[EuroBasket 2013] Asik, Motiejunas, Casspi, Papanikolaou & Llull -- Sep. 4–22

D-Mo needs to acquire physical and mental strength, and play smart basketball.
Coach McHale can help,but I feel he needs to talk and work on all these aspects with the Dream.
I know he is a finesse player,but he needs to learn how to finish strong around the basket.make free throws,and rebound.
Defense and shooting can improve over time.
The worst thing that McHale can do is try to convert him into a 3 point shooting PF.

 

From what I've seen, DMo thinks he already is a 3 point shooting PF despite being a more efficient player in the low post. He has shown 3 point range in the past in games and in practice now so being a stretch PF isn't out of the question for his future. The Rockets do need to work on his ability to get position down low more so as he has shown he can score efficiently when he gets opportunities there.

He is still very raw defensively.

 

When you are ignored every single time you post up, you tend to quit trying to post up. They actually feed him the ball when he's on the 3 point line, so it's more a product of his teammates/coaches than anything.

 

Unless he is told by coaches to stop posting up, this is all DMo. Not seen any of his play this summer, but what I've seen in the past is that he doesn't hold his position well against strong defenders making it difficult for him to get good opportunities down low. He is money when he gets the ball down low in the few good opportunities I've seen.

 

D-Mo doesn't have the lower body strength to bully his way down low in the post obviously, but one thing he did do this Summer was use his quickness to get position in the post, and then make a quick move to the basket.

I personally don't think him posting up is his main concern at all. The game play both with the Rockets, and the Lithuanian national team on offense doesn't really put him in position to get frequent post up touches to begin with. If he wants PT this year, its quite obvious to me that he needs to be able to hit the corner 3, play adequate defense, and not commit stupid turnovers.

If the Rockets wanted to keep the same offensive scheme, and use D-Mo in the post, and as a Pick-and-Roll big, he really needs to be playing center to get enough space to operate in the post.

I'm not saying that D-Mo is anywhere near strong enough to guard opposing team's big's much less true centers, but in the FUTURE when he gets strong enough, I could envision him coming off the bench as the primary big playing center on offense.

In that case, obviously you'd either hope that the other bench big could spread the floor, and play great defense to make up for what you might lose with D-Mo, or you'd plan for the offense to be dynamic enough that it makes up for what they give up defensively.

Anyways.... The short point is that his post up game isn't his concern in the short term if he wants PT this year. He's just gotta play smart and his the tray.

 

If he wants PT as a Rocket right now, I do think you are right. I just have my doubts about him being able to add an efficient enough three pointer to counter his weakness defensively. If he can't do that, he might not fit with Rockets. I like his skills around the basket if he could get stronger to use them more often and long term see that as his way of getting PT. He may fit Rockets better as a backup PF with Asik at center. He may fit better on another team.

 

If DMo were to play the 5, and how bad an idea is that? But, if the gent were to play inside he would not be matched against team's Bigs, their strong 5 but rather their b/u 5. And he could IMO develop into that with KMc's and Camby's assistance.

I suspect he needs a clear path going forward to determine what it is that he is to be on this team.

 

I agree that in time when his body finally matures fully, there is no reason why he couldn't play the backup 5. Heck, how much in the past have we seen the Rockets for stretches be more than adequate with Scola at the 4/5 for long stretches? You just have to be able to outscore your opponent in that case.

My points were only in regard to his near future with the Rockets assuming Asik & Greg Smith are still with the team this year. Those 2 are going to win minutes with the backup (and maybe starting) unit this year which would almost by default make D-Mo & Jones the "smaller floor-spacing big" (which is probably a more adequate term than the traditional positions Power Forward and Center).

I agree. That's why if the org really is not planning on trading Asik, the coaching staff needs to do everything they can to either get D-Mo to be a consistent three point threat, or move him in a little bit further to be able to consistently hit the long 2 (the forbidden LONG TWO).

If they think there is a good possibility that Asik could be traded at some point this year, then it might be smart for the Rockets staff to develop him more as a traditional big man where he is highlighting his strengths in the post, and developing his pick and roll skill. Along with further developing his body & core/lower body strength as well.

I agree that I have my doubts if he will ever have the core stability to truly be a knock down three point shooter. I really like his form and touch, but his problem is mostly with his core & lower body where he looks very unstable. Any three point shooter knows that's what really makes a great shooter more than anything.

However, with D-Mo the Rockets are playing with House Money. He's a freebee they already have.... if they want someone they know is a specialist in the role they need... they are going to have to pay for one, and that cost could put them out of the running for landing a true 3rd all-star talent in trade. They can go get a Channing Frye or Ryan Anderson in the future if they need to win now. For now if I'm Morey I am-

A. Seeing what I have with the group I have for the first half of the season, and look to plug holes first with young talent like D-Mo.
B. Developing a plan to either prepare to try and trade Asik in February in a package for the last big fish (maybe LaMarcus Aldridge, could be someone else).

Either in the short term or long term, D-Mo will either fill in the holes or he will not. However, he's already there on a rookie contract, so I wouldn't necessarily hastily go look to move him until we know what happens with the Asik situation so at that point to xiki's point... The Rockets have a direction to give D-Mo as to his long term role with the team... which I agree he needs sooner rather than later.

 

DMo with his girlfriend

 

It's not on him when he's constantly waived out of the post by his teammates which was the case last year. The few times they went to him in the post, it almost always ended in points, but usually he'd just be waived off to the 3 point line where he'd just stand there and watch. If that's what the coaches want, then it's on them, if not, it's on those running the offense be it Harden, Lin, or Parsons.

 

What happened to the hot girl that was with him at the summer league last year in Vegas? If this is his girl friend it's definitely not an improvement.

 

If I remember correctly he is much more efficient in the post than Asik (62% vs 54%). Now if he just did not have to play defense ...

 

64.3% versus 37.9% according to mysynergysports.com

 

Moneyball:

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This guy did pretty good over in Eurobasket.
His team sucked though.

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That's not his girlfriend.

 

He is extremely underrated and Charlotte doesn't know what they are doing with him.

 

Things might change up a bit, if he can gain just a bit more of the FO's confidence. Now that Dwight's here, they'll start learning and running more in/out sets. Those same plays have a chance to carry over to the 2nd unit and give Motie some post up opportunities, when Dwight gets a rest or there's a mismatch at he 4. He's a 7 footer that can finish well with left or right in the post, it'd be unfortunate to see that go untapped or underdeveloped.

And I really hope he can step up this year, because
*tick-tock!*tick-tock!*

 

Question for you, JTR or anyone else: Does that figure for efficiency in the low post include fast break points? If it does, then it's understandable and jibes with my memory. If it doesn't, then his low-post game was much better than I remember and he should get many more touches there.

 

There is some uncertainty, but fast break points should not be in there. These only take into account FGAs after he was able to get position. If the defender does a good enough job, Motiejunas doesn't get ball or is forced to pass.