Jones is a good young player who lacks fundamentals for a big man (setting screens, post moves, touch around the basket, boxing out for rebounds) and relies on his athleticism (which is off the charts). His ballhandling is terrific for a player his size as well. He is already a good Power Forward in a league devoid of them. AND IT'S ONLY HIS SECOND YEAR. Stop trippin yall. Give the kid time.
Howard struggles against players who can match his strength and physicality in the block. His post game is predicated on overpowering the other Center and getting them out of position and then throwing hooks/dunking. His actual touch around the rim is not very good, and so if the opposing Center can body him up like O'Neal did tonight, his post-game can be neutralized.
I think the combo of t jones and dmo is a pretty darn good fit for the rockets. I think one of the problems with consistency is it's much more easier to be consistent when the game plan runs the offense through you. With dwight, harden, and chandler on the team, whatever 4 we could get is going to have reduced attempts so most of the points are going to come off opportunities such as broken plays and put backs. T Jones has been pretty good at that. Really I think other than improving their jumpshots both dmo and tjones need to hit the weight room so far. They still have some problems with the stronger 4's in the league.
Dwight offensively was mostly garbage and it's on McHale to put an end to that faster, especially now that we have an extremely competent backup center. Every player should be held accountable when they're not performing well (and rewarded for playing well) and that didn't happen today.
I know the result sucks and everyone wants to point fingers, but this team played playoff basketball tonight. Energy was up. They fought every play and lost. It's not all bad. Everyone plays harder in the playoffs, but champions play harder and smarter. Tonight was practice for the playoffs and these guys know what to work on now. The head game.
My biggest issue with TJones (other than his poor FT shooting) is the lack of weakside defense. He does swoop across on occasion to block a shot, but there are many times when Howard extends out to block a shot where TJones needs to fill and prevent the weakside offensive rebound or putback. Seems to happen way too many times. Perhaps TJones would be better off paired with Asik... since Asik tends to stand his ground more and doesn't extend out as much.
Actually it was like 20 games but whose counting. But yes he has sucked the past 3 or so games I agree. He's just really struggling getting involved in the flow of the offense, and it might be affecting him on the defensive end as well. I think the guy we saw for that 20 or so game stretch is probably more likely to be the guy you get consistently when he matures a bit more, but for now you still have to realize that he's still the youngest player on the team, came out early, and has an incomplete game that needs a little work in the off-season. Still the talent he has shown this season is off the charts.... the guy will bounce back here soon I'm sure.
I actually think DMO is starting to come into his own. He's become a great and active defender and knows how to go up and down. Offensively he's been shooting better. I think that long-term, DMO is going to be the better fit next to Howard. Jones will turn out to be solid too.
DMo has NOT become a great defender... Sorry. he still cannot be trusted over long minutes to defend and rebound. He has played better, but still not ready to start and get heavy rotation minutes. Last night's game was lost due to us having no PF to step up and make D Lee work for his baskets. We still need that vet PF that can hit a 12 footer and attack the basket a little bit. Milsap would be PERFECT here starting with Howard. Offseason I think Morey will get one.
Terrence Jones was really killing it for awhile. Then he missed a few games to injury. When he returned it took awhile to get his feet under him again. But since Asik's return I think the sudden change of the landscape has him looking out the passenger window rather than focusing on the road ahead: "Where are we? I don't recognize this." New rotation, slightly new role. Even if he still starts, he has to give way in the rotation. Might have thrown him off. And there will always be a regression to the mean. In the beginning I don't suspect they were really working with Terrence Jones as the potential starter (see also, Failed Twin Towers Experiment; and Smith, Greg). If you match "not teaching fundamentals" with his youth, you'll get a falloff. Watching him handle the ball up the court? Priceless. Watching him jack threes? Not worth a nickel. Obviously I'm hoping he rounds back into form.
Golden State played off Jones a lot. During Jones's 20 game or so hot stretch, he got more respect for three point shot than he deserved. I hope it is just a hiccup in the system that he can find a counter quickly.
He hit the rookie wall. Yeah I know it's late but it's not his fault. His rookie season started very late last year and he has only now hit the rookie wall. Seriously I started this thread because I saw something in Terrence Jones in summer league that maybe think this kid will be better than Patrick or Morris and he could be our future. Some people called it knee jerk but I saw it again in preseason and then in a few games I watched in D League. So when he had that breakout game it was easy for me to see he could be our future starting PF. The problem is with all his talent and skill the kid is a little slow. He still misses defensive assignments. Has cold shooting spells. He gets lost in switches and doesn't run the PNR like DMo. Some of it I chalk up to hitting a wall a bit. And some of it is DMo starring down his back. Just as DMo has improved with more consistent minutes, TJones has digressed with his minutes reduction. Not just the totals but the rate at which he scores and rebounds and his percentages. So while I proclaimed TJones as our PF I didn't mean he was an instant all star PF for us. Just after dumping Morris and PPat and the the Delfino and TRob experiment I thought TJones could be the future PF for us. That still can happen but it depends on TJones head. He has to grasp the defensive schemes better and hit an outside shot more consistently and play better one on one D. Can he do that. I don't know.
I expect Dmo and Gregory Smith to get the PF MINUTES COME PLAYOFFS. Tjones inconsistent J will hurt us bad.
mchale spoke about this post game, he said the reason he went with no jones at end was because jackson had his pf sagging off of him on defense. This reminded me of the OKC series all over again. It works but then we struggle on rebounds and defense. This is why we need a true stretch 4. Jones dunking, driving, getting put backs was cool while it lasted but in a playoff style game like last night coaches will adjust and it’s even worse when we have Howard this year because he needs that room to work in the post.
Howard SHOULD be averaging 25/15 ..... but it aint going to happen. He is 28 years old, and has surprisingly improved SOME this season but it is fruitless to point out what Howard should do after 10 years. What we got is what we expected, the best center in the NBA that is elite defensively and elite offensively some nights.
Morey needs to get stretch 4s that are actually shooters and not trying to be shooters. I have no clue why we didn't do the Ryan Anderson trade
