basketballholic is just Dmo and TJones hater. Casspi is playing much worse than Tjones, yet somehow Casspi should be playing 4, and not TJones. And then he proudly announces that Hamilton should play 30minutes. The guy just got here and just because he can shoot 3, hes immidiatly better than everyone else.
don and BBalholic Oddly enough there are a few teams where playing the TT makes sense. DET, MEM and IND come immediately to mind. Also against horrible teams like PHI. I see no reason why Asik over a season could not average 20 minutes a night. At 30 a night last season Asik at times looked out of gas.
I couldn't agree more. Asik does need more minutes, but a huge majority of those should be sans-Howard. That 20 minute mark sounds about right to me too, but I'd lean towards less seeing Howard gets 28 in that scenario. And not that you said this, jtr, but Terrence Jones getting DNP-CDs is not the answer to his woes or the team's. I do believe TJ should play less, but it's the wrong message if you take him out all together. And the numbers don't lie, he's already playing less. Last 8 games: 23.1 minutes per game down from 28.3 minutes per game when the lull started. Time for DMo to stay focused and step up! Competing for minutes will only help both players and the team. Regarding Hamilton at the 4, I'd say it's the same thing with the TT. Situational. Can he play 4 against Dirk? Probably. Ibaka, Duncan, etc types... probably not.
I was totally against it, but am starting to lean that way, DMo seems to be much better overall for teamplay vs Jones. DD
No. My argument is Asik is one of the 5 best players on this team. He should be getting at least 25 minutes a game. So you find the minutes. Secondly, my argument is Asik defensively at the 4 alongside Dwight is superior to either Jones or DMo defensively alongside Dwight. Asik is a better defender. He's got better feet. He's smarter. He's bigger. He's longer. He's stronger. And he's a better rebounder than Jones or DMo. Thirdly, neither Jones or DMo is effective shooting the ball out on the floor. So...we either have the same spacing problem we have with Asik next to Dwight or we have those cats hoisting up a bunch of bad shots. (Now recently DMo has shot decently from 3. Which makes him a viable option offensively alongside Dwight or Asik for some minutes. But if his shooting goes south...he needs to go sit.) Lastly....the majority of teams we are going to see in the playoffs are power basketball teams. In fact....most of the league, not just playoff teams, play 2 power bigs. OKC - Perkins/Ibaka/the rookie - (sometimes they spread it out with Durant at the 4...that's when we counter small) SA - Duncan/Splitter - same setup (sometimes they spread it out...we can spread it out with them with Harden/Parsons at the 4) Clips - nuff said, just been there and done that for the 3rd time Portland - LaMarcus/Lopez - same scenario, most effective 4/5 defenders we could run out there would be Asik on LaMarcus and Dwight killing Lopez down low. Dallas - whoever/Dirk - now here's your superstar spread 4, one of the greatest distance shooters to ever play the game. Neither Jones nor DMo can cover him. He murders them...just absolutely rips them to shreds. He's too big for Jones, too skilled for either guy. Watch the games. Dirk kills those guys. We oughta have Asik out there running him down. Dirk is old. He's not fast. He's just very, very crafty. Gotta run Asik out there on him. GS - Bogut and Lee with that midrange guy off the bench with Ezeli coming back....once again watch the games. Lee beats us constantly. Bogut/Lee overpower Dwight and Jones. Gotta run Asik out there against Lee. Lee ain't no stretch 4. He's simply a high motor big guy that makes hard cuts to the rim and finishes. Memphis - Gasol/Zach - you kidding me? Haven't we seen enough of that? Dwight/Asik is the only pairing to defend them. That's your likely playoff teams. I still say Memphis is going to edge out Phoenix is they can get everybody healthy. I just ran through the WC teams, showed you their starting bigs. The other teams are already putting the lineups out there that make a Dwight/Asik combo work. And I haven't even gotten to Indiana and Miami. Indiana plays power basketball. West hangs out at the high post with the pick-and-pop action. He's probably the toughest cover of all the teams I've mentioned. because he's very quick at the 4, very quick release on the jumper, and he can put it on the floor and finish. Jones can't hang with him. We've already seen that show. Gotta get more length and quick feet out there. Asik once again. Miami - Bosh/Birdman - What is the best option defensively on Bosh? Jones, DMo, or Asik????? It's a no-brainer. I like Rocket ball too. Spread it out, get the stretch 4 in the corner, 4 guys that can shoot it....with Dwight/or Howard in the middle. Love it. But we simply don't have that BB shooting stretch 4. Not unless DMo continues what he's doing. So if we can't get a hot-shooting 4...the next best option is to dominate defensively. The problem is neither Jones nor DMo dominates. Jones looks decent against the dregs of the league then gets blasted by every decent team and DMo looks piss-poor for most of the season and only plays in spurts defensively, and simply doesn't play smart most of the time. Yes, he's improving. But everything I wrote is still