Could Motiejunas and Jones both move out of the rotation?

I'd still take Casspi over either. Or better yet, Marcus Morris.

 

Seriously though, since this thread got bumped, who moves out of the rotation if Dmo comes back?

D'Antoni is having hard enough time managing minutes since Harrell keeps forcing himself into the rotation with good play. Dmo at his very best might be marginally better than Nene today, but no one has seen that Dmo for almost 2 years. And even a lesser Nene fits better on this team as a pnr big vs a post up big in Dmo(not to mention an unselfish vet who knows his role, took a pay CUT to join the team without any complaints, compared to a primadonna who hasn't proven anything in his career trying to hold the team hostage).

At this point, Dmo can't touch Nene, Harrell or Dekker's minutes. Ideally, he gets back to his peak and pushes Dekkers minutes to SF and bumps Brewer out of the rotation. But even that brings up 2 questions:

1. Despite being CF's whipping boy, has anyone noticed that Brewer is sucking.. less now? I think Dantoni gets credit for defining roles, but a lot of it is because of Gordon taking up all the possessions outside of Hardens. This has benefited Ariza especially(now one of the best players on the team) and lesser extent Brewer(who is still the worst player in the rotation but better than before).

I think Brewer has gone from killing the team last year(along with Lawson and Jones) to now being more of a net neutral to slight negative. Sure Dmo can beat that, but what happens to team chemistry when a vet that has been professional all year is kicked to the curb for someone who hasn't been around(and isn't even that good)?

2. D'Antoni's Rockets are built on Harden attack the space opened up by stretch 4s. Before Gordon caught fire recently, the top two 3pt% on the team were Anderson and Dekker, the starting and backup PF. This has been a huge contributor to the style D'Antoni wants to play the the success the team has enjoyed.

Dmo is not this. A career 30% 3pt% actually overstates his ability to stretch the defense since every 3pt shot I've ever seen him take has been the most wide ass open shots ever. So you really can't even compare %s to someone like Anderson who takes contested 3s 4 feet beyond the line. Dmo at his best is not a bad player, but he isn't a stretch big so doesn't really fit our style. And even at his best he isn't good enough a player for us to change our style to fit him in.

So if he doesn't fit at the 4, and can't take minutes away from Nene or Harrell at the backup 5, where the hell does he fit? Maybe he still needs to move out of the rotation like the OP suggested like 4 years ago.