It seems that when it comes to Terrence Jones, Rocket fans are on one of two sides of the fence. You either hate him, or you've forgotten about him. Been there done that. Personally I have been critical of Jones in the past: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=244868, and rightfully so. I didn't think the Dmo/Jones combo was good enough to contend with a few years ago. And indeed we were bounced out of the first round, with Dmo DNP and Jones being the main culprit to why we lost against Portland. Even in last year's playoffs, while we overachieved and became a legit contender, Jones was still the weakest link. However, my point was never that Jones or Dmo were bad players, just that as rookies or second year players they were not good enough YET. And if you have rookies or second year players playing major roles, you are most likely not going to contend. That's happened, and its in the past. Fast forward to now, these two are entering their 4th season, and have continued to grow and improve. What once was an obvious liability has now turned into an intriguing question mark. The answer of which will be the key to the Rocket's season. So why Jones in particular, when the majority of Rockets fans have relegated him to an afterthought and already penciled in Dmo as the starter? For that you have to understand how the Rockets team is constructed and how they plan to play. The Rockets lead the league in 3pt attempts, as everyone knows, that is their M.O. But actually, those shots are a byproduct, not the primary focus. The team is actually built on penetration- for a layup, for a dish to someone at the rim, or often times a dish to someone at the 3pt line. That style will be reinforced more than ever now with the addition of Ty Lawson. Armed with TWO of the top slashers in the league, the entire Rockets offense is structured around drive and dish, drive and kick, or drive and score as long as Ty and Harden are on the court together. With that in mind, all the rotational decisions must complement this style of play. And that is where Terrence Jones comes in. His biggest strength is finishing at the rim off of passes from drives, in contrast to Dmo's strength which is creating for himself in the lowpost. It is obvious which should start and play alongside Ty/Harden, and which should come in as the 6th man and run the offense. It makes no sense to pound the ball down to Dmo while two of the best slashers in the league(and far better overall players) stand and watch at the 3pt line. Meanwhile, if you stick Dmo in the corner, his biggest strength goes to waste. With Terrence Jones once again becoming the starter of this team and playing a major role, how he develops becomes paramount. Personally, I am pretty optimistic. Sure, he has sucked in the playoffs so far, but that is more a testament to how young players rarely are ready to contribute in general, unless they are budding allstars or superstars. Given his development curve, Jones has actually been much better than I originally expected. After initially seeing him as a me-first iso player, he has proven me completely wrong as his biggest strength is playing off of others. It seems that it was not a me-first attitude that was the problem, but rather slow decision making that led to the ball-stopping, something that he has been getting better and better at through repetition. Jones is underrated right now. Watch for him to remain the starter even with a healthy Dmo. And how he develops this year will be the key to the season. I am not saying this particular key will necessarily end up opening any locks. Maybe we are trapped in the house, being hard capped and all. We will see.
You should have titled the thread, "Terrence Jones -- The X-Factor" btw: the key to season is health and integrating Ty Lawson. A role player is not a key to the season. Maybe you can say that the key to the season after health and integrating Ty Lawson is that *one* of our young role players has to take the next step.
Not another one of these threads. How many times has this been discussed before. In before it becomes another back and forth debated with you know who
I think there isn't much you can do about health. Hopefully we have it, but it is outside our control. It is what it is. And with the depth that this team has, it can mitigate some minor injuries. As far as integrating Ty, and I may be wrong about this, but I believe it is a foregone conclusion. The Rockets offense is all about pace and space, and Ty is a perfect fit for both pushing the pace, and creating space through penetration. And even on defense, the Rockets last year was an elite half court defensive team, and bottom level transition defensive team. Ty takes playmaking pressure off of everyone, Harden, Ariza, Beverly, Dwight, which should limit our TOs which was a major problem last year. That takes the pressure off of the transition defense. So offensively and defensively, to me, Ty is not much of a question mark at all. So "key" may not have been the word I was looking for. Obviously Harden is the key. Ty/Dwight is the key. But as far as big question marks that could determine how the season goes, Jones is at the top of the list for me.
Maybe, if Jones finally learns how to play at least passable defense and learns how to shoot the 3. Otherwise, he's an absolutely awful fit with the starters....which is why he got benched in the playoffs.
Much like the LOF era, a hotly debated issue on Jones and Dmo has left this narrative that you either hate jones, Dmo, or don't care for either. When in reality I think most think both are fine with the edge going to one of the other. But that voice can't be heard anymore bc all that's heard is hate now. It's worn out now.....
