Donatas Motiejunas will start against the Bucks Wednesday

The lesson to young players is don't focus entirely on scoring. DMo contribued solidly with 6 boards, 2 assists and most importantly 0 turnovers last game. He played solid defense as well.

This is what McHale cares about with young players who don't have obvious otherworldly talent. I suspect this is where Jones is struggling. DMo has struggled in these "hustle" categories in his limited time on the court, but has gotten better.

His offensive game is ready. He needs to play smart otherwise to stay in the game and contribute to wins.

 

disagree...for starters it wouldn't have happened "a long time ago" because he's only been on the roster for HALF a season. PPat and Morris had seniority, experience, and (atleast in PPats case), proven themselves to be competent contributors. Also Morey and Mchale needed to see if PPAT could step up in the starters role and also develop Morris further along. The first half of the season focused on seeing what they had in those two guys, regardless of how DMo performed in practice. Ppat was the heir apparent to Scola and Morris was a lotto pick, so they weren't giving up on those guys so fast.

I actually think the opposite. BECAUSE Dmo did so well in practice, they felt comfortable trading away PPAT AND MORRIS (both potentially starting PFs) to make room for him. And all that for a rookie in a half a season. that is really impressive. Shows me that the front office feels really highly about him. So yeah, I'm impressed and have pretty high expectations.

 

I'm more worried about his defensive game. Hopefully he can hold his own.

 

I like this. I hope he makes the best out of this opportunity.

 

Lol

Kelvin Sampson on D-Mo: "Confidence is not a problem with the Lithuanian. He thinks he’s pretty good & we wouldn’t want him any other way."

 

Thomas will never start over Donatas...Why?










Because he can't shoot 3's.

 

and he's a rookie that hasn't worked his ass off like Dmo has to get in the rotation?

 

This.

 

Ivory towers is so much better

 

D-Mo's main problem on defense is that when he helps, he completely ignores his own man. There is no recovery. Watch Asik on how to help a defender recover from a screen or getting beat, then get back to his own man. Also when D-Mo shows while defending the PnR, he shows too much, again he has trouble with losing his own man after the show. Show a little, then cover your own guy, D-Mo.

Once he learns how to help then recovery, he will be fine on D.

 

clearly we are different on this one. just look at what happened when ppat got back from injury, he had to start from the bench coz mm played pretty good. however, after a few games, ppat overtook the starting position. so seniority is not the factor coaches care about. they look at how they perform in practice and on the court.

 

They would be Ivory Towers version 2.

Who remembers the original Ivory Towers? Jim Petersen and Dave Feitl! Can I get a what what??

 

I just hope if D-Mo doesn't show magic tomorrow he won't be sent back to bench. Probably he won't score much, because he'll be only 4th scoring option in the starting lineup. McHell must have loved his hard work off the ball last game, so he'll want to see that more, not giving him any plays

 

Yeah, sorry... I can't edit posts. It's the pic on his NBA Rockets profile so I didn't notice.

 

I second this..I actually hope Clutchfans gives him a chance and a few game leash before unloading on him

 

Hahahaha, Wonder Twin Powers?

 

Id prefer T-Rob to have the starting POWER forward position. Not D Mo who is a soft forward. Ill keep my eye on him though.

 

McHale also said that Thomas Robinson and Francisco Garcia, acquired in a trade last week with Sacramento, would see their first playing time for the Rockets as well.

10 man Rotation???

 

No

I prefer the best player. TRob has shown us squat so far. DMo has shown he may have the talent.

 

With a team that features one of the games best shot blocking centers, and very poor perimeter defense, Its pretty obvious that D-Mo will be wide open for the corner 3 most of the game.

Harden/Lin will be able to get by their defenders pretty easy, and draw in the shot block(Sanders/Dalembert) leaving the either Asik wide open for a dunk/layup or if the help defense comes over to help on Asik, D-Mo will be sitting wide open in the corner all night long.

Better hope D-Mo comes ready to shoot the 3 tomorrow night.

On Defense, just body up like he did the other night, and stay low. If he plays D like he has done the past couple games he should do fine.