McHale is the head coach. I do not think his decision about something so trivial as rookie minutes will be questioned by anyone in the organization. Fans however say whatever they want. There are no consequences for them spouting lunacies and idiotic thoughts.
From a team chemistry standpoint, it makes very little sense to start rookies from the get-go. It's just illogical if you think about it. If Morris get minutes and perform well. Good result If Morris get minutes and perform badly, the team knows to give up on him, and Jones replace him, pumped that he'll finally get his chance. Good result. OTOH, what if Jones start and struggles? Then you have Morris who already has low confidence, see that the coach basically gave up on him for a rookie, and now has to come in and replace Jones. And he'll have little chance to succeed.
The nearest player that can play the point guard position and shoot besides Douglas is Harden. Macado is very much like Lowry was early on, great court vision but he can't shoot for isht, except Macado doesn't have Lowry's defensive ability. That being said, Macado may get the backup role sooner then later because Douglas is not at all looking as nice as he was in preseason. Jones, I have no idea why he didn't start, McHale had him start a few preseason games and he literally had more time playing the 4 position then Morris. I figure he said or did something to get in the coaches dog house, which Morris will tell you is not the place a rookie would want to be. That being said, considering Morris hasn't really played that much with the starters in game, it showed he must be coming along. IMO, he didn't do that bad, let a few scores and rebounds go, but overall I didn't see him as nearly the liability other players were or how it appears many on this board think. Jones being the better defensive player will probably get the majority of the minutes when McHale lightens up but Morris has potential that they need to get him minutes to actually develop. Motiejunas, given the advancement of Greg Smith, I can't see him getting a lot of playing time unfortunately. Smith was pretty good on defense and offense. I can't see Motiejunas getting off the bench unless he can out play Smith or Jones which may hinder his development like it did Morris last season. Yeah, it ain't looking great for DMO as some call him around here.
I kinda expected this from the coach. All you TJones fanatics are up for a long season. Machado actually has a chance since it looks like the team needs an efficient pg when Lin goes to the bench.
If Royce can speed up his development with learning the system, this can actually be his chance to make the rotation as the 2nd playmaker so they don't have to stagger Lin & Harden's play time.
If it were Machado instead of Douglas Delfino not getting 3 fouls before the half instead of Cook Jones instead of Morris this game would've been a blowout.
