This is actually the real rookie season for TJ, no matter how people will criticize him on his playoff performance, he did make a great impact for the Rockets and had a nice season overall. Yes his defense in current stage is a real issue, but I believe with more experience and proper trainings, this can be vastly improved. He do have decent size, but not great, but it is reasonable to believe that if he can add some weight to his body, he can turn into a Davit West type of player. He has a very good offensive skill set that lots of other PF in this age doesn't have, for an easy comparison, say D-Mo. Its always easier to teach player to play defense (mostly related to efforts) than scoring (mostly related to talents), lots of great defensive players are having one thing in common - their offense is not that great. Ideally, you will hope that D-Mo can be transformed into a good defensive player with his size and pretty poor offensive skill, but sadly I do not see this is going to happen under this coaching group. TJ's development can be better in the past season if our coaches will be willing to throw him into the fire more often during the regular season - he clearly missing those opportunities to be tortured by other strong PF in the west during the regular season. I believe he will have more chances next year especially when we are expecting Asik and maybe also D-Mo will be gone. Biting on pump fake while trying to block a jump shot, getting his lunch eaten by LMA under the post, failure to switch to defense, not able to block out for the rebound after Howard going for the block - all these are real issues, but as I said, I expected these can be improved with a little bit of extra body weight and much more experience. I expect TJ will be our 3rd best player next year and he will be good on both end of the floor.
He absolutely will not be the 3rd best player on this team next year. There's a difference between not giving up on a player and hyping a player. That statement was pure hype. There's a good chance he's not even here next season. Bottom line with Jones: He has to learn to shoot a basketball to be more than a pedestrian NBA player. His defense will improve with experience. There's very little chance he'll become an elite defender because he is a tweener, too small to effectively take on the bigger PFs and too big and slow to guard most SFs. Oh, and he's got to learn to shoot a basketball to be more than a pedestrian NBA player.
Why would anyone give up on TJ? Last year was pretty much his rookie year, and the guy was consistently the 4th or 5th best player on the team and had some monster games. We already know Jones (as is) can dominate mediocre to sub-par competition. The difference is going to be when Jones is able to improve his game enough to take that next step up against premier competition. Even in the playoffs against a red hot Blazers, Jones had really solid moments that made that look promising, and dont forget the huge games Jones had against the Spurs, Warriors, Memphis, Phoenix, and Miami. Jones is going to be a very, very good player in the NBA. Is he going to continue to be the starter for the Houston Rockets, or will he be used to net a all-star in trade???... That however is yet to be seen. What happens with Jones (improvement & taking that next step up) or as a trade piece will impact the future of the Rockets greatly. Even if the Rockets are lucky enough to retain him after making a major deal and he has to go to the bench.... I think in that role, he could still be an important piece to a 3 or 4 man rotation on the front line moving forward.
TJones made a huge leap forward this year, and has considerable upside. I think at this point he is viewed as one of the top five or six players from his draft class. I would be perfectly happy to see him remain a Rocket, however I wouldn't be surprised to see Jones get traded as I think he now has significant trade value if Morey Looks to add a third star player.
I would love Jones to come off the bench in a Taj Gibson type role. Obviously he won't be as great defensively as him, but hopefully Jones takes a huge step in the off season and gets stronger.
Saying him being our 3rd best player is not about hype. Of course this is assuming we are not getting a major impact max type player next season but base on currently what we are having. Parsons is a good player, and easily can be the 3rd best player in this team, but I just see TJ could have a better potential with his talent (under proper coaching and environment) to have a greater impact on this team. He can drive with the ball, he can good touch around the realm, with Howard and all the good shooters in this team and the way we play, he will never be double teamed. With this advantage and expected improvement, he can take over when the situation arise. He has done that occasionally this season, although that's not a big sample, but you can see the hope is there.
I don't want to waste anymore of Dwight's prime years developing Jones' defense and shot. I'm all for getting rid of him and D-Mo and getting a PF that can defend and make the open shot.
I like T-Jones' game, but there are issues that he may never be able to overcome. His size for starters. We saw what happened when he went up against Aldridge. He was helpless. Even when Aldridge was out in Game 6 in the 4th quarter, Jones struggled badly at protecting boards and defending. Thomas Robinson looked like a superstar out there against him. And it's not like things would've gotten easier against other teams. Can you imagine him facing off with Duncan, Ibaka, or Griffin(or Randolph had the Grizzlies advanced)? Also, he needs to improve his release on his jumpshot. It's way too slow. He has range though and that does compliment Dwight's game. And he needs to become more consistent when he's playing on the road. He was a sparkplug for this team at Toyota Center in a lot of games, but he disappeared way too often away from home. The good news he's basically one year into his NBA career and only 22 years old. I hope Morey gives him another couple seasons on the Rockets(unless of course he's part of a package for a 3rd star) to see what he's capable of. If he bulks up over the summer and improves his shooting, he could be really good next year.
Name a PF that in the NBA with 4 mil of salary (TJ and DMO combined) that you can get and is better than TJ?
