no idea. he does well vs guys his age though. you also can't just develop players. the system has to develop as well to give the players a higher chance of success. we could get melo and love, still get bounced out of the 2nd or WCF due to a lack of system. this is why it's hard to put all the blame on the roster as of right now. just can't sell jones out after his noticeable improvement over last year. for whatever reason i can't explain, the dude can make plays on offense and defense and he's always seems to be in the right place on offense. you have to give him a chance unless a great deal comes along.
Are you serious about the bold part above? I think DMo is a better offensive player with great low post moves and decent range (for PFs) than TJones. Defensively TJones is a better one on rebounding. DMo's PnR defense is actually better than TJones'. DMo needs to get better in low post defense and rebounding.
People had also called Yao soft. At 7 foot, DMo is not explosive or quick enough but he's definitely not soft.
Not true. You lobbied for months, and months last year that the Rockets should just trade Jones and D-Mo while they still have SOME value. If the Rockets are getting a clear upgrade, its not going to be from just trading Jones for what YOU yourself claim would be the value of a 2nd round pick. Even combining Jones with other assets would be challenging to get a deal done. Also... .THERE IS NO CLEAR UPGRADE AVAILABLE anyways. They tried pretty much publicly and weren't able to get even the Hawks & Millsap to budge. Hell they even tried to get Brandon freaking Bass for crying out loud. If there was one available, Morey would have traded Jones, and his first born for that clear upgrade. If Morey can get that clear upgrade he's going to do it. In the meantime there is no freaking reason to keep on b****ing and moaning about how terrible you think Terrence Jones is. The dude is the youngest player on the team, will dramatically improve, and almost the exact same age as your beloved Doug McDermott who has yet to even go through the draft combine. If Morey isn't lucky enough to get one of these top flight PF's than you and others are just going to be very miserable Rockets fans, and you might even dilute the thinking of other Rockets fans. So yes, I would trade Jones for an upgrade, but until they are able to get that deal done or if they dont get that deal done ever, I'm gonna root for Jones and D-Mo to improve and grow into that needed role.... which is obviously something you and others have a problem doing.
If you are a Rockets fan (which I assume you are when you come here) and you still will believe Dmo is better than TJ, especially offensively. Then you really should need to take a deep breath and stop watching hoops anymore. For the 2013-2014 season. DMO FG% : .443 TJ FG% : .542 for 3PT FG : DMO 3PT FG% : .250 TJ 3PT FG% : .307 *** But that doesn't even tell the whole story : check this out : TJ average playing time per game : 27.3 mins, he is taking 1.3 APG on 3PT. DMO average playing time per game : 15.4 mins, he is taking 1.4 APG on 3PT. *** So a guy whose shooting worse in 3 PT and still insist to put up more attempts per game with almost half less of playing time while his overall shooting is like a joke, and still you believe he is better than TJ? Get a grip.
Another funny thing about this whole lets blame the power forwards for the 1st round failure other than the fact that Howard and Asik who are considered to be two of the best defensive players in the game, also failed at guarding LaMarcus Aldridge is that our power forward rotation isn't what lost us this series. Bizzaro James Harden, Hack a Dwight, and a few boneheaded Lin plays were bigger issues. You have to be able to rely on your star players in the post season. Had Harden showed up, we would be talking about the Spurs game right now. That is a much bigger issue than what Terrence Jones does. Game 1: Game was in hand, but Dwight happened. Couldn't make a free throw and it completely swung the momentum in that game. Harden shot a miserable percentage. Lost in OT Game 2: Once again Harden shoots horribly. Game 3: Win Game 4: Jeremey Lin gets the ball stolen from him when we're up and the game seemingly under control. Lost in OT. Game 5: Win Game 6: Horrible defense on an inbounds play with less than 1 second to go.
The reason I said about "I believe McHale should just throw TJ into the fire more" is because during the season, you can see that McHale has rather a shot leash on TJ, once he will show any sign of struggling either defensive or offensive, he is not hesitated to sub in with Dmo. On one hand, I can understand he is trying to protect a rookie not being destroyed and affect his growth. On the other hand, McHale is also probably coaching for his job, which is rather a short term goal. But nonetheless, I still believe if more choices and opportunities will be given to TJ to help him get through those tough times and with better coaching and guiding, he could do much better. And that's why I believe one of the major reason that TJ currently has a glaring weakness on his defense is mostly due to experience and I do expect he will take a big leap in his second full year in the NBA.
