He is indeed bigger. I just wish he would keep at least two thirds of his speed with that added weight.
I'm very excited for this season. Motiejunas could have a nice breakout season if he has kept enough speed to play defense. I've really like what he has done around basket. I expect Rockets can easily find 9 guys for the rotation next season.
D-Mo looks like he really wants to improve. With that mentality and attitude he has I do see him becoming a better player. And will be better than Terrence Jones and Greg Smith. As I said before D-Mo's game will be like Ryan Anderson's game but with better post moves. All he needs to improve most is his defense and rebounds.
Too good of a prospect to trade at this stage in my opinion, unless you get another all-star in return. You don't get a lot of young bigs with such advanced offensive repertoire so early on. Weight is something you can easily work on but post moves not so much. Plus, he has the best chances of fitting in with Dwight amongst all our bigs. He has a decent outside game and a skilled inside game and runs the floor well. Just needs to put on mass which is a lot easier to do than learning post moves.
He is finally starting to look like an adult. We shall see, potential is there and the talk is there too.
I see Asik and Dwight starting together as twin towers. This can actually work since it worked with Greg Smith and Asik last year for the most part. You will need 3 penetrating perimeter players that can hit the open shot as well. We have that in Parsons, Harden and Lin. This lineup will surprise a lot of people. Dwight can take the role of Greg last year when McHale kept feeding him the ball in the post.
DMo's body now resembles Asik's more than it does his own from last season. Even Yao didn't bulk up this quickly. Won't this negatively affect his speed like he feared? Skilled power fowards like Dirk, Pau, LMA, and Bosh never got to to 260 pounds, nor did they need to. He can always slim back down if he has to, I guess.
I really don't trust per 36 projections. It assumes he can sustain the same effort for 36 minutes. DMo is not an energy type player.
Well when you are talking about a guy who didn't play many minutes you can't really hold his per game numbers against him. The only way to look at guys who play that infrequently is by their per36 numbers. Going strictly by per game numbers, Asik was a 4 rebounds per game player in his first 2 years in the league....
Are people still arguing about his jumper? All we need to know is his form is legit. Getting his percentage up is only a matter of getting him more comfortable on the court. That's the easy part.
He'll definitely slim back down during the season. The travel schedule, diet, and weight training can't keep up with what his body would need to sustain 260. Even last year, he was significantly bigger in the Summer than he was when the season got going. The size is going to come naturally & be sustainable when his body finally stops growing and settles into adulthood. He has the frame to be a center in this league, but the offensive tools of a SF or skilled PF. That's a deadly combination to have. The Rockets need to do what they can to keep this guy because in 2 or 3 more years, he's going to be a huge weapon for any team in the NBA.
Also, someone needs to work with him on his balance in his lower body. He slides his left left over to get his form right and his core isn't steady enough to not get thrown off balance. His shooting touch looks great, but his balance in his lower body is where his aim gets thrown off.
I'll say it here: I'm not quite sure what everyone sees in DMo. He's a Euro big who is 7 feet tall and supposedly has great footwork around the basket. I didn't see much from him last year in summer league or his limited NBA run. He couldn't rebound last year and that's essential for him to be even a bench player. His D is really bad but that could be chalked up to inexperience. It's hard for me to buy into his potential. Why are people high on him? Is it b/c of his play overseas or what? I want to believe...
