Could Motiejunas and Jones both move out of the rotation?

Yeah, that's probably all true and for now we shouldn't be playing these dudes anyway (if not for injuries and foul trouble).

However, it tends to look bad if you cherrypick your arguments and exagerate while conveniently leaving out things like Ronnie Brewer (who you just endorsed in another thread) sucking even more *** with -17 in seven minutes while on court with the "three stooges". Your posts are usually of great quality and thought, no need to stoop to the level of LOFs, LOHs, DaDakota, coachbadly and countless others where you just twist the facts to support whatever point you are currently endorsing

 

thanks, your chinese is alright.

 

They are supposed to come in and start going off after not even knowing they were going to play at all?? They need to be playing throughout the game.

 

Nah. I didn't like the tone.

 

Facts are facts.

 

No, just no. They just cannot give us anything that Asik/Casspi doesn't do better.

They want to play stretch 4s and outscore us? Play Casspi, good luck with the outscoring if our backcourt is even half awake?

They wan't to slow it down with maybe Hack a Howard? Good luck with outscoring our TT. For example, Dallas got exactly ZERO field goals in 4 minutes while TT was on the floor (at the start of 1st and 3rd). The only points (3) were from questionable foul calls.

They wan't to take our fast break offense away (like the Bobcats the other day)? Let us take all the rebounds while holding them to 35% shooting. Good luck with that, also.

These kind of strategies are not beating us, they currently are just for making the opponent lose by less points.

There aren't many teams that can hang with us if we are playing even adequately.

 

A. People are being way over dramatic about a win (despite a head scratching 3 minute stretch to close out the game)

B. McHale made mistake #1 by reacting to Carlisle taking out Carter/Blair/Marion and took out his starters about a minute too early. They were only up by I think 15. Rule of thumb is 2 minutes usually, but I'm assuming McHale started thinking about Utah tomm night.

C. Not sure if anyone cared to notice, but McHale was playing 3 PF/C's at the same time. NONE of them had EVER practiced defensive rotations at the SF position, and it sure looked unclear who was supposed to be guarding who. Coaches shouldn't ever put players in a position to perform something they haven't ever practiced.

D. The 3 young bigs were cold (AT THE SAME TIME). Unless you've never played sports before, I shouldn't have to explain this one further.

E. Crowder goes Ape Sh$% crazy from 3 point range when he plays the Rockets. Tonight I think was his first 3 of the season so far if I heard the announcer correctly.

F. It bears repeating..... You guys again are being over-dramatic. Clearly some of you were waiting for one or two of these guys to get PT so you can bash them. Its embarrassing that we have people on this site that claim to be Rockets fans but root so hard for failure of certain players. Get over yourselves.

 

While I have to say you need to take a deep breath and calm down CBL, there is a point to be made that I do think they need to add one more person to the rotation.

However, this all comes back to the Asik conundrum. When are you going to add that extra person to the rotation without it seeming clunky? Probably to start the game, and in the 3rd quarter.... which is when McHale wants to get Asik minutes alongside Howard.

Unfortunately, I think Asik will eventually lose his starting spot to add someone else to the rotation.... probably Jones if I had to guess or McHale might opt to start Casspi and bring another big off the bench later on in Casspi's usual minutes. Not sure if Asik would be very happy about losing his starting role on the lineup card and being introduced with the starters, but I think he will play along since its obvious that him starting is stretching the big lineup thin.

 

So D-Mo's career is now judged on 2 minutes of garbage time when he was put in the lineup with two other bigs (none of which were willing to guard the 3 point line as well), and the other team lights up the Rockets from the 3?

Also could it be that maybe, just maybe Jones was actually supposed to come out to the 3 point line and D-Mo was essentially lost & covering two people?? I'll have to go back and re-watch that part of the game(and hopefully not throw up) to see.

The defense was an absolute pile of dung because of 3 guys who didn't know where they were supposed to be or who they are supposed to guard. I just think people need to calm the hell down about this one night, and see that it wasn't just one guy's fault... and the coaches decision to play that lineup with so much time left didn't help their case.

All I'm saying is its two minutes of their career. If you take that and make any statements about their failure in the league you ARE rooting for them to fail.

 

If there's foul trouble with Asik/Howard, Jones is the one who should play some 2nd quarter minutes. He's not a five but at the moment he seems the only one who isn't actively trying to give possessions away. In the preseason he at times might have looked like a ball stopper, but tonight he executed the plays imo nearly perfectly (Brooks with a behind the pick 3 = money and nice pass to Smith at 7 feet (though Smith double dribbled that away)). Smith just doesn't seem to be "all there" mentally (surprise) and Motiejunas is just really bad defensively if he has to spell Asik/Howard. Jones at least brings some defensive hustle/ weak side help.

If there's no foul trouble, let's just give those minutes to Asik. It keeps him happy and the opponent doesn't outscore us by much even if the lineup is complete zero in the offense, they seem to be that good with D. Again, tonight 4 minutes of TT, Dallas: zero field goals.

 

Nope.


DMo's career is not judged by tonight.

His status in the rotation and his career progression up to this point is judged by tonight, dobro.

Facts...he's nowhere close to ready to contribute to winning.

 

LOL. You're terrible.

 

I think its safe to say that as a group in the final 2 minutes of the game tonight NOBODY should get credit for ANYTHING. They deserve to get the crap reamed out of them by the coaches. Also, the coaches need to prepare better for closing games out, and not get too wrapped up in thinking about the next night.

Basically, I wouldn't make anything out of the last 2 minutes of tonight other than the guys at the end of the bench need to stay more ready during the game.

 

No, Crowder was D-Mo's man. One of those was Smith/Brooks switch-up mess. One Ricky Ledo three was mostly Brooks losing his man who was rolling to the basket and Jones had to come down and help. Still managed to recover somewhat to the perimeter and challenge the shot.

Again, if anybody played even adequate D in the last minutes, it was Terrence Jones. Smith was lost, as was D-Mo (though Crowder isn't THAT good a shooter), Brewer was non-existent and Brooks was, well, Brooks.

Edit. And I'm still not saying Jones should play, he just seems to be "the best of the worst" option at the moment.

 

I dont know how anyone can judge anything about any of these players in the last 3 minutes of a game in garbage time(that turned into sewage time). I do think that there is blame to go around with all three guys for not being more prepared at any point to pull off their breakaways, and they should get reamed by the coaches after the game.

However, McHale is one Casspi ankle sprain away from HAVING to put trust in the best of the worst and give meaningful PT to one of these guys.

You talk as if they are out of the rotation FOREVER or something, and that's not a fact. We are only 2 games in and already we are seeing the need to add another big in the rotation. D-Mo and Jones both had good moments and some 2nd year player moments in the preseason.

Like it or not, YOU and others on here are going to have to realize that one of these guys if not more will eventually see playing time. They might or might not succeed but I would like to see more support instead of rooting for failure.

 

Don't complicate it. It's real simple. None of them got in the game when it mattered, when our 2 primary bigs were in foul trouble, when we ran Casspi out there at the 5.

But they did get in the game when it was put away. Garbage time. Scraps. And then they almost gave the game away!!

It's real simple. They're not ready to contribute to a winning Rockets team. And won't be for a loooooooooooooong time.