{"id":129832,"date":"2025-03-21T01:27:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T05:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=129832"},"modified":"2025-03-21T01:27:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T05:27:02","slug":"kings-midrange-king-demar-derozan-25k-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/21\/kings-midrange-king-demar-derozan-25k-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Midrange King Hits Major Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It might be a long time before fans get to see another player like Sacramento Kings swingman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/derozde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DeMar DeRozan<\/a>, who became the 27th player in NBA history to score 25,000 or more career points during his team\u2019s loss to the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>At a time when the 3-ball has changed the way the sports is played and analyzed, the six-time All-Star has resisted the revolution, sticking to his guns. In fact, when DeRozan nailed the shot that got him past the threshold of his latest milestone, it was a midrange bucket.<\/p>\n<p>His shot. The one that defined an entire era. The one that was popularized by NBA icons like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jordami01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanko01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kobe Bryant<\/a>, two players that the 35-year-old is known to have immense respect for.<\/p>\n<h2>Kings Midrange King DeMar DeRozan Hits 25K Milestone<\/h2>\n<p>In 2024-25, DeRozan is averaging 22.2 points per game, his 12th straight season averaging at least 20 points per game. Though he\u2019s only averaged over 25 points per game twice in that span, his durability and remarkable consistency have allowed him to surpass Hall of Fame players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/birdla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Bird<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wadedw01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwyane Wade<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/iversal01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Allen Iverson<\/a> in all-time scoring.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud835\udfd0\ud835\udfd3\ud835\udc0a &amp; \ud835\udc02\ud835\udc0e\ud835\udc14\ud835\udc0d\ud835\udc13\ud835\udc08\ud835\udc0d\ud835\udc06 \ud83d\udcc8<\/p>\n<p>DeMar DeRozan tallies his 25,000th all-time career points! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7aU7ReIgV0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7aU7ReIgV0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SacramentoKings\/status\/1902933125111664831?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A quick and catlike scorer, Iverson averaged 28.9 points per game from 1998-99 to 2007-08. However, the 11-time All-Star fizzled out after that, his play and health declining. Similarly, Wade averaged 27.0 points per game from 2005-06 to 2010-11. Yet, the 13-time All-Star\u2019s body began to deteriorate due to wear and tear. Bird\u2019s abbreviated career are well-documented. Even with chronic back issues, the three-time NBA MVP averaged 27.3 points per game from 1983-84 to 1987-88.<\/p>\n<h3>Different Breed<\/h3>\n<p>Iverson was more athletic than DeRozan. This gave him an advantage over him offensively. Yet, and perhaps because he needs less grease on his wheels, the effects of aging didn\u2019t affect DeRozan\u2019s game much as Iverson\u2019s. He\u2019s far less likely to blow past a defender these days. In fact, he\u2019s scored on a career-low seven dunks in 2024-25.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, similar to Wade, he\u2019s able to pull out <em>ol\u2019 reliable<\/em> \u2014 the midrange jumper. His footwork and touch could be on the same level as Wade\u2019s, if not better. He certainly has a slight height advantage over Wade. In any case, this has served him extremely well, as he\u2019s converted 45.4 percent of shots he\u2019s taken 10-16 feet away from the rim for his career. If he can establish position closer to the basket he\u2019s even better, shooting 46.9 percent 3-10 feet away from the rim.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The only active player with 25,000+ PTS and under 1,000 career 3P: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GF8Gdkza7Z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/GF8Gdkza7Z<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StatMuse (@statmuse) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1902931531674317143?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He might not be able to shoot like Bird when he gets beyond the arc. He hasn\u2019t had to though. To be frank, it\u2019s a clear limitation that can be disadvantageous. Even still, DeRozan has just 112 fewer career points than Golden State Warriors guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a>. Considered the greatest 3-point shooter of all-time, Curry was drafted two spots ahead of DeRozan.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It might be a long time before fans get to see another player like Sacramento Kings swingman DeMar DeRozan, who became the 27th player in NBA history to score 25,000 or more career points during his team\u2019s loss to the Chicago Bulls. At a time when the 3-ball has changed the way the sports is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":129839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1608,25,16,62,3,13],"tags":[122,350,296,455,48],"class_list":["post-129832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-heat","category-nba","category-news","category-76ers","tag-allen-iverson","tag-demar-derozan","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-larry-bird","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129841,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129832\/revisions\/129841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}