It wasn't just against LMA he failed. Any big top PF he would get stomped on like a homeless person. And it seemed when he was getting destroyed defensively then he would falter offensively. In the playoffs in the western conference it is all we will be seeing is these 2 big men with a big PF. We are not a deep playoff team until we can get past them. With TJ we will not get past them. Now I think if he continues to condition and improve and get experience he will and I think IMO about 2 more years. We don't have that much time. Hoefully this year he will improve enough to get us past the 1st round.
I don't think anyone is down on him or doubts his ability. Wanting bosh to replace him isn't a knock on him. The problem with Jones is simply his strength and getting older isn't going to necessarily make him THAT MUCH STRONGER. If he becomes strong enough to guard the bigger pf's in the game I'd have no problem with him as he learns to become a better player
This is a good point. It's not JUST LMA that killed him. We couldn't keep him in the game against memphis/lac/etc. Blake single handedly won games for the the Clips by killing T Jones
Sorry guys, you have false expectations. Jones is a good player but he will never be a star or a strong player. He's a bench guy, not someone you want in your starting 5 of your contender team (same for Chandler Parsons who luckily is not with us anymore).
Jones is plenty strong enough right now. He just does not put the same effort on D that he does on O. Many bang on Harden for being indifferent on D, but Jones is no better. Like Harden only seeks the steal, Jones idea of D is the shot block, ask him to move his feet to mirror or get low/body up to box out/post defense than you are out of luck. TJ has terrific talent but poor work ethic and body language.
even if we miss out on the top pf free agents i wanted morey to go after a 2nd or 3rd tier pfs. im ok with going into next season with jones tho, he's only gonna get better. and last season was the first he had big minutes. gonna need someone to make up the scoring we lost
Great prospect with an incredible opportunity to develop on a winning team with a perfect partner at the C position. Ideally, we probably don't want to wait 1-2 years for him to develop into what we need. So we went after Bosh, and we didn't get him. The way things are now, I'm more than happy to let Jones play 25 minutes at PF as long as we get someone else - like a Brandon Bass - who will give us good options and make sure we don't live and die by Jones' development. I quite like that idea. He was essentially a rookie this past season, so I expect a nice little leap in his development given the number of truly competitive games he played and what he faced in the playoffs. It's sure to have taken a toll on his confidence, but this is the time to find out if he is the kind of guy who is motivated by that experienced, or destroyed by it. I wouldn't bet against him having an excellent season.
The dude has crazy potential. That being said, he goes long stretches where you don't even realize he is on the court. His motor is suspect in my opinion. That concerns me.
If he ever develops a reliable 3pt shot and learns to play solid man defense then he will be a stud IMO. He is already good enough that I would not trade him for Millsap. By the way, he did outplay several big name PFs last season; Duncan, Millsap and Anthony Davis. He is only 22 and already really good. If he makes as big of a jump this coming season as he did last season he's going to be damn good.
What makes you think it will take another 2-3years to develop him. I m mean, didn't we not see a vast improvement in his game from his rookie campaign. That potential we are talking about could manifest itself this season after a strong dedicated to improve off season. And a lot of fans we down on the man before the playoffs and even more after that mulling by LMA this past post season. One fan in particular kept talking down on Jones all season. We all know who that is Red.
Strength doesn't really have to do with laziness. You're either strong or your not. I don't care how hard I try I wouldn't be able to guard Z-Bo in the paint. Harden is just as strong as T Jones is in the paint. Thats not a good thing....
It's not really that people are down on him as much as they realize that he would be one of the few players on the roster that other teams would actually covet in a trade. If the Rockets want to acquire a player, Jones would almost certainly need to be included in the deal.
I actually am down on him. He has length on defense and that's it. I don't feel like he has the quick thinking ability to handle defensive rotations. He gets abused by bigger guys and he's not an ideal partner for Dwight which gets Dwight stuck as the only rebounder an defender in te paint too often. His offensive skillet is very spotty. I would deal him in a second for an upgrade and I consider the four our weakest position.
Nobody could stop the top tier PF and I mean LMA couldn't stop Griffin and vice versa. So why people hang their hats on this statement of T. Jones not stopping top PF. Another thing why do people keep bringing up this man's off the court horrific incident. He made a terrible mistake. Are you a perfect saint around here? Can we not keep it strictly basketball on this topic? Not necessarily true, we could get past any team with a big power forward. We do have two Superstars one being a beast in the paint.
I've seen Mason be a borderline all-star in this league with his ugly ass jumpshot, so even though TJ has a slow slingshot release, he can be very good!
