The thread is so long because we have been keeping up with his progress during the Euro-league season and discussing it along the way.
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This is a long story as you can imagine from the 1500 posts over the last 10 months. But I think most of us feel he can score and rebound in the NBA. He is currently playing in the Polish league finals against a team that does not have a realistic chance to win. Motiejunas carried this team for months against much tougher competition. First scoring option, first rebounding option. He seems to work on his game piece by piece. He is currently playing against triple teams if he is within 15 feet of the basket. As it should be. I was watching rebounding and scoring 3 months ago. 6 months ago I was watching strength and could he hold position. No one ever doubted his height and athletic ability. No question about his scoring once he got into the NBA and really worked on his shots. The question were strength, rebounding, court focus and work ethic. Strength - he went from 215 at the draft to 240+ today. Now difficult for his opponent to move him where he does not want to go. Rebounding - set the Euro league record for defensive rebounds. Euro league basketball moves 7' 240 pound PF's out to the 3 point line. Don't ask me why as I have no clue. Makes rebounding for that position problematic. Work ethic - see the above two. Focus - Does the man understand his defensive assignments, what his help responsibilities are, how to slow penetration down? Can he always find the open man off of a double team? On offense (screwy as that Euro offense is - setting 7' PF's on the 3 point line) does he show for the pass? Does he come to the ball? IS HE LAZY? So focus (those damn intangibles) are what I am watching these days. If you read my posts from yesterday you have an idea where I am with that. Forecasting Euro players success in the NBA is best left to professionals. But physically he has the tools - 7' 240 pounds, quick with enough hops to block shots and dunk with ease. His court awareness has improved immensely. His defense won't get him laughed out of NBA arenas anymore. We shall see. Hopefully he hits the Rockets team and trainers soon.
Carl - looks like the opponents are totally outclassed. The Polish finals are a walk through for Prokom. And yes everyone on Prokom is playing a little disinterested. In Euro league play it was the exact opposite. Man they were frenetic. LOL.
Some news regarding D-Mo's insurance for the Olympics: http://www.lithuaniabasketball.com/...unas-and-valanciunas-still-up-in-the-air.html Also, Sabonis criticizing Motiejunas for being afraid to get hurt: http://www.lithuaniabasketball.com/...criticizes-motiejunas-for-not-showing-up.html
Thanks for the update Hmmmm. As I have already stated I am ambivalent him joining his NT. I think it might be good for him and would be great for Lithuania, but he is going to play second fiddle to Klieza. As it should be. But from a pure NBA developmental stand point he might be better served joining the Rockets ASAP.
I agree- especially if the national team is going to be playing him as more of a stretch 4 or three. He needs to learn the NBA game while he's still very young.
To be fair, Sabonis words are a bit mistranslated... I wasn't criticizing Motiejunas, and was saying the outdoors thingy as a joke in that video interview. He said himself he wasn't a good example since he played every possible time for his country until he injured himself.
Polish League Finals Game 5 live in 15 minutes. Could be D-Mo's last game, as Prokom leads the series 3-1. Live stream: http://195.245.213.199/Ch0001
That was an awful first quarter for him. Poor play on both ends of the court. The man he was guarding did a spin move and Motiejunas just bounced off of him. No strength whatsoever. And his pass that led to a turnover at the end of the quarter was just lazy. And now that he's on the bench his team runs an offense and goes on a big run.
Prokom lost 76-71. Still lead 3-2. Not sure yet when game 6 will be. D-Mo had 20 points (8/12 0/0 4/6), 9 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals. Well... we knew strength was still an issue for him. He got burned twice on the perimeter. I thought it was due to a combination of bad defensive stance, lack of strength and lateral slow-footedness. Again nothing we didn't already know. Also, most of his teammates were simply terrible. D-Mo was instant offense throughout this game and had a mismatch pretty much every time down the floor, yet way too often didn't he even touch the ball. And it's not like he was hiding in a corner somewhere. Bad play calling too by their coach, too. They kept running plays for these other dudes that didn't work and when they called for a D-Mo post-up half the time the entry pass was even made (again thanks to poor guard play). When it was, Trefl was usually zoning up or double teaming again like they did in the last game, forcing D-Mo to pass out most of the time. He made the right reads, but his teammates rarely ended up capitalizing. Not sure why Prokom didn't went to him in the mid/high-post more often. Impossible to double-team or zone up there. D-Mo showed more patience this game, although I still thought he could have taken a little more time sizing the defense up early on. Still, he was constantly communicating on defense, playing well with and without the ball on offense. Cutting all over the place, getting his hands on balls, active on the boards. In proper position on defense seemingly over 90% of the time. Good energy level and good body language. I thought he could have been a little more assertive at the at the end, but I quite frankly thought he was tremendous. Without him they would have lost by 15 points+.
Polish League Finals Game 6 live in 7 minutes or so. Prokom leads the series 3-2. Live stream: http://195.245.213.199/Ch0001
Not a good start for D-Mo. Looks like he's all out of sorts. Not assertive enough, rushing decisions and forcing the issue (resulting in missed shots and turnovers). Not going up strong still an issue as well. Couple of missed assignments on defense, too. Obviously still early though.
I have not been impressed with DMo in this series. He might be the best player out there but he's playing like one of the guys. Looking at him as a prospect he's a lot like Perry Jones, flashes of extreme talent mixed with a ton of soft, unfocused play.
