[2016-2017] Donatas Motiejunas as a New Orleans Pelican

Its hard to say lots of people put in the work but without guidance and proper coaching they're like fumbling in the dark. Iirc Mchale was raving about KJ's work ethic before, said he sleeps in the gym because of how much he works on his game. So that guy wasnt lacking in work ethic look at him now.

If he went to the Spurs KJ would be way better than he is now. OTH, Kawhi would be way worse since instead of Pops teaching him Mchale would be like "wtf is going on just play harder rook" and JB would ignore him in favor of Brewer.

 

while my point was too simplistic and certainly not 'true' i think this view is also way too simplistic to describe reality there are various complex factors in play in each and every situation even to begin to be described in words but we may as well have fun trying to point to the reality

yes kawhi worked his tail of but you need much more than hard work in order to 'succeed' , people in sweatshops work their tail off yet never become rich

sometimes you need motivation to be hard worker and right circumstances and that whats spurs org perhaps provide

sometimes you need patience from the org to work hard and not to trade you or threaten to trade you for stars before you can blossom

were kawhi to be drafted by kings or some other franchise he could have worked his tail off and he would never become what hes now and perhaps would be out of league

on the other hand i am sure pop would have pulled out miracles out of players such as TRob and similar

 

I think you're SERIOUSLY underestimating Kawhi's will to be good. People that work in sweatshops aren't 6'7 with a 7'3 wingspan and don't defend as well as Kawhi has from day 1. We're talking NBA talent level. According to your way of thinking the Spurs should never cut a player or they could just get a guy from a sweatshop to play in their organization. No natural talent or work ethic required, because the Spurs can sprinkle dust on you or give you a shot of the Spurs serum and presto! You're a defensive player of the year with a jumpshot. The Rox organization has a decent player development track record and with Kawhi's talent and desire he still would've been a very good player. I've never been a Mchale fan ( he ran the TWolves poorly) and he help botch a draft that could've gotten the Rox a top end player. He even made the statement that "The Mchale rule was in, anyone under 6'8 then we weren't looking at you." The Mchale rule excluded Kawhi Leonard.

 

If Kawhi's will was so great why was his scoring so bad in college? The main reason Rox got baby Melo over Kawhi was because Kawhi was projected to have a lower upside and had little to no star potential, it wasnt just the Rox thinking it was almost all draft personalities available to the media including draft sites. They even mentioned his hands were so big it probably interefered with his shooting so thats why he was projected as a role player who was expected to play like Shawn Marion.

Not even 1 year after going pro Kawhi was scoring in the double digits at a high clip. So all this time Kawhi wasnt scoring a lot but became a scoring threat once he got into the NBA? Why'd he wait that long if it was just all him and his will to be great?

Btw the Spurs have a history of turning trash players into good ones. Its not just kawhi, washed up guys like boris diaw and richardson rejuvenated their careers with the Spurs. They dont make trash into superstars but you cant deny they are better than other teams when it comes to tapping into player potentials

 

I can't believe you're actually defending picking Marcus Morris over Leonard by saying the Rox wouldn't have the known how to develop Leonard SMDH.
To answer your question, Kawhi averaged 15 and 10 his last year at San Diego St. for a pretty good squad, so he wasn't a "trash" player. They had 4 players averaging double figures in a slower paced college game. He was a guy that had physical gifts (NBA characteristics) who knew he had more developing to do. Leonard decided he rather get paid 1st Rnd pick money to develop in the NBA rather than do it at San Diego St. Player development happens all over the NBA not JUST IN SAN ANTONIO! But I will say this for the Spurs, they don't allow one guy to take the fall when the team falls short. Leonard has gone without blame when the Spurs have been beaten in the playoffs unlike some cities where they blame stars for everything. Kawhi is fortunate in that regard, but to act like the Spurs could take any Joe Blow off the street and make a star out of him is an oversimplification and disrespectful to Kawhi. If that was the case, the Spurs shouldn't reward or pay any of their players, let them all walk at free agency, and then sign minimum guys. Why pay a premium if you can make ANY WARM BODY a star?

 

Kawhi Leonard is now a Pelican? How is Dmo doing with the Pelicans?

 

Lol! Sorry. DMo has had some good moments but still getting better

 

You mean Leonard would have become another role player, possibly on a playoff team, that we constantly churn out with mid-1st round picks?

 

DMo 0pts on just 6 minutes again

Weird how they are playing him. He plays when Davis takes his first break of the game at end of 1st. Just about 6 mins in the 2nd, then doesn't return. 3 games in a row of this. Is it a daily test to see if he can loosen up, and then sit him the rest of game if not.

 

1) DMo is still shaking off the rust.

2) DMo would have been HUGE for us during our recent .500ish stretch; terrible mistake letting him go.

 

It's going to be a season long experiment to see where he is. Right now he's not making a case for a huge contract but stay tuned.

 

Rox could still do with a big body like DMo who can play low post, positional D, assist, hit 3 pointers etc.

 

i'm just going to continue repeating myself. DMO is not that good. and he is not a very assertive player so don't expect him to start putting up more shots any time soon.

 

This is like his first two seasons with us. Sometimes he got to play and didn't play well. Sometimes he played well for stretches but then didn't get to play.

DMo seems to be more consistent when he gets consistently substantial minutes. His best season was when Howard got hurt half of the times and he got to be the starter. It's kind of a chicken and egg thing. If he doesn't play consistently, the coach is not likely going to give him consistent minutes.

 

It isn't like the first two seasons with us. NOLA has benched their two centers. Asik and Ajinka are getting zero minutes. Only people in front of DMo are Tjones and Cunningham. We all thought this would be a perfect situation given the open spot on the roster.

When you say he played good once on a lot of minutes, should we say it also led to the injury? I mean, I don't think it was due to an injury on the court. Again, he got fairly big minutes in a few games here, now he can't play it seems. Seems like the consistency is not a coaching problem.

 

Back in the dog house.

 

Are you talking about Asik?

Or is Gentry stuffing all his centers in the doghouse

 

Apparently stuffing all his centers in the dog house, D-Mo included..

Injured? He's not injured, is he?

Averaged 18 minutes in his first 3 games
7.5 minutes next 4 games
22 minutes the next 5 games (at least 10 pts, 4 boards in 4 of those 5 games)
7.6 minutes the last 3 games

 

Stop being cynical. We're a Motiejunas away from being a contender.

 

It seems that if he hits a shot or two, he comes back, if not, he sits.

Cunningham has now been benched for Tjones too - they are all over the place with their rotations.

DD