In February, Wizards forward Sam Dekker found it hard to get on the basketball court. The team acquired Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis which contributed to a February stretch where he missed seven out of eight games due to a coach’s decision. If it weren’t for a one-minute cameo in Washington’s loss to the Hornets on Feb. 22, Dekker would have actually missed eight consecutive games because Scott Brooks didn’t think he was the right player to help the team win.
On Monday, Dekker finally got his chance to play. On Sunday’s game against the Timberwolves, he entered the court with just 2:40 left to play in the third quarter and remained for the rest of the game. The Wizards were leading 86-82 when he entered but won the game 135-121.
In his 15 minute stretch, Dekker scored 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting and also dished three assists. His behind-the-back pass to Jabari Parker late in the third quarter was a little off, but it started from a hustle play he started.
Sam Dekker with the full court rolling behind the back pass lol pic.twitter.com/mkhBFQIQmB
— Hoop District (@HoopDistrictDC) March 4, 2019
To show just how ready he was to play, Dekker even scored Washington’s last bucket of the game. You can see the Wizards’ highlights from Sunday’s game above.
Dekker is not an NBA superstar. I’m not proposing that he get in the starting lineup for the Wizards’ next game. But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t an NBA quality player with room to grow. Dekker is just 24 years old so he still has a lot of room to grow. There aren’t many games left to play and the Wizards are effectively out of the playoff picture.
At this point, it doesn’t hurt the Wizards to give Dekker consistent playing time for the rest of the season and it’s not like that would hurt rookie Troy Brown because he played 17 minutes last night as well.