[ClutchFans] Frustrated Motiejunas just wants to play

I don't think Dmo got any playing time for whining.

I also don't think he got playing time because he changed his attitude.

I don't believe that Dmo just all of a sudden started playing better,and now he is getting playing time. I understand that the TT experiment and Jones playing well took away some playing time that could have been his. I understand that and I think that was the right decision, you had to try TT, and Jones has played well. Dmo was giving a little playing time and played well but Mchale didn't come back to him. I agree that he had other games where he didn't do great, but he wasn't horrible either.

You do understand that coaches don't always make the right decisions, right?
They do make mistakes and do things wrong, even if they are the coach of our favorite team. Hopefully Mchale has learned that he has a 7 footer with a lot of potential, and it's important to the franchises future to develop young talent.

 

If you recognize that it was reasonable to at least give the Asik-Howard frontline a try, and it is not wrong or crazy to stick with Jones as the starting PF once he performed well in his minutes, I am not sure how the fact that Motiejunas has played sporadically so far is a "mistake."

The other guy who played heavy PF minutes was Casspi, and he has generally played well enough-- and the team has generally played well enough with him-- to justify keeping his minutes as a stretch 4. Greg Smith got some minutes, too, to the extent he could stay healthy. The team also occasionally gone even smaller with Parsons or even Harden guarding the PF, but those are fairly rare occasions used for matchup purposes.

We might have something in Motiejunas. But we also might have something in Greg Smith (even younger than DMo, did pretty well last year), Casspi (only 25 years old and getting his first chance to really play for a good team) and Jones, too. Throw in Howard and Asik (to the extent he has been there), the coaches had to sit one or more of these guys because you just cannot possibly rotate 6 guys at the PF and C spots.

What the coaches had to do is to play 3 or 4 of these guys in a given game. The rest of the guys will just have to wait for their chances in the event of garbage time, injuries, ineffectiveness of the guys in front of them, foul trouble, etc. This is no different than how pretty much every NBA team works.


Like I said, nobody has a crystal ball and in real life, unlike in NBA2K14, players don't have pages listing their exact abilities rated 1-100 and upside potential level. All you can expect coaches to do is to gather as much info as possible, make a reasonable choice based on them, then use the result of this choice to inform future choices. It appears that the Rockets staff have done this, so I am not sure there is anything to complain about.

 

He is saying coaches makes mistakes to. Dmo didnt magically got better in 1month. And he deserved playing time, when none was available.

 

You think Carl Herrera is exactly right. You just lost all credibility. CH hasn't been exactly right about anything since PPat was traded. Actually way before that. :grin:

Seriously I get that you like McHale and want to give him the benefit of the doubt but just go look at some of the games there was times he wasn't even giving DMo garbage minutes. 19 DNP's come on when Smith and Asik were injured and Parsons was running on a bad back and Casspi was stinking up the joint you couldn't find any use for DMo. If that's true McHale sucks as a coach.

I prefer to think DMo was in McHale's doghouse for whatever reason and now he is out. At least it's not just stupid player management.

 

DMo can probably get 12 minutes a night consistently from now on. However, I am doubtful he will be able to counter Zach Randolph in the paint. That guy's a human bulldozer. I know DMo gained a ton of weight in the offseason (he really looks bigger than Dwight!), but he's gonna get eaten alive in the post. I know he played very well in our last game against Memphis. Let's just hope he can continue with the same energy.

 

It was reasonable to give it a try but after 2 preseason games it looked bleak and the amount of time it took McHale to figure that combination was 2 dead big men walking was just bad evaluation.

DMo has played sporadically but not as sporadic or pathetic as Garcia and even less than Casspi and DMo is the best big on the team not named Howard. TJones should have never got back up minutes at center. Stupid decision. DMo is sporadic on offense but already he looks much better with Howard than Asik did.

Yeah McHale may be slow to evaluate talent but DMo had a very good pre-season and received 19 DNP's and if you give him a pass on that DMo played excellent D against Zach and got 2 more DNP's after that with Asik and Smith missing. Yeah he did get 15 minutes against OKC but he didn't play in the first half and got his minutes when the Rockets were blown out in the second half.

How can you call that anything but poor player management. I know you will think of something but it's just too much love for McHale, no different than your obsession for PPat.

 

No one stops Zach all the time but DMo did a better job than Howard last game. DMo has also played well against Aldridge and Dirk. He is quicker than Asik and has size that seems to bother those guys. Don't get it twisted. I am not saying he is better defensively than Howard or even Asik but he has been able to have some minimal success against some elite scorers and deserves to at least be considered when all else fails.

 

I agree. This team values small ball philophy. Stretch 4s are now small forwards. Casspi and Garcia are not 4's by any stretch.

