Wow Green had a really rough night tonight 1-9. JJ had a slightly better, but also rough shooting night at 4-11. Really the whole team seemed off tonight. But they got the win.
Yeah JJ hasn't done anything to warrant the PT he is getting. GG is streaky but he at least has been bringing the defense/steals lately. JJ is slow, inconsistent and just plain bad at this point. He shouldn't be seen as a vital rotation player on a contender but MDA appears to think differently.
How can you blame Rockets not winning this game easily only on JJ? I mean nobody is hitting three and playing Hard on defense, besides Harden just had the worst game of this season. Our lineup with Capela is losing tonight, and the lineup playing Tucker at 5, JJ at 4 actually won us this game. Besides, at this point of the season, a game really doesn't matter, MDA is experimenting his small lineup. Do you really care about the outcome of this game so much? I don't.
I'm not blaming JJ, and yes Harden played like dogshit but he has been great all saeason. I'm blaming MDA for playing JJ since JJ has had one good game all season. He has reason to suck, he's old now and has a lot of mileage. He was great in his prime. He is not now. Other players should play over him.
Joe Johnson had 11 pts and was a +12 (weren't we using +/- to show how trash Joe has been?) Harden was a -8 If the bench, with Joe, is allowed to close out the game, Rocket win in regulation. I agree, his shot is still trash.
so which is it? deep rotation or not?. ppl on this board complain about MDA and his "short rotations" so the rockets are down cp3, lmm goes down with injury, yet theres still complaints about using JJ for a 9 man rotation.
Be patient. I am sure if coming playoff time, JJ still can't find his role in this team, Dantoni won't play him in meaningful minutes. But in the regular season, when our seed is almost secured, it won't hurt to do some experiment on the lineup so that we may have more options in the playoffs, right? Is there one single game that we lost this season, just because MDA overplayed JJ? Imo, the answer is no. Maybe you can argue for the Raptors game, but in that game, none of our players except Harden played well. It's true that if MDA gave some of JJ's minutes to Harden, we could have won that game, but you can say the same thing for CP3. Again, nobody except Harden played well that game, so you can't only blame JJ for that lost. Maybe you have lost your faith in JJ may contribute in the playoffs, and rightfully so. I still had the hope that he can be useful in some situations, and that's all we need from him.
I see some things I like about his game. He's really good at backing into the paint and then finding the open man on the perimeter. But, he's got to improve his shooting. Just because he's getting minutes now doesn't mean he'll be getting minutes in the playoffs. Maybe he will, maybe he won't.
He’s a good option on nights like this when Paul and Luc were out. If nothing else he commands a double team in the post and is a good passer out of it. Different wrinkle to the offense.
I just can't believe how much his 3 ball has fallen off this year. He shot 41% last season, and is pretty much a career 38% shooter, and he's shooting 28% right now.
Green was playing really well until dumbtoni started playing Iso ahead of him. Aside from Greens scoring, he brings energy and athleticism. See, i didn’t envision this being an iso vs. green situation when we picked him up. I thought Dumbtoni would play them based on matchups and who had the hot hand. Tonight they both needed to play, but in past games he’s forced iso into the lineup when he could/should have gone with Green instead.
He started the season with a wrist injury and probably hasn't played enough to get himself into rhythm. Utah pretty much sat his ass on the bench immediately without letting him get back into the flow. This is probably why you see D'Antoni playing JJ even though he may not be super effective. I am not worried about JJ at all and have never been worried about his playing the entire time. The only game the Rockets have lost since JJ has been on the team was against the Raptors and that was lost in the first quarter after going down by 16 points, and I don't even think JJ played a minute of that quarter. Point is: -JJ is a smart, capable basketball player in limited minutes -He can make some plays, but mostly expect him to play smart and do EXACTLY what is asked of him -He may hardly play at all in the playoffs when it comes down to it -He will likely be a FAR more stable and effective player on the court during the playoffs than Green most likely. Ultimately, Green is going to see most of his minutes at SF and JJ is going to see most of his minutes at PF. I've been saying this for weeks, people need to chill out on JJ. He does small stuff like making the extra pass that guys like Green would never even imagine doing.
Some of these "haters" box score/play-by-play watch only. Hence they have to b more reliant on stats to hate on jj hence usage of the +/- and his mins. Noticed most of them get riled up about the mins, as long as it's over gg mins they gonna get mad. they don't even have to watch the game.
joe looks really slow on his lateral movements and staying in front of his man, but i got to say i'd probably prefer him over GG's streaky shooting. Defense wise GG has the upper hand offence wise i'd prefer JJ with his post ups spacing the floor
