It's clear Morey is looking to upgrade the PF spot. Whether that's by Jones taking a huge leap forward offensively and defensively, or by trading up, Jones NEEDS to make major improvements for him to meet our roster needs or become attractive enough for teams like Minnesota to be interested in him as a trade piece (along with the NOP pick). - Last year he averaged 12.1ppg/6.9rpg on 54.2% (30.7% on 3's/60.5% on FT) - He attempted an average of 9.4 shots a game and averaged 27.3 mpg With the loss of Lin and Parson who were a larger part of the offense last year and with the loss of Asik who filled in for Jones at PF at times, it stands to reason that Jones will have to be a larger part of the offense next season. Option 1: Harden Option 2: Howard Option 3: Jones Option 4: Ariza Option 5: Beverly Given our system of play tends to inflate numbers a bit due to pace, is it unreasonable to expect Jones' numbers to increase significantly due to usage increases? Hopefully with Ariza and Howard, the defensive deficiencies of Harden and Jones can be mitigated a bit more allowing Harden and Jones to focus more on the offensive end. I'm predicting Jones goes up to 34-35 mpg since our defense is a little stronger now with Ariza and average anywhere between 16/8 and 19/9. If he can average 19/9 or better does anyone thing he'd be attractive enough as a trade piece for an upgrade? I'm certain if he did average that, many here would say just keep him as his value to us would increase as well. Bottom line: Given the new roster with Howard/Ariza/Bev defending the 5/3/1 spots, and how much more usage Jones might get as the third offensive option how well do you guys think he'll do this up coming season?
Jones will not improve the next two years to handle the big elite PF's that we will face in the west conference. He will be good enough to get us about the same amount of wins in the regular season but we will be screwed if we go into the playoffs with him.
19 and 9 for basically a 2nd year player? C'mon bro... If he can just get us a consistent 10 and 8 and hopefully not look completely incompetent on defense like he did in the playoffs, then the power forward situation will be somewhat okay.
not saying that's realistic by any means. but given our pace everyone's numbers are inflated. he averaged 12/7 last year. Is it unreasonable to think he'd do 17/8.5 with more minutes and more attempts?
He is a excellent help defending shot blocker. offensively his jumpshot release is WAY to slow. Rockets coaches need to find a way to help him. Playing more experience bigs like zbo , blake, and LMA, he isnt ready
I guess we'll see. His defense is much more important to me than his offense given the power forwards you see in the West. That's what I really hope he improves on, if anything.
I completely agree, which is why even if he improves to 18/8 I'd trade him because we need a better defensive answer at the 4. My hope is he improves to increase his value in trade.
It is not his skill set / playing style It is his motor more of change of pace guy / 6th man - he is a STUD but not for the whole game. We NEED a more out of DMo or another PF to make Jones really shine.
What does it matter...??? LMA, Griffin, Davis, Dirk, Duncan _ those guys are going to get theirs and it's not a darn thing we can do about... Griffin can drop 30 on Bosh in a pair of church shoes. He wouldn't have been any better defensively than what we already have... Roll TJ and D-Mo out there and go to work.
if you can get a vet 4, it would be cool to keep jones on the bench and see if he improves. if not, you really hope he improves to 14-16 ppg, 7-8 rbs. plays better D and improves his ft/shooting.
I think TJones is a great role player but not one you would draw up a play for on a consistent basis. The starting lineup looks nice to me, with Nick Johnson filling in the role J Lin played. If we can add another wing and a back up big we will be contenders!
It's not Jones fault. Guys like LMA, Griffin, etc score on EVERYONE. You can't stop those guys... And Bosh can't either and if we would have got him _ you would be complaining about the same thing. TJ just has to do the best he can and it's up to the rest of the team not to let the scrubs and bench players go off for 20 points. Same thing other teams do us as far as Harden is concerned.
We just need consistency from TJones this year. I think he will come back a little better than last year. He has the physical tools to get better. I would imagine the rockets org has him working on those little things (defensive rotations) getting stronger to handle the big PFs in the west. Last year was his first year starting and getting big minutes in the lineup. We saw flashes of potential out of him, so hopefully that keeps up. I still think Morey is looking to bring in a vet 4.
If T Jones can continue to develop a consistent jumper and work on his post defense (and maybe perimeter defense for LMA) he could be a great accent piece to what we are building in Houston. Offensively, he's probably our best post scorer. I put him at about 15 and 7 for the season.
