DeMar DeRozan Sure Is Talking Like A Guy That's Looking To Join A Super Team

A few days ago there were reports that both Kyle Lowry and his best friend DeMar DeRozan were interested in re-joining forces next season as both are currently unrestricted free agents. You heard all the normal teams be rumored whenever big names hit the market. This was the first I've heard him talk about his future though, and it does seem like he's already laying the groundwork to doing what he can to hop on a contender. Ring chase if you will. Well, let's take a look at who he might be talking about. If we were to go to the Barstool Sportsbook and see the top 5 teams in terms of title odds for next season, we get this list

1. Nets

2. Lakers

3. Bucks

4. Warriors

5. Suns

Even if you wanted to extend it a little further, you get teams like the Jazz, Sixers and Mavericks. Chances are DeRozan is talking about one of those top 4 teams, but the thing is all of these contenders are pretty much already at the luxury tax. Nobody is going to be able to offer him close to his current $27M salary, which is why I found those quotes about the money interesting. Just looking at that list you can cross off a lot of them based on what their rosters already look like. With all these contenders near the tax, you're talking about DeRozan playing for the taxpaying MLE ($5.8M) if he joins any of these teams. For someone like the Lakers you may be thinking sign and trade option, but there are also reports they are looking to flip Kuzma/KCP for someone like Buddy Hield, so that would make a S&T for DeRozan pretty difficult. I'm not sure the Spurs want anything to do with Dennis Schroder since they already have two young point guards on the roster. 

The question then becomes, would DeRozan get killed like other star players for going home to LA and joining the Lakers as another super team? It's a tricky situation seeing as how he's been in the league forever but could never get over the hump, and if a guy is going to take that massive of a paycut to go home, I wonder how that gets perceived. Of course joining the Lakers will always bring some hate but for the most part you get the sense that DeRozan is well liked. 

Assuming Kawhi doesn't leave the Clippers and Paul stays with the Suns, DeRozan is one of the bigger names in free agency. Especially unrestricted free agency. That's guys like DeRozan, Lowry, Fournier, Conley, Otto Porter Jr, Will Barton etc. It'd be pretty crazy to see one of the bigger names play for a fraction of his market price just to hop on the LeBron bandwagon. 

If that were to happen though, I think we can all agree that this dream of the NBA moving away from super teams because Giannis won a ring is just that. A dream.