Watching his Wisconsin career tribute on youtube. Did I hear the commentator correct calling him "Son of Sam"? Welcome to Clutch City 'Son of Sam'.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NBA Rookie of the Year Odds from <a href="https://twitter.com/BovadaLV">@BovadaLV</a>. Jahlil Okafor is the favorite followed by D'Angelo Russell. <a href="http://t.co/oGfISdvvQw">pic.twitter.com/oGfISdvvQw</a></p>— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaxterHolmes/status/615920337146875904">June 30, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's a little surprising. Okafor has to deal with Noel and (possibly) Embiid. KAT has to deal with Pekovic and also not being the primary scorer. I think Russell wins this easily.
I'm surprised Dekker's on there considering how the Rockets normally deal with rookies. (D-League and garbage time, and for some reason an increased role in the playoffs)
Rockets not sending him to D league. Parsons didn't have to go. They will work with Dekker the same way.
Parsons played his way out of d-league partly because there was an open competition at the 3-spot. Unless Ariza is traded he'll be the starting 3 and Dekker may or may not spend time in d-league depending on whether or not he plays well enough to worm his way into the rotation on opening day.
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Completely different situation. When Parsons was a rookie, the team was on the mediocrity treadmill and Parsons only had to beat out Budinger for a spot in the rotation. Since the team was so thin at the SF position, it made more sense to throw him out there instead of letting him get experience in the D-League. Dekker will be a rookie on a team that just went to the WCF and he'll have to compete with Ariza and possibly Brewer/McDaniels for a spot. Now if the Rockets don't retain any of their free agent wings (or if Ariza is traded), I can see him avoiding a D-League assignment.
If we can't resign Brewer and Mcdaniels gets paid too much than what we can match, then he'll be the backup SF competing with Kpop for minutes. Good thing is Dekker is 6'9 so we can play him at stretch 4 if we needed to when one of our PFs gets hurt
If the competition for the backup 3 spot is between Dekker/McDaniels/KPop... then there is no way Dekker loses that spot.
To whoever repped me saying my "negativity is so annoying", I'm sorry you are in need of a reality check. It is what it is. The Rockets very likely won't land Aldridge, and if Brewer/Beverley/Smith prove to be too expensive, we know Morey isn't sacrificing flexibility going forward on middling players. He'll let them go if he can't get them at the price he wants.
It makes perfect sense that he's on here; Vegas accounts for this kind of stuff and will be all too happy to accomodate Wisconsin homers betting on Dekker.
I think the way the off season has gone, especially with Llull's decision, that the Rockets will feel pressured to play and feature Dekker.
