ABSTRACT

DeRozan attended Bryant's summer Basketball camp and will be only NBA player to wear Laker star's signature shoe

The Toronto Raptors aren't exactly sure what role DeMar DeRozan will play when they break training camp and begin the regular season.

But the high-flying rookie from the University of Southern California has already been stamped 'approved' by NBA royalty.

The final negotiations were still being done yesterday, but DeRozan said he expects to be signing an endorsement deal with Nike and more significantly will be the only NBA player this season to wear the signature shoe of Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers star and reigning NBA Finals most valuable player.

"That's great, that's big, being able to wear one of my favourite player's shoes," DeRozan said yesterday as he sat in the bleachers at Carleton University where the Toronto Raptors are holding training camp. For the second successive day Hedo Turkoglu (knee) and Chris Bosh (hamstring) were idle, leaving more work for the remaining group.

DeRozan is glad of it as he works to get up to speed. He is hardly awed by his surroundings, though. His connection with Bryant stems from his days working at the Laker star's Basketball camp. He scrimmaged with Bryant for the first time as a 16-year-old heading into Grade 11; not bad for a kid from Compton, the inner-city Los Angeles suburb.

"He's actually a really good guy when you get to know him," said DeRozan, who has maintained a casual relationship with the Lakers star, either working for him at his camps or occasionally working out with him; often attending Lakers games and visiting with him.

It's the presence of the likes of Bryant and the NBA's other dominant wing scorers across the NBA that made drafting DeRozan a priority for the Raptors. The healthy dose of athleticism he brings should make the Raptors a better transition team in the short term and could pay dividends defensively against the game's top scorers as DeRozan develops.

Toronto was thrilled to get him at the ninth spot and hopes he can progress in his first professional season in the same way he did during his first and only season at USC.

One of the most highly sought recruits in the United States, DeRozan was considered a mild disappointment when he didn't instantly average 20 points a game like his predecessor - current Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo - did in his one year for the Trojans.

But his rapid improvement toward the end of the season caught the eye of the Raptors as he averaged 13.9 points and 5.7 rebounds on 52.3-per-cent shooting for the year, and averaged 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds over a four-game stretch to end the season that included the semi-finals and finals of the Pac-10 tournament - he was chosen the tournament's most valuable player at the Staples Center, no less - and the first two games of the NCAA tournament.

Similarly, his NBA Summer League stint started slowly, but DeRozan improved steadily.

When you're 6-foot-7 and have a 40-inch vertical jump superlatives tend to flow fast and loose, but most significantly DeRozan also has adjectives like patient, mature and thoughtful follow him around.

He opted not to get caught up in his own hype when he arrived at USC, a program that has experienced its share of scandal - his coach Tim Floyd had to step down after revelations he paid off those close to Mayo to land him - and instead focused on improving his game.

"I really started maturing," he said. "I started watching film of myself, film of other players, studying, trying to get the advantage on the next player and the next team so I know going out there what I have to do and what they like to do. You hear about how great players prepare and that's what I wanted to put in my game."

His shooting is a work in progress. After practice he's been doing a drill with development coach Eric Hughes in which he catches passes sitting in a chair and then stands up into his shot to incorporate his lower body better. As of now he's got some excess arm motion and the result is an obvious weakness on shots 18 feet and out.

Raptors head coach Jay Triano has options at shooting guard. He can go with Antoine Wright for defence or Marco Belinelli for offence, while Jarrett Jack offers a little of both, but, long-term, the Raptors hope DeRozan makes the position his own, although he appreciates DeRozan's willingness to listen and learn.

"We'd like him to have an impact right away because it would help our team to have that athleticism," Triano said. "But at the same time we don't have extremely high expectations of him right away, but we expect him to grow into a solid NBA player, for sure."

At the very least he's got the shoes.?