Sorry in advance to the thread police if already posted. Looked through the first four pages of threads and didn't see it. I say work him in slow but I think D-Mo should own the starting spot and it should be his to lose. I say Jone and J Smoove battle it out for D-Mo's scraps. http://www.nba.com/2015/news/01/27/rockets-howard-questionable-vs-mavs.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpts
I think people were mentioning it in the other tread about TJones (where is TJones) but I wasn't sure it was announced based on reading that thread. Glad you started this.
If he comes back to how he was playing before I think McHale would put him back in the starting lineup. DMo would be much better served backing up Dwight and bringing some offense off the bench.
Is Dwight supposed to play? Think about it- if both Dwight and TJones play, that would be the first time this team has been fully healthy since....well, I can't even remember when. The first couple of games of the season?
He got off to a fantastic start of this season. If he can get back to that level and if D-Mo can maintain the same level he has been playing for most of this season as one of the focal points of our second unit and if Josh Smith can stick to playing defense, running fast breaks, setting up teammates and shooting close to the basket instead of long jump shots..... That is a lot of if's. But we could have a deadly bigs rotation.
Not as long as Dwight is out. But it will mean reduced minutes when everyone is back(barring a trade).
I wonder how much of his athletic ability will be lost. Obviously I understand that this was a nerve problem and not a muscle issue, but he probably suffered some muscle loss.
I'm a huge TJones fan, so I am thrilled he's ready to return. I don't care who starts, or who comes off the bench. I'll let the coaches figure out what combination of players works best. Dwight and TJones always seemed to work well together, so I wouldn't be surprised if TJones ended up starting at some point in the future. But it doesn't really matter. I'm just glad to see the Rockets have quality depth at both center and power forward. The coaches have a couple of months to experiment with rotations, and figure out what works best.
How bout Jones & Smith battle it out for Howards minutes until he gets healthy .... Best to keep Howard on the bench till he gets his body right. Timing of Jones return couldn't be better.
We should temper our expectations a bit folks. He is going to have to get his conditioning back first of all, he is going to have to learn to play with his new teammates and the new defensive style -- it is going to take him some time to play himself in shape and into the flow of this team. I hope is ready to give us 10 to 15 minutes initially, but it might be a slow process for him to get back up to speed folks. I am confident he'll get there, and I think he'll end up really helping this team (if by nothing else allowing McHale to be able to yank Smith for being all Josh Smithy a little faster than he can now). Maybe Dwight will even be able take some games off towards the end of the season in order to rest up for the playoffs. Also, obligatory plea for Jones not to go stomping on any more enchanted homeless men. Gotta clean that stuff up Terrence.
Smith can be the backup 5/4, and Jones the backup 4. Sometimes, they will hopefully play together. It will be interesting to see how it works out.
Once the other teams will get some easy put backs and you will start to lose your mind and begging Dwight to move his ass out of the bench.
This really shouldn't be hard to do in my opinion. First of all, ANYTHING for Dorsey to not see the floor is a PLUS! I would continue to start with D-Mo at the 4, along side Dwight. Then rotate Smith and Jones to play the 4 and the 5 since McHale likes to play small sometimes. D-12 should play in spurts to get him in shape and keep him healthy until the playoffs. Using this rotation will minimize the tread of Dwight while it will give T-Jones an opportunity to get back in game shape.
