Disagree. He did nothing impressive this campionship so far. Only one game was solid, rest - pretty much bad: he could not score nor defend. Darjus Lavrinovic was by far best C to play against Italy since JV could not do anything when hes against doubled defence. And mobile Italy's defence stoped our pick&roll with JV easily. And back to rockets players... DMo played some nice active defence this game. Of couse he made few misstakes, but overall it was good. He contributed a lot to LTU victory. He got some confident during championship and, with Kleiza being bad as he is now, DMo is best option as LTU PF. And with more experience he will play a lot better since he is young but smart and a hard worker.
One person that may object to this would be their coach, who closed out a close game with Dmo on the floor. This is single elimination, so the coach is obviously trying to win, not give charity minutes. Overall, I'm not terribly high on either of the PFs, Dmo or Tjones, or not nearly as much as most people. I think there's a real chance that by game 83 neither of them will be the starting PF, even if we don't trade for one. With that said, if I had to bet on one out of the two, it would easily be Dmo. Anyone who's watched him knows he has flaws, even some major ones. But he does have a few things going for him as well: 1. Plays hard on the floor 2. Practices hard off the floor 3. 7 footer 4. Young Those are facts. And in the NBA, it is pretty hard not to eventually find at least some kind of success if you have those 4 things.
Jonas Valanciunas IMO impacts the game on both ends the most of any player.... good or bad. If he's off his game like he was yesterday, than yes, he can have a negative impact on the game. However, nobody on the court has the natural defensive, and rebounding ability that he has on the court. If this team is going to go anywhere in the future, he's the main building block. Old man Kleiza is getting minutes clearly because of seniority, but he does know the plays like the back of his hand, and is always where he is supposed to be in their sets. However, its about time for this guy to retire. He's pretty terrible. As for D-Mo, while he was probably one of the biggest keys to Lithuania winning the game yesterday against Italy, I can totally see how this guy would frustrate the hell out of a coach. It never fails that every game he makes several bone-headed plays that lead to turnovers, b****es to a FIBA ref(who really dont care), and often gets lost on defense. (In Regards to D-Mo with the Rockets)However, I dont agree with HMMHMM that the Rockets should look to trade him any time soon... why???... Whats the point??.. So BJ Young can make the roster cut?? The guy has ridiculous talent, you wouldn't be getting back great value (unless he's part of a larger package deal), and either this year or next the bone-headed plays should subside. At this point, IMO D-Mo is a pretty low risk/high reward gamble. On a rookie contract its worth giving him another year or two to right the ship. If it works out, he's a perfect fit for this team that's currently constructed. If not... oh well. I'm pretty sure the 2nd round pick he's worth now, you could probably still get in a year or two anyways. Regardless.... Les has shown he can simply buy 2nd round picks anyways, or find talents like Greg Smith, Covington, etc. for free. So again... what would be the point of trading him ASAP??
Just uploaded 8 plays out of Lithuania's playbook: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/wQSETi_guh0?list=PLXWsHGeAyQD6WWPVo7T_dHmcA0k3yqDtw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> + 15 plays out of the French playbook: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/voL1XiDyheg?list=PLXWsHGeAyQD4GIYGaCMVOITf_jkcesrT3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Will respond later re: D-Mo.
Why do people expect D-Mo to be mistake-free & subsequently overreact being such an inexperienced player? He didn't even play on the national team one year ago & has relatively few NBA minutes. As long as he is showing some improvement, which I think he has & is working at it, I don't think the deficiencies he has shown so far is that big of a deal. Now, if he is making the same mistakes 40 games from now, that is another story, but I wouldn't expect that to happen. People really underestimate the value of gaining experience & I think he has the talent to be an adequate defensive player.
What improvement though? I watched D-Mo a great deal when he was still playing in Europe two years ago and I've seen very little, if any, improvement since then other than him bulking up (and he yet still sucks establishing post position).
Trade him for what? A second year player with undeveloped talent will net you what?? A second rounder at best. At this point your better off just giving it another year of development to see if he can carve out a niche. That is unless his roster spot is really that valuable to the team that taking someone like BJ Young instead on the final 15 man roster gives the team that greater of a chance to compete for a title.
Defense is mostly mental, being in the right place according to the situation, just having smarts. That is the way in which I think he has shown improvement, granted he was quite bad in this regard as a rookie.
People complaining about the Lithuanian coach in this thread, while the team is about to advance to the finals despite being 40-1 underdogs coming into the tournament. Either this is the greatest collection of international talent ever winning despite his awful coaching, or he actually knows a thing or two about who to start/play. Reminiscent of the McHale treatment.
Kazlauskas is one of the better European coaches, but I'm pretty sure Lithuania was not 40-1, but rather 8-1-ish going into the tournament. Their team is filled with plenty of good players and though they got a bit lucky with the draw, them making the finals is not a surprise to anyone who follows the European basketball scene.
Must be thinking of France or Greece then. Either way, there weren't many teams with better odds of winning the tournament than Lithuania going in. I'm guessing Spain, France, Greece and maybe Slovenia, yes?
Is D-Mo's skillset really any better than Darko Milicic's? D-Mo's still young so it's hard to judge but i'd be really surprised if he ends up being better than Darko.
Spain the clear favorite, with France and Russia behind. Greece, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey were roughly on par. Croatia was actually the ones that were 40-1, so good for them.
I really think D-Mo is a Darko Milicic being drafted 20th instead of 2nd overall. I see the same skillset when Darko was his age. Has the potential to be a solid role player at best. Hope i am wrong. I'd definitely keep Terrence Jones over him but i also don't mind trading either player or both, even. I never expect draft picks in the teens and 20's to be stars in the first place, so..
