This Summer in Free Agency: DeMar DeRozan

 DeMar DeRozan completed his 7th season with his Raptors falling to the Clevland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 6 games. He has spent all his career representing the 6ix but is now a free-agent with a player option, which he is likely to opt out of to sign a well-deserved max contract. He is a star in this league, but his play in the playoffs is too often inconsistent and he is yet to even win the Eastern Conference.

DeMar is going to be a big name this offseason which many teams would like to get their hands on. An athletic, versatile scorer who lacks a decent touch from the three-point line, DeRozan will be offered from many teams but it is rumored that his mindset had always been with Toronto. It is basically a tug of war between the Lakers and Raptors. Here is a case for them both:

Los Angeles Lakers

THE GOOD: Born and raised in the Compton area, DeMar had been a huge Lakers fan growing up. He loves it in L.A and the market is attractive to any free-agent. Not only do you play in Hollywood, but you have an excellent fan base who have stood by the team through the thick and thin. And with Kobe retiring, DeRozan will be the clear-cut leader of this team. It is a relatively young team, but has a lot of promise. D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Jordan Clarkson seem to be the future of the Lakers and have gelled well on many occasions. They even have the 2nd overall pick in the draft this year who will end up in either Brandon Ingram or Ben Simmons (Depends who gets picked first) and have a solid chance of making the playoffs with DeMar on the team.

THE BAD: Even though he plays for his home team, he leaves a good situation in Toronto. He goes to an inexperienced team without any current stars. It may pan out in the future, but as of now he may have to struggle a bit. He will get a lot of money however as he is likely to sign the max and the Lakers will look to get other free-agents as well with all the cap space they possess.

Toronto Raptors

THE GOOD: Coming off their first Conference appearance, the future looks good for The North. DeRozan and Lowry boast one of the best backcourts in the entire league and the team has many pieces to have a good post-season run. They ended up in the 2nd seed behind Clevland by only a game and fought their way through the playoffs until they were defeated by the Cavs. Toronto has some of the best fans in any sport. Even after losing the playoff round to the Cavaliers, their fans stood by them chanting "We the North".

THE BAD: This team doesn't have a lot of negatives, but lack of experience hurt them a little this postseason. The pressure was also massive, being the only team outside the states, it really got to some of the players to perform well, but just the opposite occurred. The pressure got to DeRozan and Lowry at times and caused them to struggle massively.