I thought mchale would do this last year after Beverley got injured..... With harden playing the offensive pg and McDaniels defending the pgs
18th isn't that "low"- the blowmorey revisionism is already up-and-running. The 18th pick should be a solid player.
Cmon man. If a round has 30 picks, 18 is a low pick by being in the back half of the round. Therefore, "low first rounder". These are players that can span the entire range from bust, to serviceable, to fringe all-star. Code: Year Player Drafted From Drafted By 2013 Shane Larkin Miami Atlanta 2012 Terrence Jones Kentucky Houston 2011 Chris Singleton Florida State Washington 2010 Eric Bledsoe Kentucky Oklahoma 2009 Tywon Lawson North Carolina Minnesota 2008 JaVale McGee Nevada Washington 2007 Marco Belinelli Italy Golden 2006 Olexsiy Pecherov Ukraine Washington 2005 Gerald Green TX HSSr. Boston 2004 JR Smith NJ HSSr. New Orleans 2003 David West Xavier Sr. New Orleans 2002 Curtis Borchardt Stanford Jr. Orlando 2000 Quentin Richardson Depaul So. LA Clippers 1999 James Posey Xavier Sr. Denver 1998 Mirsad Turckan Turkey Houston 1997 Chris Anstey Australia Portland 1996 John Wallace Syracuse New York 1995 Theo Ratliff Wyoming Detroit 1994 Eric Mobley Pittsburgh Milwaukee 1993 Luther Wright Seton Hall Utah 1992 Tracy Murray UCLA San Antonio
I think it's more fair to count every player 18th and beyond... not just the 18th pick. Because say someone was taken 18th but the 25th pick ended up being a better NBA player. That 25th pick was still available at 18.
He looked pretty bad in my opinion. I'm not sure if he was just lost and overwhelmed and simply needs some good ol' fashioned RGV Viper time, or if he is rather not that good. Time will tell. I mean, think how bad Capela looked at first compared to how good he looks now. Dekker doesn't look as bad as Capela did early last season, more along the lines of how Nick Johnson looked -- though, he doesn't seem to have the relative athleticism for his position that Johnson displayed even when he looked lost early last year. Full disclosure, I thought the Dekker pick was not a great one, and I don't think Dekker is going to be very good. As always though, here's hoping I am wrong.
He looked really bad in every way. But, it was the first preseason game of his rookie year, so it means nothing.
I'd like to remind people that Capela looked like the worst rookie in NBA history until like the last month of the NBA seasn, seriously he was truly awful. On the plus Dekker looked like a decent rebounder and hit a clutch garbage time 3.
He looked lost mostly, but he also made some nifty defensive plays. He's got good length, goes after the rebound, and gets some deflections. I also like that he was aggressive on offense....he didn't make many good plays, but you could definitely see that his inclination is to attack. I didn't see anything that made me think "he can't play in this league", ie too slow, unathletic, broken jumper, etc. He needs to fill out his frame and learn the game....RGV will be great for him.
Really? See, I thought he looked very tentative and hesitant -- he passed up several wide open shots for instance. In fact, I think a lack of aggressiveness and confidence was his biggest issue last night. But I agree, RGV will be really good for him, just like it was for Capela last year, and many other current contributors before that.
I don't know if I'm defending Sam Dekker because, like me, he looks dorky and white and has Midwestern ties (him: Wisconsin; me: Iowa), but I think he's gonna be a really good player. We all know it was obviously only one game. He did look tentative and passed up a lot of shots that he should have taken, but it's tough to fault him. When you're surrounded by such NBA veteran talent, only your Kobes and whatnots will be jacking up every possible shot. Dude can board and I think he had a steal or two (I'll have to check the stats, there were so many steals that Rockets players made that it was the reason we weren't blown out). He did a decent job trying to stay with his man. And he did hit that late three, which might help his confidence. Also, the whole team was missing from the three point line last night. What were we, 3 for 92? If the others aren't hitting, the rookie probably won't say, "Then let ME do it." He played a lot of 4 last night and he probably isn't ready for that. It did underscore a problem we might have at that spot. I was more concerned about TJones than I was about Dekker last night. God help me, I almost found myself agreeing with jopat last night about Terrence Jones: For f***'s sake, get in the game!
He took 4 3s yesterday. While he did pass up some, 4 attempts when that's not the strength of your game is being aggressive. Like I said, while he had no idea what he was doing, he did DO SOMETHING. The confusion was more when he was on the court with most of the starters and knew he was supposed to defer to them.
Dekker will need some seasoning for sure. He was lost on his rotations a few times, but he is being thrown into the fire playing against a lot of veterans. I don't read too much into a rookie's first preseason game, but it is pretty obvious he isn't going be ready to contribute in the short-term.
Yeah, he looked bad. But let's give him a break. Capela was like 0-10 in FT attempts his first few games right?
I really don't see why everyone thinks he looked so bad yesterday? I agree he looked a little lost at times, but I also think he helped force at least 2 turnovers on defense and grabbed at least 1 rebound he had no business grabbing. Frankly I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed with his first showing.
They typically don't amount to much. It's surprising that Morey has been able to pull so many productive players with late round, and 2nd round picks. If he blows one he's certainly due.
I think he has promise. He is athletic for his size. He moves his feet well on defense and has good coordination. He doesn't look clumsy or slow at all. That shows me he has the physical tools to be a good player in the league... both on offense and defense. He's got a smooth shooting stroke, he just has to work on getting more consistent. I have no doubt he can become a solid player in the league when he gains more experience.
He looks big. He has long arms. I can see where he could play SF or PF. He moves really well and can jump. He can handle the ball. He looked really nervous in his first game, but that's to be expected.
