The issue so far in his career has been that he's not big on creating his own shot, he sort of needs someone to set him up with an open dunk or whatever or he needs to be scoring in transition to have a role in the offense since he's pretty much terrible at shooting the ball and doesn't have a post game that is worth a damn. That has been a large reason why his play is so wildly inconsistent over his career. The positive news is that, at least in the preseason games he's played thus far he's shown an ability to get people to bite on his pump fake and create a shot for himself driving to the basket. Now sure, that's just preseason, and he hasn't been able to do that in all of the preseason games he's played in, but I'll take it as a positive. If he can do that in the regular season with any kind of consistency then it'll make him a much better offensive weapon.
Jones has always had a pump-fake dribble move. Why he has it is because he actually isnt that good a shooter from distance. Jones isnt most high IQ guy, but he realizes his shooting limitations enough to know he has to get closer shots. Jones does have post skills. He's inconsistent with it though. Jones gets garbage man points, but its not like he's a total Patrick Patterson non-creator either. All in all its similar to whats always been said about him. Jones is decent in an array of abilities, but master of none
Yeah, he's always tried to do it, but it has looked a lot better this preseason than ever before. In the past it might have worked once or twice but so far this preseason he's made it look like something he could repeat and do consistently. Time will tell if that's the case, but if it is, it's a huge win. As to Jones in the post, I don't like seeing it. Like you said, he's inconsistent with it and I pretty much expect a block, turnover, or bad shot attempt when I see him trying to work in the post.
It isn't because he has a post move, it is because he is an excellent finisher around the basket. (except in the playoffs...) I'm willing to grant that Jones was still struggling from that rib injury last year. Possibly not physically, but just mentally. He didn't look the same after he came back from it. He started the year in beast mode, came back from his first injury and re-hit beast mode. Then the knee to the ribs knocked him flat. But last chance this year...
The arbitrary benchmarks fans are setting as things Jones needs to achieve "or else" are comical at best. Jones isn't on some hotseat. He is the same as he as always been, which is a budding young roleplayer, who plays useful and productive minutes on a cheap contract. He will remain as such until an opportunity to flip him for a superior player comes along or his salary burden becomes too heavy. This obsession of him by three posters is laughable, mostly because of how irrelevant he is too the Rockets. He is no better than the 5th or 6th most import player on the team which is too say, you just hope you can get something from him more than you don't.
Terrence is in the last year of his rookie deal, facing free agency after this season. He is the same as he has always been. He lacks defensive court awareness, is a mediocre rebounder, and a poor shooter from everywhere on the floor outside of dunkable range. Agreed. He won't grow much more as a player. Hope, eh? Now we're down to hoping. Guys, this is how teams lose the opportunity to win championships. They keep hoping and wishing instead of moving on.
This is off-topic since the thread is about Terrence and you seem to want to drive it off topic and talk about me. But I will entertain you on what I think of Dekker for purposes of clarification. Every year prior to the draft, I study players. I typically like to put up a list of busts and booms, second round sleepers, etc. giving my thoughts on the talent in the draft. My first, initial post about Dekker below reflects my views of him. He made my bust list for being a first rounder. Here's the post: Around the same time, somebody had us in a mock draft taking Dekker at 18. I thought that was bologna. I didn't think Dekker with his low upside was the kind of kid that Morey would look at for a first rounder, especially with the obvious hole at PG at that time. Here's my comment on that: About a week later, I got some information from a source that Morey was indeed looking closely at Dekker and was interested in using him in a possible stretch-4 role. When I received that information, I started looking at Dekker again to see what intrigued Morey about him. Watched a bunch of video and started looking at him differently. I do have respect for the Rockets front office personnel (among others) and so if I know they really like a guy, I'm going to re-consider my view of him. So I started looking at Dekker in light of switching from 3 to 4, examining his length, watching him work defensively on the interior, etc. and I came to the conclusion that there was more potential to him than the conclusion I came to that he was simply a scrapper 3 that would be a flop as a lottery pick (he was being projected in the lottery at the time of my original post above). However.....while I knew the Rockets had eyes for him by that time, and I had considered the possibility of him playing stretch-4 for us, I still wasn't convinced that he'd be good. And that's where I'm at today. I'm holding out to see what he does with his situation. Dekker is a smart kid. And he's a hard-working kid with a lot of character. And he's got some very good physical tools. I can see him becoming a Battier-like player. But I can also see him knocking around and never finding himself, especially if he can't get his 3-ball going and he fails at the stretch-4 spot. So, at this point, I'm ambivalent towards Dekker. I think he's smart enough though that if he's gonna be a player that we'll be able to tell it in a relatively short period of time. I wanna see how he progresses this season, let him go to RGV and see how he gets up and down, see if he finds his stroke, and see if he gobbles up boards and finally dominates down there. If he does that, I'll be more optimistic about his future. But if he goes down there and muddles around and he fiddles and fumbles with his jumper all season and puts up mediocre numbers down there, then I'm going to be more convinced that my own initial scouting report on him was correct. He'll be a marginal scrapper-type player, more Ryan Bowen than Shane Battier. And if I had been the GM on draft day, I wouldn't have drafted Dekker. If I were sitting there on the clock at #18, I'd been trying to trade the pick for a future first rounder and possibly included a player swap as well. I wasn't high on Tyus Jones. I'd have been glad to give him to Minny for a future first from them or whomever else wanted to jump up and grab a first. I would have preferred to get a first and possibly another second rounder. I would've preferred to go after players like Kevon Looney and Richaun Holmes early in the second, and possibly draft Quinn Cook late in the second round.
We agree partly. I have called Dekker a certified bust from Day one. He has no single skill set that will translate well. I would have gone Jeriant Grant as PG cover and shipped Bev and TJ for a significant 4 in Feb that puts us over. Thornton can handle 10-12 minutes as back up PG (in reality Harden will be handling and MT off the ball) and we would be strong at every position.
If you redo the draft today, you take bobby Portis. Post game, can hit the 3 and rebound is exactly what we need.
Thornton is not a PG. That won't work well. Offense will stand around while he jacks up bad shots. Not to mention his defense is terrible.
I see your analysis of Montrezl Harrell is spot on. Have you reconsidered any of these "busts", now that they have had some SL and preseason burn?
No, because in the grand scheme of human history, 10-15 years is a relatively short period of time, and the pages of history will simply show Harrell played PF in the NBA (like a sea of other players). Therefore he will be right
Yes. I reconsidered on RJ Hunter. I think he'll be better than what I projected there. Don't know how good he'll be. But I think I was a little hard on him. At the time I wrote that Harrell was projected as a first rounder. I'm ok with him in the second. Although let me be real clear, I still would have preferred to draft Richaun Holmes. I don't think Harrell will be a starter on a championship team. I think he's at best a key reserve bringing energy and running the floor. I think he's better than Terrence. But I don't think he'll ever be as good as guys like DMo and Capela who have either size and skills (DMo) or size and athleticism with a developing skill set (Capela).
Beware agenda posters. They believe the following: Ryan Mallet is a budding superstar. DMo is an elite rim protector. Ricky Rubio is a future MVP. Aaron Brooks is an alpha dog. Mark Cuban is a better owner than Leslie Alexander.
You know. Cuban could well be a better owner than Alexander except for one thing: Les hired Morey and Cuban hired himself.
