That totally happened as you said. Except that it was just one poster going so far as to make impassioned videos and everything about his argument that T-Mac wasn't a point forward, all basically because he didn't bring up the ball IIRC. It was the ONLY thing in the entire NBA he cared about and he cared about it a LOT. He was prolific like DD on the matter. That was a crazy chapter in GARM history.
Sam Dekker is an explosive and promising young forward on both ends of the floor. I hope we keep him. I hope we stand pat.
Question is will Dekker's improvement come into play when you're talking about Gordon Hayward as a possible FA pick up.
I would go for Hayward. What we are loving about Dekker is that an optimist can see him becoming as effective as Hayward in the nearish future. But if you can trade a possible future Hayward for Hayward in his prime, you do it because it's all about Harden. However, I will say I've seen people listing Hayward as a SF and that is a totally unsustainable way of playing for long periods of time. You absolutely need a really good wing defender. You have to put Harden on the worst of the opponent's PG/SG/SF. Then typically Beverley takes the shorter threat and Ariza takes the taller threat. That makes our defense respectable on the perimeter. If you replace ARIZA with Hayward, you are now leaking drives to the basket, putting more pressure on the inside. And our interior defense is barely cutting it when every single person is healthy. I wouldn't support that. I would rather make Hayward our PF and live with his defensive mismatch knowing he will torch virtually everyone he plays on offense. I don't believe he's a worse defender than Anderson at the 4, but I do believe he is a much better scorer who is only marginally less capable of creating spacing for Harden. Remember, MDA made Marion work as a PF and the NBA is smaller and quicker at PF today. It's not going to be perfect, but imo a significant improvement over what we have, and we can't wait for the absolute perfect fit to show up when players of Hayward's calibre might become available. If we're getting Hayward, I would much rather deal Anderson and I would imagine if Hayward is walking and the Jazz have shown they are capable players in the West, they will prefer Anderson over Dekker in a SnT scenario. I'm ok with Hayward at PF as long as we have Harrell to back him up for mismatches. OTOH there's a whole season to go. I did not expect Dekker to be the player he is today, and there are 30+ regular season and the playoffs for Dekker to cement his value. Is it beyond the realm of possibility that Dekker really clicks in the last 15 reg season games and puts on a tremendous playoff performance and we are then wondering if it's even worth upgrading from Anderson/Dekker to Hayward? Great problem to have.
On the Rockets, he's mostly a PF. He's a SF, who plays PF because of the system. His skill set is closer to Chandler Parsons than it is to Anthony Davis. I WISH MDA would let him back up SF and let Harrell back up PF. This puts our best players on the floor and Brewer back on the bench.
He's definitely not a power forward. His size and shooting ability allow him to play PF in this system, but as he gets better he will play more at the 3, not 4
Most people here are stuck back in the old days of NBA positions. Sam Dekker is a Forward. The NBA has essentially 4 positions now- -The lead guard -Wings -Forwards -The Big Spot Where you get placed on the floor at the start of a modern NBA offense is important to note for reference. -Lead Guard - top of the key with ball in hand -Wings- wings -Forwards-Corners -The Big Spot- Between the Elbow and the top of the key So the modern day Forward is really what a Wing used to be. They've stretched that position out to give space for P&R & other sets. Sometimes when you want to play two "Bigs" you go into a set called HORNS that brings both the Forward and The Big Spot to BOTH Elbows to run action that involves both bigs. Other times you run one big at the Elbow, and another at the low post. However.... Sam Dekker will never be running that type of action in an NBA offense. Sam Dekker will be playing the modern day "Forward" position... formerly a Wing/SF position, but now is just considered another skilled position that has to sometimes guard "Bigs" at the other end. One of the most important and difficult positions in the modern NBA, and we are damn lucky to have him there.
Dekker is a work in progress. This question of what position he plays can't be answered on the offensive end of the court. We have to ask, "Who can he defend?" Though his body is a little underdeveloped, Dekker has just enough size and length to rebound and defend at the power forward spot. So he's a power forward, for now. His offensive game is definitely geared to be a three, and I hope he'll grow into that with time. I'm not sure Dekker's got enough quickness to cover threes right now. He needs more game experience to grow into being a two-way small forward. He is not a 3-D guy. The Marion comparisons in this thread are really close. But Marion never shot the ball with range as well as young Dekker. Instead, Marion was phenomenal at finishing along the baseline (just for grins watch this Matrix rewind from his D'Antoni's Phoenix days). If Dekker can figure that part of the game, he will become a legitimate rotation player for years to come. All in all, D'Antoni is doing a great job in positioning Dekker to succeed.
