Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan is about to make NBA history

After being named Eastern Conference Player of The Week for his efforts last week, Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan continued his excellent season on Monday in the team’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

In the Bulls’ victory over the Spurs on Monday night, DeRozan had 40 points on 16-24 shooting against his former team. For DeRozan, Monday night marked the sixth consecutive game in which he had 35+ points on at least 50% shooting. DeRozan has now reached a rare company in the NBA.

The Bulls are set to play the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday ahead of the NBA All-Star break and that will be an excellent opportunity for DeRozan to make NBA history.

What DeRozan has done with the Bulls this season has been incredible. DeRozan is having a career year at the age of 32. Through 54 games this season, he is averaging a career-high 27.9 points per game to go along with a field goal percentage of 51.5%.

For the Bulls, this is the best individual season they have had from a player since the days of Michael Jordan. There is no question that DeRozan is having an MVP-caliber season and if he continues this trend in the second half, there is no doubt that he will get MVP consideration once the season ends.

In a season where the expectation was that Zach LaVine would emerge as the alpha in the Bulls’ locker room, there is no question that the team would be lost without DeRozan and that he has become the leader of the team.

Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan could make NBA history on Wednesday.

This was the plan that the Bulls had in mind when they completed a sign-and-trade with the Spurs to acquire DeRozan this past summer but even they could not have expected the veteran to be this great.

One thing is clear, DeRozan certainly was not the worst offseason move this past summer as some originally suggested when the signing was first announced:

"Yikes. You could argue that Young, who will cost $14.2 million next season, contributes more to winning than DeRozan. It’s at the very least debatable, which just further shows how poorly Chicago mismanaged the summer’s worst signing."

For the record, Thaddeus Young is averaging 6.0 points per game this season on 57% shooting. While Young’s numbers are impacted by the fact that he was not a part of the Spurs’ rotation this season prior to his being traded to the Toronto Raptors, it is certain that the veteran would not bring the same value to the Bulls this season that DeRozan has.