McHale did alright this time by doing something for the future rather than playing it safe and play Howard till the end. If Motiejunas plays well on defense, he’s going to have an edge over the other players just simply because he’s so gifted on offense. It’s an interesting situation. Dwight Howard is the best big man in the league and Omer Asik is a top-5 defensive center. Jones looks as good as any high-lottery stud. And even Greg Smith is no slouch – a young big with great hands and body control. The Rockets have an embarrassment of riches inside, talent-wise; there are no stiffs on this roster. If they can all show value, not only will it obviously help the team on the floor, but it will provide flexibility in trades to fill other needs. The challenge of course is getting each player enough time to drive up that value. For Motiejunas, that last opportunity is right now, due to the injuries of Smith and Asik.
Dmo has great potential, but the results haven't been there. Potential itself doesn't warrant anything because there are 14 other guys on the roster busting their ass too. Anyone who thinks McHale is being unfair to Dmo are probably the one who also thought that Adelman hated TWill. I hope DMo breaks out soon, but his detectors here need to be patient. I remember when Marcus Morris was considered the biggest bust in Morey's drafting history. Looking at him play on the Suns now, he's actually a really effective NBA scorer. Some players just need time...and to be brought down a peg.
Next bad game he has, "dmo is trash and doesn't belong in the nba" thread will be started. Lol only on clutchfans folks.
This. Honestly, if DMo had gone to another franchise he would be seen as an up-and-coming big man by now, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why. The problem, IMHO is our coach doesn't really do a good job of managing performance vs potential. If we had a coach like, say Pops or PJ then DMo would've had much more PT by now. Unfortunately, almost all of our coaches are in perpetual "win now" mode, you have JVG who got all his NYN retreads, Adelman who pouted when we traded his boy Brooks and took half a season to play Ppat, and now Mchale who prefers Delfino/Casspi over Dmo and plays Howard/Harden even in blowout wins. DMo at only 22 years old will make a ton of mistakes, and IMHO just like Tjones he should be allowed to make them. I'd go even as far to say I'm ok with losing if it means fast tracking the development of both these guys, hell with the draft so deep I'd like it if we join the tanking party and give Dmo, Tjones, Lin and Canaan all the PT they could handle. This season should be a learning one, we can't win the ring this year anyway.
Twill and DMo are on 2 different worlds. One TWill had so many opportunities and blew almost all of them. DMo had too little opportunities and deserved more but got less. As for your idea on coaching DMo you definitely attended the McHale old school coaching of stupidity. Rudy T said 80% of his coaching was uplifting, building their confidence. Yes there is that reality check necessity at times, but be brought down a peg. Really, how much lower can he go? The only thing they haven't done is play Garcia at center over him. Everyone was injured and their were only 8 players active to play and players were in foul trouble and DMo got a dnp. He was not in the doghouse, dogs shiit where he was.
D-Mo with the Stromile Swift like performance against the Grizz!! Time to sit Howard and start getting this guy more minutes!!!! He has insane potential!!! R.I.P Stromile my homey!
Are you ok? We are not tanking, not with a pretty good chance of getting a pretty good playoff seed. Playoff experience is needed for this team.
Casspi isn't a PF, its OK in situations, but not a regular basis. It also slides Jones to the 5 and gives us undersized players at both positions. As long as Asik is "injured" i would like to see D-Mo get a chance. I'd wanna to see how he performs with regular minutes for a month or so. He comes in and plays out of control becuase he is always trying to prove himself, maybe with guaranteed regular minutes he calms down.
Nope. Check Howard's post game interview at nba.com/rockets. McHale was set to put Howard back in. Howard said (to paraphrase), "no, DMo is in rhythm, let the guys play." He told the coach his back was stiff and let the group keep going. Injuries forced McHale's hand. That and Howard.
No, what Dwight really said is this.... "Holy ****, Stromile Swift has been resurrected from the grave!!!!!!!, But this time he's a white guy??? ****-in-6-piece-nugget" ...."Keep playin this guy!!! I miss that old Stromile action, reminds me of goin to grandy's an watchin Stromile Smoove". "****, is this guy really gonna do this?" "Man, I get to take the night off and we win the ****ing game?" "Who paid da refs on this **** man was a genius, put me out in the first half and put Stromile in to save da game in the 2nd, I still got paid!" "Rox scored 100 points in this game so where are the ****ing tacos' at? Del Taco are some b****es."
McHale has been giving him chances, how did he put it? "Some guys aren't doing anything positive when they are given the chance to play." DMo has to earn McHale's trust by being a consistent contributor esp. on defense and rebounding. He had the chance to start several games last year but lost his spot to Jones then Smith. You can't reward players for playing bad. McHale benches them so they will play the way the coaches want them to play.
I don't know why you find it so hard to give a player credit for a good performance. Swift wasn't a smart bb player and didn't always bring the effort needed to play well. Dmo is a very smart bb player that always comes out playing hard.
Agree with pretty much everything said here. The part about Morey trading away Morris and Patterson, only to watch McHale give all those minutes to Delfino, is especially hilarious and true. At one point we had Smith, Jones, D-Mo, and T-Rob all on the team, and instead of giving them playing time and having them develop (and giving poor Asik a break once in a while), McHale put Delfino out there and overplayed the "small ball" lineup, even in cases where it made absolutely no sense. There should not be nearly as many open questions as there are about the players on this team, especially not the guys who were around all of last year. At the very least, Jones would probably be much further along in his progress and production if he was given more burn time instead of Delfino. Similarly, it would be much clearer for guys like Smith and D-Mo, who have tremendous physical gifts but don't seem to have the basketball smarts, whether or not their problems stem from inexperience rather than just not being able to "get it".
Casspi has been as good or as bad as advertised....average bench guy but as a decent fit with the 2nd unit. Garcia plays like a Top 388 NBA player.
hmmmm. wasn't DMo designated as starter last year, after we traded PPat? Unfortunately, he lost the job... He HAS been given opportunities, even though he's not a good match for this roster. he'll get there eventually, I believe in DMO, it's just a tough situation of where he's not a good fit, and hasn't really produced.
he was, but he couldnt defend. This year his defense is much improved. It was obvious his defense was improved even in pre-season games, where he looked pretty good, it was strange seeing him get no minutes whatsoever until now.