Ceballos has been my comparison. Does a little bit of everything, gets a lot of "garbage" points. Ceballos averaged 21, 8, 2, 1 for his career per 36. Dekker is curreantly averaging 14, 7.5, 2,1 per 36. Neither is a great defender (yet) but Dekker shoots a bit better from 3 (34% vs 31%)
I don't think it has much to do with size and length. Beverley pulls down 6-7 rebounds at 6'1 without a notable wingspan. Harrell is a monster of a physical specimen, good wingspan, strong, can jump high, not a good rebounder. Coach has also said he doesn't care who gets the rebounds as long as it's on our team. And I agree. You should try to develop players but when it's game time you can't be hoping things happen. You have to put players in position to do what they do best. Some players simply will their way to the rebound and have an elite knack for understanding where the ball will go and Dekker is one of those guys. He will fight a 7fter for a rebound, defensive or offensive. He's never going to be an elite rebounder, but he will certainly hold his own over time. I think that will serve him well. Very important to mention our starting C, PG and SG are excellent rebounders at their position while Ariza is average so this allows us to hide one poor rebounder at PF with the way the roster is currently constructed. What we could really use is some rebounding help for the second unit, that's what's sometimes biting us in the ass during games.
I call him a Mismatch Forward. He's too big and strong for most 3's to match up with him, and he's a bit smaller and much quicker than most 4's to match up with him as well. If he keeps improving, he is going to become the kind of guy that opposing coaches have to develop some kind of 'scheme' to defend against. Which against this team and this offense, will only make their nightmares even more scary. Obviously then his biggest area of concern though is going to be defensively. But a high-IQ guy like him should be able to learn how to be a good defender, so we'll cross our fingers and see. Dude has got some very long gorilla arms on him, and he is very strong. I get the feeling that he is going to keep developing and we are going to really be grateful for this pick. Funny thing is (and I will be the first to admit I was wrong here), I really REALLY wanted Jerian Grant instead of Dekker. It just seemed like what we needed, more than yet another PF project, after battling with GS in the WCF. But once again, Morey saw something in Dekker I didn't, and is becoming a potential stud, while Grant is toiling away in Chicago just being 'some guy', nothing special. Sometimes I'm glad I am not the GM lol
I'm wondering if Bird is seeing his potential and would consider a George trade if we offered Dekker, Harrell, Ariza and a future unprotected first. I can very easily see shine type of trade coming up this summer. But the problem I have with it this summer is why should we pay that much for George then, especially when Dekker is showing so much now. He's already approaching Ariza's offensive efficiency while playing a good portion of minutes with the bench brigade. Already over 40% on the corner 3-ball. If he started in place of Ariza, I can't seer substantial drop off. He's not the same type of defender Ariza is but he's got more range. When you look at the top combo forwards/swing men, they all have the type of length Dekker has. And right now, Dekker is far superior to Ariza on the dribble and passing/facilitating. If I'm Morey I'm putting feelers out now on what I could get for an Ariza package at the deadline. Love Ariza but I'm convinced we'd miss him the least of any of our role players because of Dekker and because Harden can defend 3's and make room for Gordon.
If he can compete defensively and on the boards with other power forwards, he has a lot more potential at PF than SF.
Dekker is a "combo-forward." But in MDA's rotation and offense Dekker is a PF. He is playing the Shawn Marion role. Forget convention and the old school way of thinking with PFs (ala Otis Thorpe). MDA, and much of the NBA, are moving towards a faster game and quicker lineups. SFs are now PFs and PFs are now Cs. On previous teams Harrell would get time at PF, but not in MDA's rotation. He is a C 100% for MDA. Dekker is athletic enough to rebound with PFs but also able to out quick them which is an advantage. He doesn't have that same quickness advantage working against quicker SFs. What Dekker might lack in strength to defend in the post, he makes up for in hustle.
I mostly agree. But different sets place players in different positions. I've been saying this for a long time. There are only 3 positions in basketball: Points, Wings, and Posts. Some players can shift between two (even all) of these three positions with ease, and some can only do one, depending on their skills, size, and speed. The obsession of many bigs in the 90's and 2000's to avoid being labeled "centers" was just unnecessary. If you are a post player, you are a post player. Doesn't matter if you are called a center or a PF.
