Dirk Nowitski, he was a 9th overall pick(I know, not what you would call a mid-low first round) and played 20 mins a game, but wasn't very good. He shot% 40-20-77. David West, 18th pick. Didn't figure it out til his third year. Avg. 6 points his second year and 4 points his first year. Zach Randolph, 19th pick. Also didn't figure it out til his third year. Avg 8 points his second year and 3 points his first year. David Lee, 30th pick. Avg 5 points his first year. Here are some others power forwards who played less than 20 mins a game their first year: Anderson Varejao, Serge Ibaka, Paul Millsap. As you can see, there are a lot of PFs drafted mid-low first round who started slowly but reached starter to all-star levels. No one knows the future, but it is possible that TJones can reach an all-star level. After saying that, my personal opinion is that DMo is more likely to succeed. :grin:.
If he would have come in and starting playing right away, ala Parsons, we wouldn't be having this conversation about him starting. It would be a given. IIRC, Sampson was the first one to play him. It was during the time McHale was out.
This is what people miss. He doesn't beast on offense but that is partly why Josh Smith was not a good fit. He beasted on offense the same way D12 does. Bad fit. T jones on the other hand can bring some rebounding and hustling and steals and at the same doesn't require touches. If he shoots at a higher percentage from behid the arc and can a mid range open jumper from time to time plus run the court in transition what more can you ask for. Outside of the three pt shooting (which I just don't know if he will be any good) I think he can do all the rest. This summer league is really about seeing TJones has improved in the right areas to see if he can compete for the starting 4 spot. Today just strengthened his position.
Since the 4 is wide open for whoever I would think that both TJ and Dmo will be busting their asses all summer to get better because you know they both want the playing time. All I can see is both of them improving over the summer, that should be great for the Rockets. I like that Dmo and TJ games are a different because if they both get the starting and backup job it changes things up some when they switch out.
Can't wait to see this guy play this year alongside who we've got. He should be ready to have a good season.
I don't know how good he will be. But as far as his playing time... He is young and came out of college after his sophomore year. he had two other first round pick PF's that were in their second and third years, and the rockets needed to see if they were in the long range plans or needed to be traded for future picks. And then you had Robinson the 5th pick also a rookie that needed playing to see if he was in the plans for the future. And then you had ANOTHER PF that was a first round pick that needed playing time dmo. (Royce White amazingly was another 1st round pick power forward, but he was busy tweeting) And if I remember right he also got injured close to the end of the season that kept him out of a few games. Hope that clears it up and makes it very easy to understand why he was not on the court a ton. You had 6 power forwards last season including smith. Your welcome.
He deserves tick. And a lot of it. He's better than summer leaguers by leaps and bounds. He's better than NBDLers by leaps and bounds. He will be better than most NBA players once he gets a chance to play. McHale....stop fronting on him and give him tick!!!!!!! You know what you have. Let him loose.
T.Jones is handicapped by our coaching staff. Once he gets a ample amount of good minutes to get comfortable to he will produce in a various amount of ways. At Kentucky, the summer league, or the NBA court TJ has done his fair share of work. He hasn't maxed out yet but if he starts along side of Dwight throughout this year he will blossom. Dude hustles, rebounds, plays D and scores efficiently. What more could you want from a young power forward? Mchale needs to give this man the keys to his Range this year and stop fing around. TJ = Beast. Lamb will be a star as well once he sees some action over there in OKC!
Obviously that a terrific line-up: C: Dream 2 (Dwight) PF: Dwight-lite (TJ), Dirk-lite (D-Mo) SF: Durant-superlite (Parsons) SG: MJ-lite (Harden) PG: Stockton-lite (Lin)
I just quoted you, but this answer is for all the people that posted players. I just went through NBA.com to check their rookie year. As fas as I can tell, each player has played more than T.Jones (who only played in 19 games - so a total of about 270 minutes, most of them in garbage time). And most of them played some kind of significant role for their team. The Rockets had no real PF when PPat left... And remember all the promising draft picks that didn`t turn out. I am just saying it is very unlikely - and if he would already be as good as some people on here think, he would have played more last year. Right now it is potential - something a lot of NBA players have. He might be one of the few late blooming success stories. But it is a longshot that he becomes more than a Carl Landry type player (and even that would be a success).
Out of the 3 (DMo, GSmith, TJones), I like TJones the best. He seems to have the most potential. Hopefully with an elite talent like Dwight to motivate him, he'll be able to step his game up a notch. GSmith just gets into too much foul trouble. DMo doesn't seem to know where he fits. Shooting 3s isn't it. He doesn't have the build for C and maybe not for PF. He could strive to be Pau-lite at PF.
The guy is 21 and should have played a lot more last year. He's a player. Just needs time on the court.
Well, he did look really bad in several games he played. Clutchfans called for Jones, Moti and T-Rob to play more - and everyone of them played terrible at times when they were in the game. Jones showed flashes, so did Moti - but nothing more than that. I´d like to see him improve and I´d like to see him grow into the starting job. And I think he might. I just think that some peoples expectations for him are a little high. If he can become a serviceable 5th piece he will be ok.
The dude has yet to have a single meaningful nba game. We have a lot of reasons to be excited this season. Tjones is not one of them
He hasn't had a meaningful NBA game cause he hasn't gotten the minutes. If he were on a really bad team he would be posting serious numbers (like Tobias Harris is on Magic) and would be talked about as a potential star.
