[2016-2017] Donatas Motiejunas as a New Orleans Pelican

There is such a thing as playing, yet not fully 100% by previous Peak-Playing standards. Right? I mean, you've said in the past Patrick Beverley hadn't fully recovered from his knee issues, and was worried about him. The whole BBS did. Plenty of ACL players return to play again, yet not 100% by previous standards. Plenty of back surgery people never regain 100%, yet return to playing.

You keep saying that since he's playing (even despite low minutes), that he is fully healthy. If he is fully 100% again, I don't know why he's getting so few minutes while getting out-played by Terrence Jones. I was too much of a believer in DMo's peak performance to think he is at 100% now, and just getting ignored by the team or iced-out by players, or to believe he has become jaded towards being a team player and is getting low minutes due to attitude issues.

Don't turn into a LOF who blames the team for everything.

He's either not 100% or he doesn't care anymore this year. Very low likelihood is NOLA signed him and is not giving him a fair chance.

 

Do you still think the Rockets were too cheap and should have given him an extension? Is he still a rare commodity in your opinion?

 

I do think the Rockets were cheap in the way they handled it, yes. I think they were cheap with Landry and Scola too - I hate the way they do business in regards to RFA, there is nothing wrong with a little compromise if you want the player as either a tradeable asset or as a happy contributor.

IMHO, this is how it SHOULD have gone - using the known numbers.

1. Rockets make him a RFA
2. Tell BJ that they will give him a 2 year deal at 7m a year with the 2nd being a team option.
3. Offer a multi - year deal worth 9m a year for 4 years, with every year being a team option.
3. Settle on a 2 year, 2nd year team option around 9-10m.

Nothing wrong with giving a little for a little more flexibility and the player feels you do want them, and will be a much happier camper, and the Rox would have him as an asset they control.

That is what I would have liked to see - instead of the mess we got...BJ, DMo and Morey all had a role to play in a messy situation, and I think all 3 of them lost in the end.

DD

 

This is incorrect, he is healthy, and he is on a crappy team, with a crappy system, with a crappy coach - if you would watch the games you would know this....He doesn't fit their Me- first system.....

He needs a PnR focused system.....that is where he thrives.....

DD

 

NOP run plenty of pick and rolls with anthony davis there. don't think that's much of a valid excuse

 

Landry and Scola were re-signed to reasonable contracts and were great teammates afterwards. Scola stills speaks highly of the Rockets, even after being an amnesty cut for cap space. I was very happy with how their free agency worked out. If anything, we got them on contracts below value.

We did steps 1 and 2, with an inbetween step of offering the QO. He turned our offers down and played the market, where he got that contract with the Nets. Even that contract he signed with them was extremely team friendly and worse than ours. Four year deal with three years of team options? That's ridiculous. If you look at his production and the market, truly look at them, you see we gave the best offer.

I wanted him back, just as insurance. The deals were team friendly, but seeing how it all played out I'm very glad with the results. Dekker, Harrell, and Clint have all stepped up and may not have had the chance had he been here. Sucks for DMo, but ultimately he did this to himself.

 

Dmo's stat line tonight.....6 points, 1 rebound, 0 blocks. The more Dmo plays, the more Morey is vindicated. Anyone that argues to the contrary is foolish at best, mentally handicapped at worst.

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Sounds about right so long as you didn't actually watch the game. There was a reason they had him in the game late when the game was on the line.....but you wouldn't know that going solely by the stat line.

 

I mean, the fact that he's playing means he passed physical in Houston. That leaves us questioning what really happened..

 

Stats don't tell the whole story but they tell a large part of the story. DMo gets 16 mins of burn 4.8 pts 46% FG 28% 3p negative +/-. He's also neither a lock down defensive guy or a great rebounder.

When a guy produces like that he sucks, period.

 

9M for DMO with this kind of performance? He makes Brewer look like Lebron right now! We only have 9M capspace left this year, giving him that contract means 0 money at all this year and only 6M next year due to cap increase. So basically you think Rox would be championship contenders just by adding Dmo in the mix? LOL

 

I wouldn't say Morey was "vindicated" other than the fact that he would not risk big money on DMo. But none of the teams did.

Actually, the fact that TJones has been playing much better than DMo means that Morey tried to keep the wrong guy. He let Jones walk but offered DMo the QO. What if he did the opposite? Of course, it is very possible that keeping DMo was D'Antoni's idea, not Morey's.

 

I suppose you're alluding to him guarding ZBo. Nah, the reason is because TJones and Cunningham are both out.

I do watch some of their games ... I didn't need much excuse to start watching Anthony Davis' career, when he's on and it's convenient. Adding TJones and DMo to the team was enough of a push.

DMo just shows no energy out there. And that type of stuff shows up in the boxscore exactly like it is over the past 2-3 weeks. And when you watch, you never see hustle plays. He's rarely running on breaks now. He's not hitting the boards. He's not diving to the rim like TJones is. I know TJones and Dekker have the better face-up game than DMo ever did, but still. Do something on the court rather than give perimeter picks and wait for the ball. All types of things that he used to do. He doesn't need some perfect system fit to do them.

He's either developed an Asik attitude problem or he's not 100%, and worried about re-injury if he pushes it too much. He might have lost confidence in his body, somewhat.

Everything about him screams, "Take me out, Coach."

And to think people are alluding to Anthony Davis being the problem, like no other bigs can play with him.

 

No need for in depth analysis, DMo's back is whack. Anyone who watched him play when he was healthy before can see it...Dmo when healthy wouldn't shoot below 50% FG rust or no rust. If he played like this in Houston he would have been out of the league.

The PNR or system player BS is just spin from DD, he is in full DOF mode and blaming everything including climate change for Dmo's poor performance except DMo himself. When DMo had his breakout year the team wasnt doing as much PNR, in fact the Rox played a modified version of RA Rnr system with 3 guys forming a triangle and not moving at their spots, it was really close to a half court style and yet DMo had no issues scoring in ISO against opponents. Now he depends on teammates to succeed? That just BS.

Dmo's injury is affecting his play and making him a shell of his former self. He's probably forcing himself to play and has damage from his injury, most.likely this is why he failed his physical.

 

But, he did make all of his three point attempts last night.

 

A bit of advice to Dmo defenders - better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

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Look - he is fine, just not a regular or consistent in his minutes, his back is fine, he is playing OK when he gets a decent amount of time.

All the haters gonna hate, but the man is healthy and if he can get some consistent minutes can build upon his situation.

Don't be that guy - lets see how he finishes the season.

Glad he is healthy...

DD

 

Na, I guess TJones just had an absolutely disastrous season just like a couple of young players last year. No excuses.

The timing was not there and he does not fit well with the stretch forward scenario, he was still a talent that was not going to get a chance of redemption.

Good deal for both sides, it got resolved better than the whole Dmo debacle.

TJones needed to make tons of mistakes to grow as a player, and the organization can only accommodate so many players that make these mistakes.

I think Tjones convinced me that he can be a good player when he was part of the squad that turned the Clippers Series 2 years ago.

 

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