I came online this morning just to talk about Tmo. There was alot of traffic on the board yesterday and there was very little talk about Tmo. I am very pleased to see he was the focus of the Chronicle today. I reviewed the Piston's game last night and I just do not know how Tmo did not get any serious props on the board. Before the game folks were talking about him not being able to hit the jump shot and his shot looks off, en fin, en fin. From what I can see there is nothing off about his shot and they will start falling like that sweet midrange jumper he had. So I will move on about his shooting and say that Tmo is the best SF we have on this team right now. I am not saying he should start since the team have a lot of political considerations involved in starting and as a rookie, he can chill. Tmo is quick, with the ball and without the ball. He is a very good rebounder and I would say EG is the only better rebounder on the team and it is not by much. He can run the floor as was shown by the fast break dunk he had with a beautiful pass from Steve. Is it any coincidence that Tmo's best moment so far involved Steve? The thing about the dunk and that play, which I have watched five times, is that it magnifies the special athlete he is. It shows you the kind of thing that Rice and Williams can no longer consistently deliver. In addition to the dunk there was the pass to Cato for a dunk. Again, I have seen that five times. Now this was not an accidental thing. Francis was at the 3pt line with the ball right of center. Mobley was to the left about six feet away from Steve inside the 3pt line, and Morris was in the left corner on the 3pt line. Mobley moves out to the 3pt line maintaining his distance from Steve and setting up to recieve the pass from Steve. The defenders on both Mobes and Morris were off of them. Steve then passed to Morris who could have put up a 3pt shot; instead he faked right and went left pass his defender. This caused Cato's defender to come up to stop what was going to be a sure dunk and Morris delivered the pass to Cato for his dunk. The time taken between Tmo getting the pass and Cato dunking was very short. That kind of speed allows an offense to beat a defense. Now could you imagine the same for Rice or Walt. We have seen that play a few times this year from Rice. But the results have been different. I can just see him putting up a brick, or knocking over the defender because he is not quick enough, or being so slow that weakside help would reach before Cato could dunk the ball. I have no doubt in my mind that Tmo is justifying his minutes in practice and he is about to force posters to stop saying the jury is still out on Tmo. Yesterday I, along with others like Crispee, urged posters to concentrate on the center position as an area of need. I am even more convinced today.
I don't know if a 5 point scoring night classifies as a brake out performance or if we can start talking about a sweet midrange jumper because he finely hits one but I do like all of the other things that TMo does when he is on the floor including blocking shots, getting rebounds and playing D.
I am with you DearRock. Notice how Tmo started instead of Torres. He will be a starter for this team for a long time!
Terence, if for some reason you read this board, James K. and I are following your every game, looks like you are getting into the groove. Heard you were back for the holidays and spotted at Best Buy in Frederick. TRock, you are da man. Good luck tonight. FREDTERP PS DearRock, nice informative post!!
Everybody's best moment comes when Steve is on the floor. My personal favorite froom Griffen thus far was his reverse layup from Steve the other night that he got fouled on as well. Why? Well, minus Steve, tat play would have never happened. WIth Steve, the original fasst break wasnt there but he quickly saaw the trailer and got it to him for a nice ffinih with the foul. Id love to see that combo hook up more like that in the future. I agree with everyone on Tmo's rebounding. And I do think he has a solid looking shot that couuld turn into something decent (but probably not from 3pt land). I still think he needs to improve on defense, but sometimes that is just veterans taking advantaage of the rookie. IN my opinion, though, if everyone is healthy, he obviously sits behind RIce and Walt. Interestingly, with everyone hurt, I thiink Rudy just said to hhimmself, I cannt do to Morris what I did to Langhi - lack of significant playing time in his rookie season has messed with Langhi's head too much ffor him to ever (probably) amount to much of anythign on the Rockets team. TMo seems to have a similar disposition and I give Rudy props for sticking with him these last few weeks despite some horrendous shooting nights.
Chronicle has him starting over Walt. Rudy has been gushing over him in the papers. Every team needs players like him unselfish, not stat hungry, little things type of player. He has absolutely no ego whatsoever.
