PhilBlackson wrote:Lol it's hilarious seeing the battle of who wants Dekker vs Bonga.
End of day it's all personal opinion and ofc the Raps will have the final say so it won't matter to fight so hard over who's picked and really it's likely a difference in opinion due to roster philosphy.
Those who want Dekker likely think he's the better player NOW (keyword) and are looking for our team to be competitive right away and think Sam's shooting/scoring will help the team win more games THIS season.
Those who want Bonga are likely thinking LONG TERM because no one believes Isaac is a finished product yet. He has great measurables, shows some really good potential defensively but like a lot of our previous projects (keywords) will need to DEVELOP and that's what they're banking on, that we do what we've done with a laundry list of players now.
For me, I choose Bonga because it's just more in line with my overall philosphy for this team and where I think they are in that this PROCESS, we hit the pinnacle of the sport and now we're rebooting and starting the journey all over again but I think getting back to the mountain top is going to require a lot asset planning and how we build up VALUE of our players. Those players we develop either help raise our CEILING long term or become more VALUABLE assets in trades.
I really like Dekker as a person, seems like an awesome guy that after hearing him I do hope a team picks him up and preferably a contender so he can catch the eyes of executives and hopefully restore his NBA career for a few years. But I'd rather us develop Bonga who is actually YOUNGER than what guys like Pascal, Fred, Norm, Malachi and maybe most relevant Delon (who I think we'd try to mold into a similar player but bigger). Dekker might make a difference in a handful of games this season, if we're lucky is the difference of winning a couple more during the season and then what???? Maybe we squeek into the Playoffs and get bounced on our heads by BKN or MIL then Dekker is gone or maybe hangs on for another season!?? What did that accomplish?? Long term, nothing.
I believe we could develop Bonga into a more solid rotation player. Who WHEN when you go to trade around maybe 23-24ish is a much better player from working with our developmental staff for several years than he was coming in and suddenly that kid adds VALUE in a trade because teams think they're adding a solidified, YOUNG rotation player. Dekker isn't going to hold that kind of value as an end of bench guy on a rebuild and he's not altering life during that rebuild either. Neither of these guys are likely to see huge minutes, so why not use that roster spot to build and develop instead of the occasional bucket?! Makes sense on a team that is already a contender trying to win NOW but for a rebuild, it's all about building for tomorrow. So again I genuinely wish Sam all the best but what the team is doing today is to help build up the foundation to a BETTER tomorrow.
I understand most of where you're coming from and I wouldn't be upset with Bonga getting the nod, but how much is he really going to develop with our organization when he's playing in the G-League or planted on the bench behind Achiuwa, Banton, Barnes and OG for the next few years while they continue to develop too. We have other players that play similar positions as Bonga too but are older (Boucher, Siakam and Yuta) as well as some better younger guards (GTJ and Flynn) that also need to develop.
There is just absolutely no space/room for Bonga to get meaningful NBA minutes unless we're dealing with significant injuries and trades are made. Even now without Siakam and Boucher to start the season, Bonga would only be getting minutes in a blowout.
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*INGRAM*ALLSTARSEASON* Wemby is HIM - Top 5 Player this year
