That's right. They haven't figured out what the weaknesses in Jones' game are. But they will eventually get around to testing him in all phases. Watch it happen. And he'll either pass or fail. What I am saying is this team has a reputation (and justifiably so) of shooting the 3 ball or getting to the rim. The league knows it. So most defenses collapse on Dwight and scramble to hurry our 3-point attempts. Because that's our identity. As a result, Jones has taken advantage of that overplay offensively with his forays into the paint. Dude has a good handle for a big. But eventually (and not too far in the distant future) teams are going to figure out that they have to take away his drive and make him a spot-up shooter. When that happens...he'll have to knock down some shots.
What I'm trying to point out to you is they're already playing off of him and daring him to shoot. Sometimes he takes it, but more often than not he passes it and makes a cut towards the basket. His man is often times much too far away to even contest his shots. His three pointers are like practice shots because he is out there all alone. Point is they play him like this all game and the offense still manages to be in high gear. The every now and then moment when he decides to let one fly and knock it down has just been icing on the cake and it hasn't changed the fact that they still sag off of him. It is obvious that teams don't respect him as a shooter and are daring him to shoot and more often than not, he doesn't take those long range shots unless the ball finds him at the tail end of the shot clock.
I think it's a little different because rather the points, what's great about Tjones imho is the effort, defense and rebounding he's shown. Those are more consistent then the scoring bursts that "Linsanity" gave. Plus, let's be real Lin's numbers now aren't that far from his Linsanity season. There's just less hype because he's not playing as much and it's no longer "his" team.
Ahhhh, the cuts. Yeah, defenses are going to take that away eventually. Then what? He has to be able to adjust and thrive. That's what makes rotation guys rotation guys.
Enough dude... No one cares about your post... TJones is a damn beast regardless if he hits the 3 on a regular basis. He will attack you in so many wayy.
Lmao! How do you take away a player passing and cutting? It isn't like he is cutting and getting the ball back each time. You can't just stand in front of a guy and impede him from making a cut to the basket. He cuts to create space and keep the offense from stagnating. I'm really not following you now. Fact of the matter is, Terrence Jones has not been successful because he makes 1 three pointer a game. That's just lazy analysis...sorry.
Dude, I just started reading your last few threads and you are PESSIMISTIC AS HELL!! It's like you are waiting on T Jones to have a bad game. I bet you think the world is going to end tomorrow! Enough already
Pessimistic as hell? Not hardly. Realistic is what I am right now on TJones. Before this latest swath of games he was woefully bad, all last year here, slopping around in RGV, then in training camp this year. He couldn't get into the rotation this training camp nor at the start of the season. The only thing that caused us to go back toward him was the failure of the Twin Tower setup. There is no way you should be taking these last few games as an indicator that he's the answer. He may be the answer. But there's no way to know that after these few games. I like how he has looked the last couple weeks. Won't deny that. But I liked what I saw from the Twin Towers against Memphis also. We all saw what happened there. Personally I'm still not convinced that Asik and Dwight playing alongside each other wouldn't have worked. I really think McHale blew it with them by playing Dwight up high and running around on power forwards instead of reversing their roles and having Asik out high and defending power forwards. The last game proved Asik is still highly effective. Remember, he was the one that effectively defended Love. Love torched everybody else including Jones. But it is obvious to me at this point that the bridge has been burnt between Asik and the Rockets and Asik staying here long term. It's over. Just a matter of time and the right trade offer as to when he gets traded. With that in mind this team still needs answers to it's championship picture puzzle. Jones has been effective with the starting unit over the last 8 games. I'm simply not convinced it will continue. But I'm hopeful it will. That's not pessimistic. I am hopeful. But we're gonna have to trade Asik anyways. And we're gonna need at least 3 guys to play primary minutes at center and power forward. After Dwight.....who knows at this point? Too many unknowns. Perhaps Jones continues to play well in all different circumstances and against all sorts of matchups. If he does then we've got another primary rotation big. Great. I can and will accept it and be all for it. Whatever generates wins and rings man. I'm not stuck on anybody being here for us to win and I'm not stuck against anyone not playing for us to win. Whatever works. But...up to this recent spate of games.....Jones has not worked. That's just keeping it real.
Have you ever played the game? Taking away a cut is very simple. Probably one of the simplest things in basketball to do is jump the passing lane.
