I'm happy too but to be realistic, a couple of those were plays that might have gone the other way quite easily. D-Mo would have looked a lot sillier if the refs didn't call the hook by Stephenson and I guess Lance might have been able to go around him without doing it at all. Also the block on Hibbert comes after D-Mo jumps up in the air at the wrong time with no chance of doing anything. Paul George(?) then bumps into Hibbert who is forced to go to the wrong side of the rim because of the timely help by T-Jones. Without that help D-Mo gets dunked over nine times out of ten. My point? I think making sweeping generalizations based on couple of plays isn't very wise. Comments like this that are far removed from reality: What really happened: David West bricks a jumper, misses a couple others and makes about six or seven mostly well contested shots against T-Jones (and no free throws) and he is "manhandled" or "abused" or "scored at will" while West takes one(!) jumper that happens to miss and now D-Mo is a good defender suddenly? Also, David West is one of the premier low-post players in the league, arguably the best offensive option for Indiana making $12M a year. His stats in the two games added together: 49min, 20 pts (with 17 shots), 6 rebounds, -9. I'll take that any day. I don't want to take anything away from D-Mo and I think his offensive contributions have given him the edge over Jones at least for now. But let's not go overboard and pick the facts that happen to support our opinions while ignoring the others that don't.
Exactly. It is generally viewed that the NBA data set becomes significant after about one third of the regular season. At this point in the preseason there is just not sufficient data to conclude anything of value. Even after a full season or even seasons of data some popular metrics like RAPM of many lesser used lineups are not reliable.
Here's something that John Schuhmann of NBA.com, who writes many of their stats-related pieces, said about preseason performance in a recent podcast ( http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2013/10/09/hang-time-podcast-episode-133-the-schuhmann-stat/ ) with Sekou Smith, Lang Whitaker and Rick Fox: When discussing the performance of rookies Anthony Bennett and Cody Zeller, Schumann was asked whether he trusts the "eye test" more than their stats in the preseason games. Schumann replied that, at this stage, he would rely more on the eye test than he would on the stats given the sample size. I think this makes sense given that luck plays a big role in small sample size numbers (at least the publicly available ones) -- random making or missing of shots, whether the rebound bounces your way or not, and even whether your team happened to do well with you on/off the court can largely be a matter of luck. Over the course of a season, or even a significant portion of a season, you can see some trends, but not this early. So, we are better off at this early stage watching the tape and noticing more detailed things like whether a guy seems out of position a lot or is mostly in position to at least contest shot attempts, whether he's taking good shots (whether he makes or misses them), whether his movement on the court looks smooth or like a spazz. Motiejunas, to me, passes the "eye test" so far. He seems less lost in the scheme than he was last season. He looks under control and not hurried on the court and is getting to the spots where he can catch the ball and get off a good shot. Jones looks like more like a spazz at this point. Things may not continue this way, but these are what I see so far.
Donuts definitely looks more comfortable this time around. And I am impressed with his defensive awareness. He used to get lost a lot on the defensive end, and very nervous, rushing things on offense.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pOEHjN4hm1A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And this was from the latest game <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2UH9R2Z1YbE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Motiejunas looked pretty good in those videos. Does anyone have any video that is comparable for Jones?
That runner that he hit in the 1st video was a very high class shot. He is gaining confidence on offense.
DMo is developing a certain level of toughness, really getting used to the NBA style of play. A few more games and McHale will be hard pressed not to give him some when the real games start. Donuts is doing just fine and we all should be glad for it.
That move at 2:34 of the Taiwan highlight is pretty sick. Too bad DMo couldn't finish with his right hand.
He made mistake takin right foot as pivot one and stuck in it making very tuff shot. If it's not shot clock - you better pass.
Agreed. D-Mo appears to understand spacing and looks to actually be developing some good skills defensively one-on-one and as a help defender.
Lithuanian media reports that DMo is suffering from that wrist injury against Pacers and has hard time sleeping at nights. Picture from his twitter:
Edit: he can't sleep because of the timezones change, not because of the wrist. My bad. But the wrist isn't great either
It is an issue, but it won't stop him from playing. I wish he'd stop shooting 3s, because without them he looks very good and those couple missed 3s always ruin his good image for the game.
