T-Jones isn't necessarily a bad rebounder, however he has a huge problem with boxing out and locating his man...Which is huge because we give up so many offensive boards and second chance opportunities..TJ's rebounding stats are decent but mainly due to the fact that he plays off Of the attention drawn by D12
The notion that there is a competition for the PF spot is utter BS. Last year when Lin and bev competed for starting point , at least both players each got some starts. Jones has started every game this preseason and has played the overwhelming amount of minutes with other starters. Granted we do not see what goes on in practice , but jones has really not looked that good this preseason. Dmo has outplayed him over the course of 6 games and yet he gets minimal minutes in general and even fewer with the starters. Tonight Dmo got some early minutes and looked fantastic in the first half. Jones played like ass. In the second half jones started off alright and made a couple nice hustle plays , dmo looks just ok ( he still had good offensive rebounding) and dmo gets all of 5 minutes in the half and jones gets another 14 ish. Dmo ends up with 16 min played to jones 28 . Dmo has the highest plus minus on he team and jones has the lowest ( this is before the last 45 seconds) I just don't get it . Why is jones getting this chance , it's not even that .. Why is no one else getting a chance. Anyone is going to look better playing with James and Dwight not to mention Bev and Ariza. Mchale decided jones was going to start before any games were played ... And again we don't see what's going on in practice . But in the games dmo at least deserves a shot to get some meaningful minutes with the other starters. I'm not even arguing that dmo should be given the starting job, but given his play he at least deserves a shot which he hasn't gotten. I think they are worried about backup center and Dmo is really the only one capable of playing there .. But there is a good chance that he is better than jones and I think it is a mistake this early in the season to put him at backup C because you are scared what is behind Dwight . The rockets need to try and start their best 5 . If dmo plays poor move him to backup 5 , if he plays well you can still move him there and he has some extra confidence . Sorry for the rant , I just get pissed off when good, hard working , and talented players don't even get a chance.
Jones looks like he might regress in this offense. Harden is the only one who can set him up but Harden has to worry about Ariza and Bev too.
Do we think Papanikolaou might get more than 7 votes now? TBH, I don't necessarily think Jones has been that bad, but he's just not getting the easy looks he was getting last year. I have to think that changes once the regular season starts and Harden and Howard get rolling alot more. Have to think teams are going to stop guarding him again like last year. Still, I'm surprised that the PF's still look lost in the offense at times. Still so many broken plays. Its not their fault though. Young guys like Jones and D-Mo need some structure, and they still don't seem savvy enough to pick their spots in a free flowing offense. I've backed McHale for years now (well just stood up for him when I felt he was inaccurately blamed unfairly), and I think he was the right coach for the Rockets the last two years. However right now, I think this particular team, just doesn't have the offense to play his style and score the ball enough to get that 110 points they need to get wins consistently. My point is, I'm not really sure I blame Jones and D-Mo for the PF debacle. Watching the games, I just see them not having that much to do in their offense, and they obviously aren't creative adaptable players. They need to be coached, and put in better spots to produce. I know its just the preseason, but thats just my 2 cents.
It has to be Jones. He can explode for huge points at times, is very athletic, will improve on defense.
"Roughly half" of the league's teams reached out to Okafor this summer, per Marc Stein of ESPN, but he's yet to receive medical clearance. J. Michael of CSN reported in August that the 6'11" center has "lots" of hurdles to clear with doctors before they'll allow him to return. Mum, as per usual with the private Okafor, has been the word from his camp. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2216472-nba-free-agents-2014-ray-allen-emeka-okafor-and-vets-who-may-alter-title-chase T_Man
TJ is the better PF right now. Dmo has o stay and play the 5. Black is starting to fade as the pace is ramping up to NBA speed. Adrien is barely above a scrub. Dorsey is a non entity pretty much. Dmo is still inconsistent now. His defense is better this year but he still sets up wrong when defending and allows his man a lane to the basket. Of course to recover Dmo than just fouls or lets the player power in. Last year TJ could play with most teams and at times he would get dominated by an elite 4. He also would fade offensively to where he was a detriment. So far he seems to have improved. TJ and Dmo just like last year.
The excuse making for our power forwards is hilarious. Until we get a 4 man on the floor that can shoot the long ball efficiently the offense is going to be hamstrung. It's so simple.