Scouting is so good these days that good teams know exactly how to force guys to take their third or fourth best option. That's what winning defenses do. You can't really stop anyone from scoring when they are hot in the NBA. And if players can make ridiculously tough shots, nothing you can do either. That's why Olajuwon was so hard to guard. His 4th or 5th best shot was better than most big man's best shot. That's why Lebron is so problematic - because he can score from literally anywhere on the floor. So can Kobe. So they are had to contain. With James and Lin, you can take a lot of their game away by giving them the initial penetration but then having two guys block off their path. All you have to do it cut off any ally opp and they have to either force up a mid range shot or turn around and pass it. That's what we've been seeing from good teams. They are neutralizing our penetration in critical moments. Biggest issue with the Rockets is that we live and die by the 3. When it's not falling, we're going to lose most likely. Teams can take away our penetration and then force us to become a 3 point shooting team. But they can also figure out where to give up 3 point shots we don't like to take - lower percentage ones. At some point, McHale needs to help this team figure out counter moves against these defenses - it's the next step in the evolution of the team. Really it's on him to do that. Because these youngins aren't going to figure it out on their own. I think when we can do that, and figure out how to play the right kind of team defense - we'll be ready to do something in the playoffs. I am skeptical it will happen this year. But yeah, as for Jones - it's just way too early to tell if he can maintain this or if it's just a matter of time before teams adjust and take away what he likes.
Hilarious that you should ask that because I was going to ask you the same thing, but didn't want to insult you. Not only have I played, but I coach. Passing to a teammate and cutting after you pass is like one of the most basic principals and foundational pieces to any offense. Seems to me the Rockets should hire you to coach defense since you seem to know how to stop people from cutting on the basketball court. With you at the helm, nobody would be able to move anywhere for 24 seconds at a time. Please be kind enough to show us all this awesome defensive scheme of yours that prevents people from running around. I can't wait to see it. It must be amazing since nobody else has been smart enough to devise it. You're must be a savant when it comes to basketball. Jumping the passing lane? What are you talking about? Again, he does not cut and get the pass back most of the time. He cuts to keep the offense from being stagnant and to create space. I said that already. Don't forget what we're talking about here. I'm specifically talking about what he does from the 3 point line when he choses not to shoot which happens more often than not. Teams playing off of him at the 3 point line has not been a problem. As far as him cutting while other players are drawing double teams off post ups or penetration, fine, cut off the passing lanes to him and these guys go one on one. It still works to the Rockets advantage one way or the other. If he can force teams to not leave him and his numbers go down because of that, great, he is still doing his job and making it easier for his teammates to get buckets. The cool thing is, he will still rebound and block shots so whether or not he scores 10 points or 18 points doesn't really matter to me as long as he is making positive contributions.
Not going to argue with you. If you coach and you played then you know that taking away open cutters is very achievable. We're discussing minutia. I've made my point. At some point Jones is going to have to prove that he can shoot it effectively from distance. That has not happened yet. He's looked good in the role he has been played in. But to say he is the guy at the 4 on a championship team is way, way too premature. He's is not proven. And it's gonna take a while for him to be proven.
I'm starting to wonder if you understand when and why people cut after making a pass or the fact that it takes place all game long. You don't simply stop guys from cutting. Yes, you can take away the pass to the cutter, but I wasn't even talking about that. I can't keep repeating myself. Go read the tail end of my last post about Jones cutting from the 3 point line after passing instead of shooting the wide open 3 as opposed to diving towards the basket looking for a pass after his man leaves him to double. You may not have seen my edit. Ok, so now you want to argue is he a championship level 4? I've never said he was or wasn't. You were making the assessment that Jones needs to continue to knock down 3 pointers to be successful. I say that this is lazy analysis because teams already sag way off of him and don't respect his shooting and he only makes one 3 per game. I honestly think that anybody who thinks every power forward we have needs to be a knockdown shooter from the 3 point line don't really understand basketball that well. That's just my opinion. We're leading the league in scoring at 110 points a game without a stretch 4 on the team. Casspi has been hit or miss literally. Jones makes one 3 per game and Asik...no need to even go there.
Don't mind you still being a debbie downer here. Jones was injured and giving development minutes in RGV like most the guys who are new. I do not see a problem there. He had some flaws but in the limited minutes last year he was mostly good and in a few games he was average but in no games I recall he was really BAD. WOEFULLY BAD?? Preposterous and hardly keeping it real!
We had a revolving door at PF last year and then traded the first two guys in the rotation and Jones couldn't tamp down a rotation slot much less the starter's role. He shot 26% from 3 here and like 30% from 3 in RGV and was totally lost defensively. He was very bad last year. Very bad.