I really thought T. Jones is the perfect PF for the Rockets until we play teams like the Blazers and Grizzlies. He is still undersize and i don't know if that's true or not. I mean the dude can block SHOTS!!! I mean he has everything the Rockets needed...shooting touch (all the way to the 3pt line), drive to basket, dunk, athletic, can post up. It's just defense and rebounding that he need to work on i guess. Maybe bulk it up even more during the summer and transform himself into a bigger stronger dude. Then spend time practicing playing defense.
Sounds like BasketballHollic & Cxbby October 2013 2.0. Ok... We know for a fact that the Rockets TRIED to upgrade the PF position during the season, and before but were not able to successfully pull off those trades(Millsap, Ryan Anderson, and even Brandon freaking Bass... F-me).... what does that tell you? I know the Rockets feel the same way but if there isn't a clear upgrade available than the Rockets have to live with what Jones is giving them and on top of that get excited about his ability to improve. The Rockets making a move to upgrade the PF position is no indicative of how people should feel about the talent, future, and what Jones can give this team either as a future starter or 6th man big. Those shouldn't be looked at as mutually exclusive opinions. The Rockets should NOT look to move Jones just to move Jones because they need an upgrade if THERE IS NO UPGRADE AVAILABLE. The Rockets WILL upgrade if they get the ability to. In the meantime there are ZERO reasons to make the statement that the Rockets are "Giving Up" on Jones. That's just idiotic.
That's just not true. No doubt he had a bad game in G6, but prior to that, especially in G4 and G5, he was the one that dominated T-rob. T-rob is exactly the type of player I mentioned above, poor offensive talent but under good coaching, he is turning into a decent defensive player with good efforts. I will place my bet on TJ moving forward to be an overall much better player.
Yea you forgot that he's only 22yrs. WOW...i am sure by 25, he'll a totally different player in terms of physique. So, hope the Rockets don't get rid of him.
He's undersized. It's an inescapable fact right now. He can obviously bulk up over time. But until he does, he'll be at a disadvantage against big 4s like Aldridge and Randolph. I do think if he keeps progressing the way he has though, he could cancel out whatever physical shortcomings he has against the bigger 4s by beating them with his quickness and range. No way could a guy like Randolph stay in front of T-Jones with his ballhandling skills and athleticism(although he does have Gasol behind him which helps).
He's the youngest player on the team, and would just now be entering the draft if he would have stayed in college. He's going to be a completely different player in 2 years than he is from now. There is ZERO reasons to "Get Rid" of Jones now especially with 2 more years on his rookie salary. Now using him as a trade piece for a 3rd star player is a different story. -Same goes with D-Mo. The Rockets are waaayy too appeasing of his trade demands. He's got 2 more years locked in that he agreed to when he signed. He can either improve or sit the bench, but they shouldn't be appeasing his trade demands just because he isn't playing 40 minutes a game and getting a ton of touches on the low post. I thought D-Mo would have been happier about his future with the Rockets considering the large amount of PT he got in the 2nd half and how well he improved given that time, but his exit interview with the media kind of makes me think more than anything.... that guy just wants the ball in the post. The request for PT thing was really just a cover for that.
I think T-Jones will be a better player than Thomas Robinson. He already is frankly. But there's no denying that Jones really struggled in Game 6. His defense was non-existent and his rebounding effort was terrible. I thought he actually had an overall good series against Portland considering he was yanked from the starting lineup for strategic purposes(and rightfully so given the results from Game 3 onward) and had to go back to coming off the bench for the first time since November. Game 5 he was a solid. And there were stretches in the series(I forget which specific games) where he took it right at Aldridge and Lopez and scored on them.
I watched him get straight up molested in the worst possible way by LMA. What LMA was doing to him should not be legal in Texas. He could of at least done something on the offensive end to fight back, box out or do something, but all I saw was a scared man out there who got straight up punked. Dwight and Asik at least made LMA get out his sweet spots and contested his shots. He will never recover from how badly he got owned by LMA. To top things off he got outhustled. by Trob as well. I'm hoping he gets traded while his stock is still somewhat high.
Are people down on T-Bird...? He has some glaring defensive rotation issues.. but is a lot easier to fix than talent, which he has mounds of. He took a huge step forward this year.
If you take a look at the PF that the Rockets drafted in the last 10-15 years, you will not be surprised to see why TJ is being the type of PF that the Rockets always look for. Yes he is undersized but when your team is having a dominated big man at the middle, you will think a more versatile PF should fit better for the team. From Carl Landry to Pattersons, to Morris to TJ / Dmo, the Rockets are always looking for a more versatile PF to fit their roster. What TJ stand out the most among this group is his offensive skills are having higher potential and he also showed flash of ability of rebounding and shot blocking.
your statements are r****ded to say the least. He isnt sad because he doesnt play 40minutes, he is sad because he doesnt play at all. When he played his 15-20min in middle of season, he was different person, he seemed like left his emo ways. Some players doesnt care if they get playing time if they continue to get there money. Contrary to does people all he cares about is actually playing bball. When you give your all, show that you actually can perform previously, come first to practice, leave last, do anything coach tells you. And still wont even get a chance to play in playoffs. You really start to think, are you really in the right place?
