Los Angeles Clippers Mid-Season Grades: Sam Dekker

Offense: C-

Let us begin with a few pre-draft notes to get a better idea where Sam is coming from. According to a consensus of coaches and scouts shown on the NBA Draft website.

"Combo forward with a high level of versatility, Does a lot of positive things on the offensive and defensive ends, A threat to score from the inside and outside, Can score effectively in the paint against smaller defenders."

Fast forward three years later, Sam Dekker is now comfortable with the NBA. It may come to a surprise but offensively overall he is improving despite the tragic drop in three-point percentage. He’s gone from a mediocre 32% from deep, to a horrid 16% this season. Despite cutting his percentage by exactly half, this only left Dekker with 1% less in overall field goals, going from 47% to 46%

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Now we have to remember Sam is getting 5-6 minutes per game less on the floor than his previous team. If we were to average his minutes at per 36 mpg, his statistics are pretty much even with his last years, only with tiny drops here and there, which is expected third year in with a brand new squad.

However, one key of shining light is that Dekker’s free throw game has improved. Dekker is on pace to be shooting the most free throws per season in his young career. More importantly he went from a lousy 56%, to a more comfortable 67% from the line! Which means he is also driving to the basket aggressively even more.

Taking a specific look at Sam’s shooting percentage, correlated with distance from the basket, it is obvious that his shooting percentage improves all around, until hitting the 3 point distance.

With Dekker’s lost shooting touch behind the arc his overall offensive numbers barely took a hit, making his grade a C-. Now let us talk about defense.