true. Improving doesn't mean he's good. Improving means he's getting less bad. That's how bad he's been. Yes, I'm saying let's ignore what we've already tested. It was an experiment that was contaminated. Contaminated by bad attitudes and stubbornness, the unwillingness of Asik to bend and make it work. He contaminated the whole experiment. Those numbers you are posting mean zippo. Watch the game last night. Watch the video again. Watch what Blake did to Jones and DMo. Then watch what Blake did when Asik ran out there on him. That's lab experiement #1 without the contamination of Asik's bad attitude and physical injury. It worked. There is no problem finding Asik and Howard TEN FREAKING MINUTES a game to co-exist, dominate defensively and scramble the opponent up and create runouts. It's something that we should not just experiment with but EXPLOIT. Put the 2 bigs in with 3 racehorses...go small on the perimeter, have the perimeter guys scramble and overplay pressuring 3/4 court, have Beverley digging around at the point, Lin up tight on the SG, Hamilton or Harden playing up on the SF, and Asik/Dwight checking the two bigs....Lin/Bev/Harden(or Hamilton)/Asik/Dwight....high pressure defense, 2 minutes at the end of the first, 2 minutes to start the second, 3 minutes at end of third, 3 minutes to start the 4th, watch them pile up turnovers and defensive rebounds and burn teams up with the runouts. That lineup should be used to EXPLOIT the opponent for 10 minutes a game. Run it out there until teams figure out what's happening and they've got to get one of their power bigs off the floor. Then we take off one of our bigs and go small or conventional.
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idk what's up with him. but we should bring Dmo sooner when Tjones looks lost like the last couple of games. It could be the long road trip
Jones looks like he hit the rookie wall and DMo makes the team MUCH better, I think if Jones hasn't lost the starting job already he soon will
Terrence has been way better at home vs on the road. That's not uncommon for young players. DMo is a guy that I wanted to win the starting PF job since he was drafted but he had a shot starting after PPat was traded and he blew it. The Rockets trade to make him a rotation player a couple of times earlier in the season but every time he had a good game he followed it up with two bad games. Now DMo has finally entrenched himself into the rotation and he is playing better than TJones or at least he did on that road trip. Having said that, I would not change not move him into the starting spot and move TJones out just yet. We just now started getting consistent play out of DMo and both he and TJones are young. We can't keep changing their roles on the team this early in their careers. At this point I think each player should stay in the role he is in and be allowed to work through the rough spots. If DMo continues to play well and TJones does not pull out of his slump then the Rockets can always revisit the possibility of moving DMo into the starting line-up later.
I disagree. I think both TJones and DMo should compete for that starting spot day in and day out. Whoever is worth it at that current moment should get it. Force feeding minutes to young players and not making them accountable for it is a recipe for disaster. Just look at Bargnani with the Raptors. He never worried about losing his starting job because no matter what he was doing he wasn't being held accountable. He never reached his full potential and now is widely considered a bust. Terrence needs to understand that he's not THE **** yet. If he plays like crap, his minutes should be taken away and given to the guy who deserves it more.
Once DMo gets off his emotional high of finally getting minutes he will fade. He has done this in the past as well. That is also what happened to TJones.
So you're saying DMo and TJones can only perform well when they're emotional. Don't skill and effort have something to do with it? You showed your extensive basketball knowledge, befitting of your username.
Jones was always the most NBA ready of the two with DMo having higher upside. We knew we would have to let him grow/develop ...With our window, I was skeptical if he would be given time. That said, I'm ecstatic that Les held him at the deadline. DMo is now starting to give us a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg..He's always had the great speed and post moves. Now with the weight, he can battle more defensively. (and eventually show his post game)His outside shot is coming and will eventually be pretty lethal IMO. Donatas might still get dealt, but either way, he's a player.
D-Mo has taken a huge step forward defensively. He has grasped situational defense, positional defense, rotational defense and just basically knows every moment where his main mark is on the floor. A light has turned on in his head. Pretty remarkable. This makes D-Mo's offensive production much less important. As if Houston's starting lineup ever needed even average offensive production from the power forward position. We will see if a similar light goes off in Jones head. If it does not I would expect his minutes to keep decreasing. In the Clippers game Blake scored 23 points. Eight of them were due solely to Jones losing Blake defensively. Six of those points in the first 2 minutes of the game.