IMO T Jones value goes up if learns to do one thing well that he lacks, REBOUND. If he could rebound his position against the other top PF in the league then he would know doubt be the starter. Since DMo isn't much of a rebounder himself, Jones will probably start by default (plus DMo is hurt of course). If he could somehow turn into our Draymond Green then know doubt we resign him, otherwise I see him as trade bait.
As a snapshot at a point in time, I don't think Cxbby's thread back in 2013 ( http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=244868) was all that outrageous. But was did become outrageous was the narrative that came from it that the Rockets needed to ship out BOTH D-Mo and Jones ASAP in November of 2013 because they weren't instantly playing well enough as 2nd year players to earn rotation minutes. Did the Rockets need an upgrade at the PF to contend in the West back in 2013???... maybe that year. The West was stacked with a younger Dirk, LMA, a younger Duncan, etc. etc. and it was sort of like throwing those two guys in the fire to expect them to match up to them as equals. (Also I think we found out later on the difference was the horrible defense at multiple positions that Ariza changed almost overnight, and the weakness of guys like Lin, Casspi, etc. to be relied upon in big playoff games. It wasn't just D-Mo and Jones' fault) Now, the landscape is different. The vet star bigs are older, D-Mo/Jones are considerably better, Harden is now MVP level, and the lineups are smaller playing into more versatile bigs like D-Mo/Jones who fit in well. Not sure why we STILL need to put all the pressure on D-Mo and Jones again, and again. I bet last year Warriors fans were putting all the pressure and blame on a very talented lineup of David Lee and Andrew Bogut. In the end, we just have to see, but I love the future moving forward with BOTH guys contributing. They are BOTH really good young versatile bigs and I think they BOTH will be important in their roles this season and in the postseason.
jones will start even if DMO was healthy its been this way. Jones has put up a lot of 20+ games & some 30+ games, can rebound & shot block really well when healthy. Im really hoping jones is 100% and comes back to form this year, he will be a big help.
I just want him to have a healthy season. If that happens, he'll do fine. He was playing scared after the lung injury. He was doing great before that.
I'm on the third side of the fence, I guess. I never stopped believing in TJ and I was extremely heartened by his progress last year though it was cut short not once but twice by freak injuries. I sort of feel like everybody forgets this guy is 23 years old. I don't love TJ better than D-Mo or vice versa. I think they're both VERY young players finding their way and showing tremendous promise and potential and clearly progressing with each season. Last season was a breakout year for Jones, cut short. Then later, it was a breakout year for Motiejunas. Then Jones came back and started averaging a double-double before getting hurt again after which I don't think he played healthy again last year. Barring injury and assuming D-Mo can eventually come back strong from surgery, I expect both of these guys to make leaps this year. They're both in contract years and they're competing for the starting spot AND to be the guy the Rockets re-sign since we probably can't afford both. This is an excellent problem to have and it provides tremendous motivation to each of the guys in the rotation for our 'weakest' position. They're both going to be playing for their basketball lives and I believe they'll both come out of this year much improved. I expect Montrezl will be motivated enough to fight for a spot too, forcing Jones and Motiejunas to play even harder.
Man can you stop the Jones bashing when someone brings him up. Dmo is not a defensive stud either. The only two defensive studs from last year was Dwight and Ariza. Your boy Dmo has been benched how many times in his Rockets career?
No. You either hate Jones and love DMO, hate DMO and love Jones, or like them both. There are no such sides as Jones haters and those who forget about Jones. Because there's quite a few Jones only fans in here.
I'm not bashing anyone, if Jones is to be a legitimate starter for the Rockets he needs to be able to play at least passable defense and be able to hit the 3. Right now he hasn't shown the ability to do either. That's not bashing anyone.
I'm in this boat. To be honest I believe all our role players need to step up when called upon to win in the playoffs. From Harden, Dwight, Ariza and Ty to Terry, Jones, Motiejunas, Pat, Capel and Brewer. That's pretty much why they call it a team sport not Jones vs the NBA.
I thought McHale said something interesting at media day. He was hoping our big men would improve this year by making quicker decisions when they got the ball. He complemented DMo and said he did a good job last year of making fast decisions. He was hoping our other big men could improve in this area. I've always thought Jones needs to be quicker with his decision making when he gets the ball, so I was happy to hear McHale bring this up. I'm a big TJones fan and I think he is a long way from being a finished product, so I'm hoping to see him continue to improve.