It looks good on paper but the reality is different.

 

McHale has a lack of trust for some players and too much attachment to others. Favoritism.

 

Mchale is a mediocre coach.

 

Yep.

This is a message board. People express their opinions here. If people want to play the, "well the coach did it, so it must be true" card then they are basically saying they don't have an opinion and whatever the coach does should be held as gospel.

But I have a feeling people only use that card when the coach does something they agree with.

I disagree with the decision mchale made to not play dmo for so long. I disagreed with his decision to play Morris and ppat last year. I was glad when. Prey forced his hand. And really I have a feeling that mchale didn't like that and tried to do anything to not have to play dmo. Dude makes one mistake and he's yanked out the rotation for long periods of time. He's playing now because mchale needs him.

But I have a feeling that even though dmo has played well, his leash is still short. If he makes a mistake when we have more healthy bodies, he'll be yanked again. There is nothing logical about how mchale has given dmo playing time. So the reasoning for why he hasn't played the guy even when it's obvious he should have been has to be illogical. Almost as illogical as not posting up a guy who is probably the best post player on the team. And maybe the best post player by a large margin.
Mchale makes questionable roster decisions just like kubiak did.

 

I do think D-Mo has been showing much greater defensive court awareness this year. (Granted, it was easy to improve a lot from the level of defensive understanding he showed at the beginning of his rookie season.)

Despite his improvement, if all our bigs get healthy and Omer shows willingness to play hard, then D-Mo will probably get very little playing time again. It sucks for him, but it's life in the NBA. (That said, his improvement on defense may make him more attractive trade bait.)

 

He didn't have a very good pre season, he didn't even have a decent pre season, he had a couple decent games mixed in with some play so bad, it was on a cosmic level, New Orleans (NBa.com made an Anthony Davis highlight package that was made almost exclusively from No-Dmo, lol) and San Antonio (he created a 10 point swing for San Antonio...) for example. I also have no idea where Dmo's defense on Zbo was good, we were rushing double and even triple teams at him so rapidly, the German Blitzkrieg would have been proud of the speed, do you just see the initial defender and think because the result was slightly better that it was actually better individual defense?

 

Harden and Dwight credited Dmo for the win @ he anchored D and was leader on the court in that game.

 

Seriously man space out your posts and use some grammar. It's very hard to understand what you are saying.

Your argument is that DMO is not a stellar defender, that is valid he is not. But so is Greg Smith. One can argue that Greg is a worse defender than DMO. He plays defense with his hands instead of using his size and leverage. That is why you see greg picking up multiple fouls quickly.

DMO on the other hand is fundamentally sound. He moves his feet well for a big man ( he is a best hedger on the pnr out of all our players) and uses his hands the correct way. His only (and damming) issue is that he still does not have the girth to hold his position in the post. But this can only be solved by giving him consistent minutes.

McHale needs to utilize his roster better. I grow weary when I see players like DMO who have serious potential underutilized while mediocre players like Greg Smith given minutes.

 

I guess we'll have to wait and see tonight's game. I believe Memphis will feed ZBo in the post repeatedly, knowing that DMo is foul prone and we have no depth at PF/C. On the other hand, if a stretch-4 can draw him out of the Grizzlies paint, there will be more lanes for our guards. Although Marc Gasol won DPOY, his quickness is not his greatest asset. I think the Rockets will pull this one off due to Dwight's monster statement game!

 

Up until the last 5 games, Dmo played terrible. Not well, or okay, or mediocre. Terrible. When a guy plays as bad as Dmo did, it's not a mistake to sit him down.

 

he didnt play up until 5 last games.

 

First, I am not sure where this "it's wrong to play Casspi at PF" idea comes from. His personal box core stats have been pretty good (109 ORtg, .550 TS%, 14.5 PER) and the Rockets tend to play well with him on the floor (+6.5 per 100 possessions, better than they are with him off the floor). Casspi has been deployed effectively by the team and generally creates an advantage when he is in. When Casspi's lack of bulk is a problem, the coaches have lowered his minutes and gone with other PFs, including DMo.

Second, the Asik-Howard frontline actually did well during the preseason when they tried if for a couple games. It just didn't work well when the regular season started (but the team managed to win a decent % of games during this time). One can argue that the experiment should have ended sooner (or maybe even later) but it's a matter of discretion and I think they tried it for a reasonable amount of time in order to give the guys a serious chance to try to work out the kinks. The risk-reward in that situation justifies what they did.

 

Dmo and Jones both dont pose a real threat from the outside.

that the main reason Dmo hadnt played much, u can play Dmo with DH or TJ with D12 but u cant play both of them so Mchale have to choose between Dmo and TJ.
since both are mainly post players who cant space the floor or drow defenders outside.