Like the Bulls as a whole, DeMar DeRozan is struggling efficiency-wise.
The king of the midrange and fundamentals, rarely does DeRozan struggle like he has to start this season. Through 15 games thus far, DeRozan is averaging 21.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per contest. But that's not where the rough patches lie.
His shooting splits are 44.3/35.1/81.3, all of which are below his career averages except his 3-point percentage, which has been quite impressive for his standard this season. To make matters worse, his true shooting percentage for players who average over 20 points per game is the second-worst mark in the league, according to StatMuse.
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This season, DeRozan is working with a 53.9% true shooting percentage. That's nearly two percentage points under his career average and well below the 59% and 59.2% he finished with in his first two seasons with the Bulls.
Don't know what true shooting percentage is?
Here's how John Cragen explained true shooting percentage in 2021: "Think of it this way: TS% assesses how well your player performs any time one of his possessions ends in a shot attempt (including free throws)."
Here's the formula: TS% = Points(1/2) / FGA + .475 FTA
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In essence, it gives you a lens into how a player performs in the totality of the floor from an efficiency standpoint, encompassing all facets of shooting metrics. For simplicity, DeRozan is struggling to shoot efficiently from the floor.
Why? That's where the real question lies.
But it's clear the struggles --- individual and team --- are both frustrating DeRozan. Here's what he said after Friday night's loss against his former team, the Toronto Raptors.
"I can’t fake it. I’m beyond frustrated. And I think it’s rightfully so as a competitor," DeRozan said. "Everybody in this locker room is frustrated. It’s from a good place of being a competitor and wanting to figure it out that badly. Put a couple of wins together. I really truly believe that can shift everything for us.
"We gotta challenge ourselves. We can’t have those spiritual talks. We gotta challenge each other to leave it all the way out there," DeRozan said. "That’s a good thing to be challenged. Ask something of yourself more than you ever have at this point, myself included. That’s where we’re at."
The Bulls have found themselves in an extremely difficult spot. Now 5-12, they have the third-worst record in the entire Eastern Conference. On Friday, they were eliminated from advancing to the knockout stage of the NBA's In-Season Tournament, standing 0-3 in group play.
Where do the Bulls go from here?
"There’s enough here. It’s just about finding that right combination for it to hit on all cylinders consistently," DeRozan said. "It just seems like we’re kind of all over the place. We’ve showed spurts. We gotta figure it out. It sucks. It’s frustrating. We all hate losing. We hate being in the position we’re in, digging ourselves a hole. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We have to figure it out.
"We can do it. That’s why I’m so frustrated. It’s not like we’re playing against the '96 Bulls every single night. We can compete with and beat anybody. It’s just a matter of from the tip ball to end, playing the right way, putting the IQ in the game, understanding what we need to do and how hard we need to do it. We gotta figure it out."