Great durability as a workhorse
DeRozan’s career has been fairly healthy as he has only missed 32 games in his 7 years, while 22 of those games came last year when he had his first major injury with a torn hamstring ligament. So aside from that one major injury, only 10 games have been missed due to aches, sores and rest.
DeMar has played an average of 33.7 minutes per game for his career and at least 35 minutes per game since his rookie year. He is creeping towards 16,000 minutes before the age of 27.
Why does it matter?
A team wants their big money players to actually play. Given DeRozan’s fortunate health throughout his career, this lets teams who are shelling out big contracts to trust that the money will actually be used for on-court results.
Example: Wesley Matthews was lucky enough to secure a 4 year/$70 million contract after rupturing his Achilles tendon. He would have been able to demand more on the open market if he wasn’t unfortunately injured.
Next: Just stepping into his prime