lols. No one describes Hayes having god given gifts. I can't believe you said Chuck Hayes has god-given gifts. He's like the exact opposite of that. He is smart....much smarter than we can ever expect TJ to be, or 90% of all PFs...no knock on TJ for not being as smart as Hayes.. So, TJ better start using his gifts. Many 6'5 PFs have that strength and foot speed for that size relative to non tweeners. Many. They are called tweeners in the NBA. That's not a gift. Actually, in the nba draft we call tweezers people without the god given gift of height and leaping ability. Hardly any of them are able to play defense like Hayes, though. Hayes' strength was team defense, not ISO. His ability to play ISO was to prevent the PF/C opponent from getting to his preferred spot, and not allowing the opponent to drive on him, but he couldn't contest the shot once it went up. Terrence isn't even using his god given gifts that made him a 1st pick vs Hayes not being drafted. He needs to utilize those and not wait for "old man strength" whatever that means.
Jones is to blame for guarding Aldridge so poorly, the Rockets were willing to sacrifice all his good offensive qualities for Asik most of the time.
Give me D-Mo over Terrence Jones. I'm sure he would do a better job defending the likes of Aldridge and Dirk just because of his length. Not sure why McHale is so scared to give the kid a chance.
Bosh is the softest one in the group. Like TJ is the reason the Rockets lost Anyway... You should check the All Star PF's #'s against Bosh. They back him down in the post and lift up his skirt and go to work on him. He's decent in p&r defense but his post defense is none existent. Y'all don't remember the Miami game..??? Lol... And please tell me which power forward locks down the All-Star power forwards (who score on errybody) in the NBA. I'll wait
I've decided to end my conversations about Terrence. He enjoys miniature Lin fan status here. And when I point out his deficiencies it offends his fandom. But I am confident that he is not the answer for us at the 4 and will have a very pedestrian career. I'm also confident he's not long for this team and his fans can keep following him and talking about him in NBA DISH. I'm sorry we disagree and because I am a Rockets fan first I sure wish I was wrong about him and you were right. But I've watched too many games and watched too many players develop and not develop to be convinced that Terrence will be anything more than a physically talented player that teases with his athleticism but never puts it together to become more than just another player.
To criticize Terrence Jones and not appreciate him is a complete joke. He's one of the most promising young players in the league and we're very lucky to have him. Most every player who comes into the league struggles defensively for several years, especially the bigs. Just the fact that he is starting and producing on a very good team says a lot about his ability and potential. I'm very confident he's going to take a big step forward this year and continue to improve every year as he grows from a kid into a man and develops that "man strength", which for your information is strength that is accumulated over years of training, natural weight gain, and body changes. It's common in all sports where the veterans can easily push around the youngsters but the best example might be 45 year old George Foreman against Michael Moorer.
Yes Terrence Jones is the reason we lost, no eyeroll necessary. We win both games 1 and 2 if Jones doesn't let Aldridge go insane. Now it's McHales fault for leaving his sorry a$$ out there, but ultimately among the players he has by far the biggest blame.
All of this is idiotic, and posts like this one can really make it hard for people to read this forum sometimes. Carry on...
it was a team loss except for howard. lin, harden, jones, parsons...McHALE... lots of blame to share.
Ugh, what an annoying, terrible post to read. Almost made me cringe coming from you heypartner, I thought you were better than that. Just goes to show... Chuck Hayes is one of the most fantastic athletes I have ever seen live. His strength, lateral quickness and hand-eye coordination are out of this world. To credit his ability to his intelligence and hard work LARGELY underscores how freakish his natural abilities are. Chuck Hayes has rare gifts on the defensive end that TJ will never have, not to say that TJ can't be a great defender, but not in the way that Chuck Hayes is a great defender. Folks (r****ds) do the same with Battier, who is also a much more impressive natural athlete than he has ever gotten credit for. He has said as much himself.
I like TJones. I am pretty sure he will improve again this season. But by how much, who knows? Which is why I dont think we should stake this coming season by how much we think TJones can improve by, cos it might not be enough. And he is v young.
McH should have pulled him out and put Asik on LMA much earlier. Frigging useless coaching, if you ask me.
When a superstar gets in a zone, that is what happens, no matter the defender. See Hakeem vs Robinson... Or Jordan vs Dennis Johnson, etc, etc, etc... Also, guarding a great player is about team defense. No one can stop Aldridge in isolation. It's about giving Aldridge different looks, something that McHale struggled to do consistently. There should have been a plethora of double teams, switches and chaos to confuse Lamarcus. Instead, he left TJones on an island to give fans with terrible basketball minds a whipping boy for the losses. There were much, much larger problems than TJones. Especially on the defensive end.
Yeah, let's change our entire team concept and start two seven footers right when the playoffs start... If there is a worthless coach, it is you.
TJ was getting mauled pretty early on. I am thinking it is not a good coach who cannot recognize that and leave RJ out there. So LMA gets how many points the first 2 games, and this is playing in Houston. 46 and 4x? I cant remember exactly. From memory, LMA was slowed down lots when Asik was on. Of course, this is with hindsight, but then I dont do this for a _living_!.
Blake Griffin disagrees, as do countless victims of Chuck Hayes isolation defense. Let's pull out the Chuck Hayes isolation defense videos, shall we? :grin:
Many, many ways to give Lamarcus different looks without hindering your best player, James Harden, and killing our effective dribble drive game by clogging the lane with two centers.