Donatas Motiejunas cleared to return to Rockets practice

Here's the Feigen article with full quotes from JBB. Basically Coach says the only thing to worry about with DMo is being too amp'd up to play that he'll what to be everywhere and try his full package. JBB says he might have to give him little things to do first in a game (focus on "2-3 things" then 4 and 5 once he gets his rhythm back).

http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...to-rockets-lineup-may-come-sooner-than-later/

DALLAS – As hesitant as the Rockets have been to say when Donatas Motiejunas will play now that he has been cleared by his surgeon, Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff sounded as if he would try to get Motiejunas ready by playing him, rather than wait until he is ready before he will play.

The Rockets have just two practices scheduled in the next week – Monday in New York and Friday in Houston.

“We really don’t have a choice,” Bickerstaff said. “You look at it there’s not a ton of practice time that we’re going to get. There’s not a ton of time you’re going to be five-on-five, in practice, live. What you got to do is throw him out there, say ‘D-Mo, tonight these are the three things we’re going to work on.’ Those three things will be to four, five. Then when he’s comfortable he can open up his whole package.”


Rockets' most recent shooting performance | PointAfter
Bickerstaff sounded open to giving Motiejunas limited playing time against Dallas on Friday night. Though he does not expect Motiejunas to be featured in the offense as he had been before his herniated disk last March, Bickerstaff said Motiejunas can still help before he is sharp.

“The way he plays and do so many things that impact scoring without actually having to score – he passes, he runs, he sets screens – those things are all instinctive,” Bickerstaff said. “His bonus is his ability to score with his back to the basket. That may take a little time for him to catch his rhythm on because he hasn’t been able to go live for so long. Defensively, he’s always been in the right place. Those things he can still do. Playing vertically at the rim, he can still do. He can impact winning without having to score.

“We all know D-Mo is a workaholic. Conditioning will not be a problem for him. His emotions will be part of the problem initially. He’s going to be so excited to play. He’s going to be so ramped up to back, with him, you’ll probably have to yank him back a little bit and get him less to do. Knowing D-Mo, he’s probably going to try to be everywhere all the time. We got to let him work himself into rhythm, give him a few small things to do. As his rhythm comes back, then we’ll expand his role, give him more things to do.”

jonathan.feigen@chron.com​

 

You might not have played any real basketball, but just so you know, team on defense always has the advantage to get that board (if they're smart), therefore it's part of the defense, and to be more precise team defense. Offensive boards are usually much harder to attain and is correlated to individual player's offensive rebounding ability or hustle.

 

Hmmmm I seem to remember someone in here telling me i was ridiculous for thinking DMO could play in the next week or so... (Still possible he doesn't but it certainly sounds like my line of thinking was correct).

 

Someone said DMo will play on December 4th, I called that guy borderline idiot. I was looking today for that post, couldn't find. But given all info back then, I bet it was a wild guess, since DMo hasn't even had his doc appointment.

 

He can practice all he wants but he's not going to get back to normal till he plays a few games.

He just got cleared to play this week. He's been at practice on the court since October. It's not like the guy hasn't had a basketball in his hands since surgery.

Throw him in the fire. We need him balling by Christmas not playing his first game.

 

I'm your guy! I like to think it was an informed hunch based on the info out at the time. Calvin Murphy just tweeted "DMO Help!"

 

Actually by the time I said it (which was only a couple of days ago) he had.

 

I remeber when u said it and I believed. Good for you looks like you were right and even if he doesn't play its not gonna be more than a week so you were damn close if not right on the money.

Kudos to you.

 

So if DMo gets us to the playoffs... will he get the triple max?

 

He'll get the double secret max.

 

people really overestimate DMo here.

i love the guy, but if you think he's going to turn this team around and lead the winning effort, you're sorely mistaken.

harden doesn't want to expend effort. no playoffs for us this year. dmo can't do **** about that.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">No D-Mo tonight. JBB said he will likely play Motiejunas to get him ready, but not yet. Math (one practice, eight months) did not work.</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/672952610228334592">December 5, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I go to sleep. When's the next game?

 

Yup, no reason to watch now.

 

debut to help get him off to a good start... Hopefully plays tomorrow!

 

Probably waiting for a home debut to help get him off to a good start... Hopefully plays tommorow!

 

Dmo the great white Rockets hope. So much riding on one guy. Will he save the season? Will James Harden shave his beard only to find out he is not James Harden? Will Bill Worrell live to 100? Will the Rockets win 55 games? So many questions. News at 10.

 

Haha. You're right.

To hell with last year when he was the second most important player in that pursuit for the #2 seed.

Evidence be damned!

 

can you please provide some evidence? i'd like to see.

i'm not being sarcastic; i just don't know firmly. i watched all the games last year, and while he was great, i don't think he can come back and fix all of our woes.

but really, could you provide some info as to how he was the second most important player?

 

Then who was? Dorsey? Ariza, shooting 20% for months? Howard, missing half the regular season?

 

Josh Smith.