First of all, he did not lead Europe in rebounds last year. Kirilenko led Euroleague in rebounding last year, and that's a fact. http://www.euroleague.net/main/stat...easoncode=E2011&cat=TotalRebounds&agg=PerGame Now, as to being an "elite rebounder"....no. He was a very god rebounder, but no way even close to "elite". Plenty of guys in Euroleague that were better rebounders than him. He played on one of the worst teams in Euroleague of the last 10 years, and the stats were inflated. In addition to that, the game where he set the defensive rebounding record or whatever, was against a team that had a financial collapse earlier that week. They lost a bunch of their regular players due to that, and so they had to play some high school and youth squad players during that game. Meaning, he was playing against some guys that were not professional players in that game, but some guys from YOUTH teams. Was he a very good rebounder in Euroleague? Yes. Was he "elite"? No way. Did he "lead Europe in rebounding"? No.
Eh, the team we have now is going to be together at least another 2 years, barring trades. The fact that once DMO/Trob blossom we'll look pretty good at every position means we can be really flexible in terms of picking up superstars. Whatever position the big free agent plays, you automatically get a 6th man out of whoever he knocks from the starting lineup. I bet you Lin, Parsons & Asik would all be perfectly happy to play 6th man behind CP3, LBJ or Howard.
In your attempt to one-up another poster you are missing the point. Dmo when drafted was not a good rebounder for his position. He then went back to the Euro League for a season and worked on his game, improving his rebounding. The rockets certainly don't care about the semantics of his improvement, they want to see tangible results on the court and in practice. And all indications point to a much improved DMO. This season he has taken a huge step strength-wise and with his recent games he has shown that he belongs in the starting lineup as long as he improves his defense. As far as rebounding goes he is already better than what we had before in the sense that he is very active and boxes his man out. And on offense he fits like a glove, he can space the floor, drive from the wings to make plays and is very good in the post. To sum it up yes DMO did not lead the euroleague in rebounds, yes he played on a scrub team but it really doesn't matter. Euroleague stats do not translate perfectly to the NBA anyways and it's up to the player to show that he belongs. And DMO certainly belongs on this team.
Let Hakeem work with him...I see an offensive threat in D-Mo..Rough around the edges but who isn't these days..
Yeah, in that clip it shows him coming in to help and usually getting an excellent pass thrown over his head or just getting burned by a guard. What big man does have that happen to them?
I think 19/8/4 with the 4 being assists is a very reasonable prediction for him, he could give you 19 points a game now if you wanted him to, the 8 rebounds is the only thing he'd have to work on to attain.
Except that Scola was way more craftier than D-Mo. Luis was in his prime when he entered the NBA - 27 years old. What a beast he was.
I was hoping we would get a veteran PF at the deadline so the Dmo can come off the bench. I want him to have more playing time but he's not ready to start. It doesn't matter if you score double digits but give up more on the other end. He has a lot to learn.
Well, when D-Mo is 27 maybe he will have Scola's skill level. With D-Mo's size and quickness advantage over Scola that would make him a dominating PF.
He doesn't have all of Scola's fakes and such but he can already score in the post in ways that Scola never could. I really don't think I'm being a Homer when I say that I think Dmo will be an all star. People are crying about his defense and I understand that but I think it's more about knowing when to rotate and where to be on the floor. Plus he has only started two games, he will get better on defense he has all of the tools to do it, he is tall and quick, he could be stronger but I really think he just needs to learn where to be to improve the most.
Thanks for posting this.....it is sad how lost he is on defense. It's not lack of effort though, he's literally just lost and undisciplined. Seems like he doesn't know how to read his man or how the help defense is suppose to work. The good news is, because it's not an effort issue he should improve. It just takes getting used to the NBA level offense and learning. If it were an effort deal, then yeah....that'd suck.
I don't get complaining about DMo's defense, it's like they never watched Patrick Patterson or Marcus Morris play. Those guys weren't much better than parking cones on defense, yet now people pretend like they were great simply because they are gone.
Pat - B on iso, C on help Mook - C on iso, C- on help Dmo - F on iso, D on help That said, he's 22 years old, he'll get better.
I think that's HIGHLY overrating Patterson and Morris. They just really really really aren't any good at defense, saying a "B" for a guy with a 110 defense rating is REALLY kind.
