sentimental move or a return to what once was.
It would be more about whether the Raptors believe DeRozan still has enough left to help shape what they’re trying to become now, not what they used to be.