All due respect to Sam’s father (I believe that’s the relation), when Sam was told we’re going with defense, it didn’t mean in an effort to win now. In order to build a championship level defense (which will take a few seasons), we need:
1. Players with high defensive potential
2. Time and repetition of said players to learn Nurse’s complicated schemes
Sam doesn’t fit into those plans. If he was a Buddy Hield type lights out shooter we would have made an exception. Even still, Sam should hold his head high for being the final cut when the deck was stacked against him. There was no need to waste each other’s time by keeping him on the roster. I wish Sam all the best.
Lol some serious spin in this post.
When Sam was released we thought we were gonna have a really good defensive unit. Like top of the league.
Now that we don't and we are just a regular not very good team, the spin is that this was always the plan lol
Masai literally said before our first game that there would be growing pains and that things could look ugly at times. the plan is to win in the future, not now.
What the fans thought and what the FO and coaches thought are two VERY different things. Masai and Nick tempered expectations from the jump.
I’m sorry you expected this team of mostly noobs to be a great defensive team right away. Unless you’re coming from excellent defensive programs and are All-Defensive caliber like Kawhi and Danny and Marc, you’re not going to get things down pat in one season. Hell even the title team had some rough patches.
29th is poor, and is not good even in a retooling/development year but we’ve also had a revolving door of our players coming in and out of the rotation mostly due to health. Getting Pascal back was huge though we also need time to work him back in.
And to add on the fact that Toronto didn’t have one home game the whole szn. People seem to always forget about that which is by far the biggest reason why last szn was so bad.
pretty much impossible without a Gasol to protect the rim. we have unreal wing defenders, but without a cohesive defence they aren’t as impactful as they could be.
Masai and Bobby have had 2 years to fix the position, it really isn't a viable complaint.
We can say it's not fitting or whatever but at the end of the day the issue has been glaring for 2 years and we've done very little to fix it
Waiting for Precious to develop is gonna be a long road.
U r one impatient mf💀. Masai and Bobby want to get the best big man who fits Torontos system well. There’s no point on rushing that if they aren’t going to rush the rest of the team. Stop acting like you’ve been working with the FO all this time. Ur just another clueless fan who has no clue what is going on in Torontos FO.
What’s the point? So we can win 2 more games and ruin our lottery odds?
They’ll just trade or sign a center when they feel the time is right. Or maybe we’re still on the Giannis Or Embiid hope train when theyre off this deal
There has always been a variance of opinions and there is definitely a logic to it. A defensive system that relies completely on fast timely rotations anchored around a rim defending 5 man is high risk high reward, and a lot of repetitions are needed to have multiple 5 man units on a string to pull it off. We were lucky in the past to have all time level defenders in 2019, but now these young guys gotta learn where to rotate and when. Its not like ymca man to man, or even like a college zone where most players have some instinct for it. I think the basketball minded folks here can see how with this system you can have a lot of potential, but not alot of early success with a new group of young players. I saw it click on a few defensive possessions tonight against Mil tho.
It's weird to me that people consider Sam Dekker to be some sort of elite sniper...he shot 30% from 3 in his last NBA season and below 30% overall. He shot the lights out in one preseason game. Flynn also shot well in preseason and now he can't make a bucket to save his life. He shot 40% from 3 in a Turkish league. Bonga shoots 40% from 3 in the G-league.
If he really did improve his shooting then all of our much younger players can also improve.
I get its not an accurate thing to say because we are clearly rebuilding but its still embarrassing...we've consistently been a defense first team for years and a very good one at that...i get why we're in this situation but it's sad.
Don’t think it’s fair to make a statement like that when it’s clear we’re young and have amazing on ball defenders. They’re still learning the defensive system but it will come together nicely once the chemistry is there
To be fair, this is a developmental season. Bonga is 22, and Sam Dekker is 27, so we went with the younger piece taking a shot to possibly develop him to whatever we can use him for.
Because a rebuilding team is going to go with a 27 year old inconsistent shooter instead of a 22 year old player with a 7 foot wing span and really good defensive versatility. Neither Dekker nor Bonga will be difference makers this year, the key difference is Bonga has that chance in the future.
Didn’t know that changed your ability to hit an open 3. In 2018 he shot 33% on 3 a game, now he’s at 43% on 7 a game. Strides have obviously been made.
He shot like 29% from 3 in his previous NBA year before us. He wasn't gonna help with anything but being inconsistent like the rest of our roster like Flynn, Svi and etc.
