He is better than I thought he would be coming off that back surgery. He seems to be getting better as time goes on, which is all we can ask. I am liking what I see so far from him off the bench. His 3pt shot is looking good, and he has some nice little spin moves getting to the rim.
For what it's wroth, here's the SAP player tracking data FG% against data. Link to NBA.com DFG% is the FG% of opponent when defended by the player. FG% is the typical FG% of the opponent. diff % is the difference between those two number. Negative diff% is good. A couple of surprises are Ryan Anderson, Harden, and Dekker being positive defenders while Ariza and Capela were minus defenders. Small sample size, but it does indicate that Harden is doing great this year (he was +2.2% last yaer) and Dekker could be a plus defender. Here's a link to 2015-2016 stats.
I think Decker has been playing well. I hope he continues to improve. First year with consistent playing time you expect some ups and downs but I think he will continue to improve.
I'm sure most of Ariza and Capela's numbers are due to taking the other teams main offensive players on the wing and in the post respectively. Which is to be expected, their performance should be graded more in team wins rather than their indivudual match up success. Which brings me to Dekker, one of the real bright spots in our help defense and being vocal/directing others (Harden in particular) on the defensive end. I've caught this in a few games now. I believe that because of this we will continue to see Dekker getting minutes with Harden. Dekker clearly doesn't lack for confidence, he may have embarrassed himself falling in that Knicks game, but you could tell he wanted the highlight play. He also went for the poster on Melo, despite getting hacked on that play it was another example of his aggressiveness going at the rim. Once Bev comes back he and Gordon should be even more effective working with the second unit. Season still young but I like what I see from him.
I have found these numbers to just be too counterintuitive to tell you what you're looking for. I was real excited about it a couple years ago, but the numbers were wild and differed from expectations so much. I just abandoned them and went with ESPN RPM. I would really love good defensive stats
I think Sam is neck and neck with Capela (Who had already proved himself but in a limited role) as the most improved player on this years team. This Murray guy knows what to do in the draft, I hear
im convinced the rockets players( not harden or capela) are freezing out sam dekker because they want ariza to remain the starter. Their are games where doesnt even touch the ball for minutes at a time PATHETIC
Showing more bounce this year. Overall waiting to see, but right now he's not finishing his drive to the basket. The drives look good. They look quick, but his flip shot at the end is weak. If he can't do what he was drafted to do, he's a bust. I'm not optimistic, but I'll give him 2 more years to get it together. I just don't think his athletic moves translated, which means they probably never will. All that said, even Kobe went through an off phase his first year driving the ball.
I like that Dekker is coming along. I wish we would expedite that progress by playing him more, same thing for Harrell and KJ
At least this man has shown he can put a string of good plays together. Brew can't, and actually can display a string of bad plays. Yet he starts
Dekker seems like a more athletic better shooting version of Brewer but with his head attached to his body. I still for the life of me have not figured out how Dekker hasn't canabolized all of Brewer's minutes by now. Ariza, Dekker and KJ should be the only three playing the 3 spot with Dekker and Ariza playing spot 4 minutes when going to small ball.
I thought if anybody we should've started Dekker or KJ instead of Brewer. The best thing I like about Dekker is he gets between the seams and attacks the rim like a very popular white guy here used too do. His energy is constantly on 10
By far his finishing ability has impressed me the most. He's so quick with his moves and can extend and finish very smoothly.
Yep. Don't forget he's hitting his 3's too. Not afraid to talk a little trash, hence his reaction after hitting this
