DeMar DeRozan named Eastern Conference Player of the Week

It's something of a pyrrhic victory for the Raptors' DeMar DeRozan to claim his Eastern Conference Player of the Week award in mid-December. While DeRozan is out there night after averaging the eighth highest number of minutes per game in the league (36.2), there's still four and a half months of season to go. Let's just hope he'll have something left in the tank for later. (And not get injured next week like he did last year; knock on wood--oh god what have I done?)

DeRozan has spent the last seven days leading the Raptors to a 4-0 week while averaging 24 points, 5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. That's all fine and good, but he also shot--hold on to your butts--a whopping 51.7 percent from the field. My friends, that is an exceedingly satisfying number. Sure, he missed all three of his 3-point attempts this past week, including one that bounced off the top of the backboard, but hey, he shot 92 percent from the free throw line. Efficiency!

DeRozan joins a short list of Raptors who've won the award, including Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, his teammate Kyle Lowry, Jalen Rose, Lou Williams and, of course, my favourite and yours: Mike James.

Who else is excited?