Second VTB League game for D-Mo. His team lost 79-66 to Lokomotiv-Kuban. Didn't watch the game, but judging from the boxscore, D-Mo struggled. 13 points (4/11FG, 1/4 3pters, 4/4FT), 1 rebound, 0 assists, 6 turnovers in 18 minutes. Motiejunas may or may not have been matched up with the great Primoz Brezec.
I would like to see us take an a two year approach with Motiejunas before having him on the squad. Let him play this year the whole time overseas. Even if there is a season. Next year, let him come for summer league and take a good look at him. My preference would be to get him in Texas and maybe just in the D League to begin to adjust to the NBA environment.
I agree with letting him finish out the season overseas, but where DMo is really going to grow is going through a FULL training camp and offseason with the Rockets staff and coaches. Next season he needs to go through a full offseason and training camp with McHale and co so they can truely evaluate him and work with him to translate his game in the NBA. With all the drama going on this offseason here in the states, the best thing for him and our other rookies to do is to play overseas. They arent going to get any better here in the states sitting at home playing Xbox and getting pissed off at Stern.
Totally agree 100% with the 2 posts above. Let him develop another season before bringing him in during next off-season to train. 1st two games werent all that impressive. I hope things start to look better.
I disagree with the majority it seems. We need to get this guy working with Kevin Mchale and the other veterans on the rockets as soon as possible. The faster he adjust to the NBAgame the closer he'll be to developing into the player we need him to be.
Motiejunas will play his first Euroleague game today. Game starts at 2:45PM ET. D-Mo will be matched up with Zaza Pachulia, Darius Songaila, Furkan Aldemir (NBA prospect) & Luksa Andric (Euroleague veteran).
Game's gonna start any minute. Link: http://www.seeon.tv/view/20453/ I'll post an English stream if I find one. Here's a quick video preview by two Euroleague nerds (3:11-4:15). <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G3D409r6xQM" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>
Pretty exciting game and nice comeback by Prokom. Most of the game Donatas looked like the best player on his team, at least for this particular match. Not sure what his stats ended up being, but it seemed like something good happened every time they ran the ball through him, they just didn't do that nearly enough. As far as rebounding I can see why he doesn't grab a ton, most of the time he is guarding someone out to the 3 pt line, so not as many opportunities. One thing Donatas still seem miles behind is his help defense. Especially blatant when he allowed that go ahead layup that lost them the game, just standing straight up watching as his teammate got beat. Someone needs to drill into his head that it is a team game and he has to have his teammates back, especially on defense.
He's a project, it'll probably take at least 3 years here for him to catch up to the speed of the NBA. The best part is that he's a low first round pick, so it's not like we wasted a top pick if he doesn't pan out. I think I see his ceiling as maybe a poor man's Bargnani, a big tall scorer who can't rebound or defend.
I really hate ceiling/floors for someone that most have seen so little of, but I disagree with the rebounding part. I think he will be an average to good rebounder in the NBA. From what I've watched from him, he seems to be out of position, due to defensive responsibilities, a large majority of the time. I expect this to change in his switch to the NBA.
Thanks for the review. Donatas had 15 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 32 minutes. He shot 0-5 from the arc and 5-10 from FT line. http://www.euroleague.net/main/results/showgame?gamecode=11
Another VTB game for D-Mo. His team lost 77:67 to Spartak, who're undefeated through 4 games. Didn't watch the game but D-Mo's stat-line doesn't look overly impressive. 6 points (2/6 FG, 0/1 3pters, 2/6 FT), 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 2 turnovers in 22 minutes. +/- -7
Im not expecting much early on in the season, hopefully he starts to pick things up around the half season mark.
European teams cannot afford for players to take half a season to develop. They have to win games immediately. If he takes that long to get going, then he will be cut.
Thats awesome. I like that mentality. Im not a fan of developing players during game time. When you play at the top level (doesnt matter what league) you should come to play ready to go right away and be able to contribute right then and there. If they are not ready top play and contribute right then and there they dont belong at that league. They need to step down a level and develop where they are surrounded by talent level simliar or equal to theirs. Stay in college longer, d-league, over seas teams and so on ..... Little boys have no business playing with grown men. It should be that simple.