The big test is to watch what happens when the league starts smothering Francis with traps again. Detroit's game plan really backfired on them as they actually tried to play him straight up or with passive traps. My worry is that defenses will stop guarding TMo to guard Francis more. Then the only pass often is only to TMo. This is what happened with Shandon. When TMo gets the ball from being open, the defender just sags off him so he has no drive or a dish. He has to shoot or pass back to Francis, or we have to run a weakside play immediately...now that can work, but it starts complicating the game, where we'd rather have a player out there who will be guarded more honestly. What I'll be watching is seeing how the defenses will double Francis. Who are they ignoring, and are they stopping Francis's other passing lanes. This happened earlier this year when our SF couldn't shoot. The BBS blamed it on Rudy. This is our big test. What can we achieve when Francis is smothered again? I am afraid TMo might make it easier for teams to smother Francis and take away his passing lanes to everyone but TMo. Call it the Shandon Syndrome.
Crispee- Sounds right on to me. PLaying as a small foward, TMo will have to be able to have some sort of aggressive offeensive game...or have a stronger jumpshot. Ass you said, this was alleviated in the Pistons game by the laack of trapping. I do think, though, that the EG high pick will also alleviate some of this. Last yearr we diddnt have a PF who could nail threes. I do remember seeing the high pick run with Walt a fair amount thouugh (ala that game in NYC). Also, I'd be VERY happy if Morris decided to drive into the lanes whenever the ball gets swung to him, either for an easier midd range jumpshot, or to create more passing lanes down the middle. IMO, the midrange jumpshot is an extremely underutilized weapon.
Rudy gushes over every player, he tries to build up their confidence in the papers as well as in practice. Now, I am not sold on TMO yet. He is big, but he has not shot very well at all, and that is a major problem for a 3. If he gets more comfortable and can shoot above 40%, then we may have something. DD
bigboy, Did you actually read that statement to say TMo is like Shandon?? The intended comparison is Torres to TMo, not Shandon to TMo. The point is that if TMo doesn't start hitting his shots Francis will have to work harder. The league will adjust and sag off TMo to the point that he doesn't even have a viable seam to drive into when he receives a pass for being the only one open. That is the Shandon Syndrome...and it actually becomes worse with time, not better...as the defenses see more and more tape. Now if we can field 4 other scoring threats on the court, we can absorb TMo's current offensive weakness and allow him to be a defensive/rebounding specialist and junkyard dog. My fear is having a poor shooting SF on the court at the same time as one of our lousy centers. Having 2 bad shooters on the court together is a little too much for even Stevie to overcome when NBA defenses wise up and exploit those non-shooters. Afterall, there is a reason why Coach K and Bobby Knight only play people who can shoot. Even the glorious Passing Game systems need everyone to be able the shoot and pass. It is rare for them to field one non-shooter, much less two. The effect cuts off the passing lanes and stalls out the Passing Game.
Actually, I did (sorry I skimmed through it). Let me elaborate. I believe Tmo will have difficulties with his shot UNTIL he becomes acclimated to starting or until he is given consistent playing time. I guess I believe he will be able to hit his open shots unlike Anderson. I think he has a smooth stroke and he could play the same role that Horry played on this team. I guess I think he is a not so clumsy Horry rather than any other comparison anybody else has brought up.
I think I recall T-Mo saying that the NBA ball felt different to him than the college ball. Watching T-Mo in college, I feel he'll be able to hit that shot, as he gets more comfortable with his role. He's a better dribbler than Shandon as well.
That excuse most be in vogue for proffesional rookie sports athletes. Quincy Carter used that as an excuse earlier this year when trying to explain why he could not throw a spiral for the Cowboys. Suposedly the Cowboys changed his grip and now he seems to be doing ok. Anyone no if there is any truth to the NBA ball feeling any different than the college ball?
Well I do know that the college ball is slightly bigger. And not that I should be used as an analogy to a professional athelete, but I used a college size ball when shooting on my local court for several years before replacing it with an NBA ball. For a little while, I had to consciously think about gripping the NBA ball due to its smaller size. Maybe TMo is having similar difficulties.
I spent hours and hours looking at tapes with T-Mo, and I could see your vision DearRock. I saw what you saw that terrible night, I could see the poise in his eyes it was like he was scoring 50 points, and then it hit me (In fact it was my little brother) I had come up with one conclusion and one conlusion only..............that I still didn't like him. Anyways to cut a short story shorter I will give you this he has improved a little bit since Junior High, Uh I mean since the beginning of the season.
