Jakob Poetl detailed the nuances of what makes DeMar DeRozan’s pump fake so effective.
DeMar DeRozan is one of the most gifted and unique scorers in the NBA today. In this era dominated by three-point shooters, the Chicago Bulls All-star is sticking to his crafty mid-range game to average over 20 points in his 14-year career.
One of the most unstoppable moves that DeRozan has in his arsenal is simple yet brutally effective —the pump fake. Toronto Raptors big man Jakob Poeltl scouted the move in preparation for their Play-in game and gave a detailed description of it.
Keeps defenders off balance
Poetl, the Raptors center who they acquired from the San Antonio Spurs at the trade deadline, knew he would have to defend DeRozan at some point. Whether it’s because of switches or rotations, the Austrian native was aware of the pump fake.
“I think it’s the timing of it,” Poetl said when asked what makes DeRozan’s pump fakes very effective.
“The pump is most effective when you get a defender out of position. First, because then he feels like he needs to catch up with you and then might oversell on a shot contest or something, and so that’s really how you get people, is when you make them feel like they need to catch up to you and he does a good job with that, with changing up his rhythm,” Poetl continued.
Defender is at DeRozan’s mercy
Ultimately, Poetl said DeRozan cannot be handled by just one defender because he’ll make even the most disciplined defensive specialist pay.
“Then also like he might pump fake you two or three times, and you can stay down, and he’ll still like kind of like take a weird rhythm shot. Like that’s probably not easy for a lot of people, but for him, is very effective. So like, you might think you’re taking him out of his rhythm because you made him pump fake three times, but he’ll still knock that shot down.”
Poetl and the rest of the Raptors tried to be at their defensive best to limit DeRozan’s effectiveness. While the Raptors had multiple defensive options, almost none of them were able to stop DeRozan.