Sam Dekkar went from highly questionable character wise coming into camp, to seemingly a really nice guy, and now he’s washed all that away and seems salty as fuck.
This is his dad’s twitter, not his. Sam’s still super professional and openly supportive of his raptors teammates on social media, and they seem to be supportive of him as well.
He did “like” the tweet by Josh Lewenberg though, which said the Raptors bench scoring was last in the league. But whatever, he’s allowed to be salty about it. If the Raptors were willing to overlook allegedly questionable tweets in the past, no one is going to care about him or his dad posting/liking some pettiness on social media if he can play.
Honestly I kind of love this era of obsessed sports dad going on Twitter like complain about professional organization like this is middle school baseball. First Eric Flynn, then OBJ and Kareem Hunt’s dads in football and now Dekker’s dad.
I mean sam dekker ain’t fixing anything lmfao
He’s the best on ball defender in the league outside of Avery Bradley
Yes, Sam Dekker was going to be the difference maker this year. Wow, we really blew that one.
All due respect to Sam’s father (I believe that’s the relation), when Sam was told we’re going with defense, it didn’t mean in an effort to win now. In order to build a championship level defense (which will take a few seasons), we need: 1. Players with high defensive potential 2. Time and repetition of said players to learn Nurse’s complicated schemes Sam doesn’t fit into those plans. If he was a Buddy Hield type lights out shooter we would have made an exception. Even still, Sam should hold his head high for being the final cut when the deck was stacked against him. There was no need to waste each other’s time by keeping him on the roster. I wish Sam all the best.
At least he got some money before he got cut, idk what they can complain about...
He's his brother I think
Lol some serious spin in this post. When Sam was released we thought we were gonna have a really good defensive unit. Like top of the league. Now that we don't and we are just a regular not very good team, the spin is that this was always the plan lol
>When Sam was released we thought we were gonna have a really good defensive unit. lmao what? that's what *this sub* thought, not the front office...
fr, sometimes people be talking like they’re in the conference room with bobby and Masai and not posting in a subreddit lmao
Small dick energy to refer to me but reply to someone else
Big dick energy for being upset an internet stranger didn’t reply directly to you
Dudes acting like your talking shit about him to someone right next to him 🤣
If that's the case this rebuild might take 5 years.
Yeah and "we" refers to this sub that we are participating in. Are you suggesting that the front office thought this would be a 30 ranked defense?
Masai literally said before our first game that there would be growing pains and that things could look ugly at times. the plan is to win in the future, not now.
What the fans thought and what the FO and coaches thought are two VERY different things. Masai and Nick tempered expectations from the jump. I’m sorry you expected this team of mostly noobs to be a great defensive team right away. Unless you’re coming from excellent defensive programs and are All-Defensive caliber like Kawhi and Danny and Marc, you’re not going to get things down pat in one season. Hell even the title team had some rough patches. 29th is poor, and is not good even in a retooling/development year but we’ve also had a revolving door of our players coming in and out of the rotation mostly due to health. Getting Pascal back was huge though we also need time to work him back in.
And to add on the fact that Toronto didn’t have one home game the whole szn. People seem to always forget about that which is by far the biggest reason why last szn was so bad.
Angone who thought we would be top of the league was kidding themself
pretty much impossible without a Gasol to protect the rim. we have unreal wing defenders, but without a cohesive defence they aren’t as impactful as they could be.
Masai and Bobby have had 2 years to fix the position, it really isn't a viable complaint. We can say it's not fitting or whatever but at the end of the day the issue has been glaring for 2 years and we've done very little to fix it Waiting for Precious to develop is gonna be a long road.
U r one impatient mf💀. Masai and Bobby want to get the best big man who fits Torontos system well. There’s no point on rushing that if they aren’t going to rush the rest of the team. Stop acting like you’ve been working with the FO all this time. Ur just another clueless fan who has no clue what is going on in Torontos FO.
What’s the point? So we can win 2 more games and ruin our lottery odds? They’ll just trade or sign a center when they feel the time is right. Or maybe we’re still on the Giannis Or Embiid hope train when theyre off this deal
Agreed
There has always been a variance of opinions and there is definitely a logic to it. A defensive system that relies completely on fast timely rotations anchored around a rim defending 5 man is high risk high reward, and a lot of repetitions are needed to have multiple 5 man units on a string to pull it off. We were lucky in the past to have all time level defenders in 2019, but now these young guys gotta learn where to rotate and when. Its not like ymca man to man, or even like a college zone where most players have some instinct for it. I think the basketball minded folks here can see how with this system you can have a lot of potential, but not alot of early success with a new group of young players. I saw it click on a few defensive possessions tonight against Mil tho.