You did provide a list of the PF you want to compare with TJ, right? Then let's play. Name the PF in your list that you think the Rockets should trade TJ for and lets see how funny it can be?
This would be nice. Considering we're wasting Dwight's prime this very second, I would prefer to dump TJones and D-Mo for an upgrade. For the life of me, though, I cannot find a power forward meeting this criteria: 1) obtainable (without giving up Howard or Harden of course); 2) strong on defense; 3) reliable with the open shot (preferably a 3). Can Gortat shoot? Can he even play the 4?? Can Spencer Hawes play the 4? I may just not be knowledgeable enough, but I cannot find someone.
Patrick Patterson crossed my mind, but I can't see that he has a history of great defense (at least from the flawed advanced defensive stats available). Would he do any better against LMA or Blake? And when I say obtainable - be realistic. If they're not a free agent, then their team had better want what we have to offer. None of this Lin for Love garbage.
Jones has a lot of pure talent, but really needs to learn the fundamentals. Paula millsap is undersized, but was out rebounding David West and Roy Hibbert. Jones size is a concern, but knowing his limitations and how to play through them are far more important. He missed a lot of under the rim shots and got many blocked as well because he thinks he's more athletic than he actually is. In reagrds to his shooting he needs to work specifically work on speeding up his mechanics to a natural flowing jump shot. He has range and hits his shots when given extra time, but for the most part the NBA is too fast for that.
Gortat - his position is C, unless you want to play TT again on this team, whose also a much worse defensive player than Asik, Gortat's offensive skill is below average inside the paint and his offensive skill is even worse in mid range, he is just another slightly poor man version of Asik with a better offense. And not to mention, he will probably get an offer of 7-8 mils from some teams out there. Hawes - a stretch 4, decent 3 pt and mid range game, pretty horrible at D, not a good rebounder, a poor man version of Ryan Anderson. Rockets did have a chance to trade for him during the season but eventually they DID not pull the plug and he went to Cle instead just for couple second round picks. BTW, someone could also pay him around 7-8 mils per year out there.
Pat Pat - another 6'9 PF that the Rockets gave up in the T-rob trade, basically he is what we know he is. A soft PF with decent mid range and 3 pt, but sucks at defense and rebound, also not to mention he was also traded away by the Kings so not only the Rockets see his weakness but other teams also.
Are you sure Hawes can play the 4? He's like 7'1. Anyway, it just seems like there isn't an ideal (one who meets the 3 criteria I previously posted) power forward out there for the Rockets to get. I'd like other people's opinions - especially realistic options - not Kevin Love (who's bad at defense anyway) and Paul Millsap.
Yes, I did lobby for the Rox to trade Jones and DMo while they still had value. If I were a betting man I'd bet Morey was trying to deal them as well. Neither player's trade value today is as good as it was then. We've burned up another year of their rookie contracts. DMo went backwards. And Jones has proven to be just another pedestrian big like that list I asked you to rank that you refused to rank because you know they are just odds and ends players. I would have traded both guys for lottery protected future first round picks if it could have been done. I'm pretty sure Morey would have done that too. I never said there was an upgrade that was available or a trade that would improve our team available. It takes 2 teams to make a deal and sometimes that isn't even enough. But I was very clear that it was in the Rox best interest to trade both guys last year. And I still stand by that. IF we could have traded both guys for ONE single solitary first round draft pick we'd be better off today than having them here. Because a first round pick and an expiring contract worth more than both Jones and DMo today. Now......find something I have said about TJones that was wrong. Keep trying. By the way, I do not have a problem rooting for Jones or this team. You are pulling that out of your hiney. Just making stuff up. I rooted for them harder than you did this past year. After all, you were the guy that didn't believe we had a chance of winning a championship this season so you wanted to basically just give up on the season to develop Jones and DMo. So you can talk about rooting for the home boys but you weren't really rooting for them. I felt like we had a chance to win a championship. I was rooting for every player on the roster to kick butt. So just stop making up stupid off-the-cuff bs.
