All you do is talk about the past. You fail to acknowledge any progress players make. Is harden the same player now as he was in the Portland series last year. You keep referring to the past so he must be
This is talking about basketball and your absurd views on tjones that so many notice and call you out on
I hate when I see this thread at the top of the page and I click on it only to see no post from cyberx, just y'all...
Terrence Jones has gotten better. We also have better defense as a team. I'll take this year's Terrence with this year's improved DMo backing up Dwight and Smith off the bench.
The playoffs are COMING! That's not the past. The playoffs are coming. We had just a small taste tonight. If Terrence is our starting PF in the playoffs we are going to have trouble getting out of the first round. That's future.
No. You must have watched the wrong game. If DMo is our starting C we will have trouble. TJo just carried us back into a game against 2 elite bigs, with our 1 elite big sidelined. That is the present. If DMo is a starter come playoff time, we are in trouble. That's the future. Yet again, you are wrong.
Motiejunas, after a stretch of poor games, is now underrated again. At his best, he is extremely nimble laterally, and he doesn't bite on pump fakes like TJones did last year when he was getting worked over. I think McHale made a huge mistake not giving Donuts a try.
So you keep telling people to refer to the Portland series and that's not the past. Ok makes sense. You also like to dodge previous statements as well. Is TJ the only person on this team?
WTF? Terrence had 21 pts (on 10-14 shooting), 9 rebs, 2 blks, and a steal tonight, and you're trying to put this loss on him?
Are you not going to watch the playoffs??? Oh wait, i see what you are saying. You are admitting to confirmation bias and only ever seeing what your warped mind tells you is true.
Here's another one. Unbelievable. How in the world do you interpolate that I'm blaming Terrence for this loss based on the above statement??????????? NO! I'm not putting this loss on him! My statement has NOTHING to do with with us losing this game!! That's simply you making up stuff. Stop twisting and distorting what I'm saying for your own silliness. Very simply. If Terrence is our starting PF in the playoffs we are going to have a difficult time winning a first round 7-game series. Terrence is not big enough, strong enough, nor long enough to effectively contend defensively with the big PFs he will have to defend and Terrence cannot shoot a basketball effectively and efficiently enough to keep the opponent defenders honest and keep them from sagging off him into the paint and helping on Harden and our other big (either Dwight or DMo). In a 7-game playoff series, coaches and teams actually gameplan for the other team. They study the opponent. They know the opponent's weak spots. And they develop their game strategy around exposing the opponents weaknesses and playing to the opponent's weaknesses. We are too easy to defend over a 7-game series with Terrence in there at the 4. All an opponent has to do is crowd Harden and run Terrence's defender at Harden when Harden makes his move off the pick. Now you've got 2 on 3 with Harden/Howard against their defenders plus Jones' defender jammed down in the lane. The opponent won't care that Jones is wide open at the top of the key or in the corner. That's what they want. That is their goal, to get the ball in Jones' hands while he is standing outside staring at 3 defenders clogging up the paint with the clock running down. So now that they've got our offense bottle-necked then they can go down the other end and rub Jones off on a screen and make hay with their 7-footer. Until the 4th quarter, and then they can flat post-up Jones. Terrence is a mismatch against us in the playoffs. Easy pickings for the opponent. Sure, he looks good now. And no doubt he has improved...incrementally. But study his numbers. Same shooting percentages as last season. Same rebound rate as last season. Only area he has gone up in is blocks. Those aren't interior blocks he's getting and that number is inflated because of him only playing 18 games. But he's blocking shots on the perimeter. Hey that's great. But it doesn't translate. He's not going to be blocking shots from 7-footers in the playoffs. Now, if we bring him off the bench against the opponents bench bigs who are sometimes smaller and obviously less-skilled then he's got a chance crank some numbers out against them. *** If anybody really reads my posts, they will see that I'm giving Terrence credit for his improvement. They will see that I have progressed up in my valuation of Terrence just as his game has progressed. Last season I stated early that he shouldn't be in the rotation (top 8) of a championship team. As the season progressed, I adjusted and said he could get spot minutes as the 8th man on a championship team but if he was starting at the 4 we wouldn't win a championship. This season I have felt, since he returned and I've seen him play with our second unit, that he could be part of a difference-making second unit that played stuff D, turned the opponent over, and got out and ran. I think he's moved up to a possible 6-7 rotation player on a championship team. So there's your progression. He's still not a starting PF on a championship team however. He doesn't defend big bigs well enough nor shoot well enough to be a positive difference maker as a starter on a championship team.
Terrence's size is not the issue. In the NBA ....YOU WILL NEVER BE BIGGER than the Gasol's, the Aldridges, and the Dirks. That's just never going to happen. You're also never going to have someone that can defend and guy like that.... AND SHOOT the ball like Steph Curry. What Basketcaseahollic is trying to create is a classic straw man argument. He's created a world where his villain can never win in his argument. For the Rockets to be successful against these elite guys, they need to improve better at their team defense in these situations. The Rockets HATE to double team and they HATE gambling giving up 3's in their team defense by doubling correctly. Last night, Harden doubled on Gasol and didn't come quick enough, and didn't get high enough in his attempt to put a hand in his face. Terrence's position defense was fine. Just an incredible shot, and not enough help to force a worse shot. So I don't want to continue to divert attention away from the Cyberx transaction rumor thread because its not fair to let Hollic hijack another thread, but I want everyone to be crystal clear about this Strawman argument. There will NEVER be a perfect PF to fit this Unicorn Profile Power Forward. That type of perfect world PF just simply does not exist.
I'm not "part of the crowd." Never have been, and never will be. Crowds make me claustrophobic. Also, I could care less about stroking your ego. I'm merely offering a friendly bet, no more, no less, and with no money or conditions involved. If you end up being right I'll say so, whether you care or not. If you are wrong, I'll enjoy being right. I'll enjoy advancing from the 1st round a hell of a lot more than any of the crap said in this thread, true or not.