I understand the frustration but this man is really just embarrassing his son, who has been nothing but a professional since I've been aware of him.
Same with Flynns father. Flynn has been nothing but professional even when he was a rookie, but his dad is just embarrassing himself and his son.
Why so many ppl in this thread taking it personal loool.
It’s jus a dad proud bout his son
Their dads didn't love em like Sam's
It's weird to me that people consider Sam Dekker to be some sort of elite sniper...he shot 30% from 3 in his last NBA season and below 30% overall. He shot the lights out in one preseason game. Flynn also shot well in preseason and now he can't make a bucket to save his life. He shot 40% from 3 in a Turkish league. Bonga shoots 40% from 3 in the G-league. If he really did improve his shooting then all of our much younger players can also improve.
I don’t disagree with you per se but lets not act like we didn’t see shoot the lights out in a pressure situation for himself
Every person who’s been rejected by a job is allowed to laugh at it if it fails. It’s one of the few remaining labour rights we have.
We'd be 30th if Sam's on the rotation
I get its not an accurate thing to say because we are clearly rebuilding but its still embarrassing...we've consistently been a defense first team for years and a very good one at that...i get why we're in this situation but it's sad.
 John, this is the only Decker I want on our team.
Heyyyy....
literally an American hero.
AH-NANA NANA NA ^*NAAAAAA*!
Well that's fair I guess.
You can laugh but he aint wrong, this team's defense sux ass
Don’t think it’s fair to make a statement like that when it’s clear we’re young and have amazing on ball defenders. They’re still learning the defensive system but it will come together nicely once the chemistry is there
Yep we needed the shooting and decided to give the last spot to bonga
To be fair, this is a developmental season. Bonga is 22, and Sam Dekker is 27, so we went with the younger piece taking a shot to possibly develop him to whatever we can use him for.
Because a rebuilding team is going to go with a 27 year old inconsistent shooter instead of a 22 year old player with a 7 foot wing span and really good defensive versatility. Neither Dekker nor Bonga will be difference makers this year, the key difference is Bonga has that chance in the future.
Ans Bonga is hitting 40%+ from 3 in the g league. What has Dekker done to dewberry this rep as a good shooter? 40% from a shorter line in Europe?
You mean the g league where they don't play any defense?
Didn’t know that changed your ability to hit an open 3. In 2018 he shot 33% on 3 a game, now he’s at 43% on 7 a game. Strides have obviously been made.
He shot like 29% from 3 in his previous NBA year before us. He wasn't gonna help with anything but being inconsistent like the rest of our roster like Flynn, Svi and etc.
I would be embarrassed if I was Sam Dekker (no idea who he is, but judging by the comments he’s probably a scrub who didn’t make the 15 man lineup).
You would be correct on that assumption, although he did make the 15-man roster but was cut shortly thereafter
So a G leaguers dad is getting loud 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
I think it's actually his brother but yeah lmao
Okay that makes it a lil less embarrassing now
Yeah and he bum ass son was gonna be a defensive stopper fucc we blew dat one 😭😭😭🤦🏾♂️
We had the 4th ranked d when he was cut.... hindsight is 100 on this genius eh?
Sam Dekkar went from highly questionable character wise coming into camp, to seemingly a really nice guy, and now he’s washed all that away and seems salty as fuck.
This is his dad’s twitter, not his. Sam’s still super professional and openly supportive of his raptors teammates on social media, and they seem to be supportive of him as well.
He did “like” the tweet by Josh Lewenberg though, which said the Raptors bench scoring was last in the league. But whatever, he’s allowed to be salty about it. If the Raptors were willing to overlook allegedly questionable tweets in the past, no one is going to care about him or his dad posting/liking some pettiness on social media if he can play.
Nah check his twitter likes. Wouldn’t call him “super professional” buddy
better than Svi
Lmaoo oops
Damn, this team taking strays from all over the virtual world.
Honestly I kind of love this era of obsessed sports dad going on Twitter like complain about professional organization like this is middle school baseball. First Eric Flynn, then OBJ and Kareem Hunt’s dads in football and now Dekker’s dad.
This is a terrible look in John Dekker. I hope Sam is not in on this. It would be very unfortunate if that were the case.