Of course, the silver lining is DMo discovered his groove. Who is more valuable? Which is rarer? I'll go with DMo's post moves.
This is one of those good problems. Neither will be traded because if T Jones comes back, my guess is after the trade deadline. And I doubt any teams are that hungry to trade for a guy that basically missed the entire season so far.
We have to think about next year. I'm not convinced that it's a definite that Smith will be back next year. If that's the case, is it worth it creating a situation where we'll be fine at the power forward this year but have a hole next year? I'm not sure it is. I haven't been keeping up on contract situations recently, but I would imagine that some people are going to need to get paid soon. I'm sure Beverly will expire soon, and I think we keep him. Is anyone sure about what the league's cap will be next year? That could truly save us and allow to keep perhaps all of them so why take a chance by creating a hole now? I say we stand pat unless we land a mega star, but I'm not sure if I'm missing something here. How do you guys feel about things playing out that way?
I think DMO would thrive in the 2nd unit coming in for Howard as the rockets low post scorer giving the team a low post scorer on the floor all the time. Its not about who starts the game, its about who finishes the game IMO.
BINGO. None have a mid range jumper and the Greg Popovich's of the world know this come playoff time.
D-Mo better keep his starting job if for no other reason than what happened recently when he replaced by Smith. It was a disaster for the team. Granted, T-Jones is a more effective starter with these guys based on the results from last season(not counting the playoffs) and the first 4 games this year, but you do not mess with a good thing. D-Mo with the first unit and then Dwight briefly sitting before coming back in with the second unit is working well in the last week. Keep that going.
Dmo should not lose his starting job again after consistently performing night in and night out. It would be stupid. Only way Tjones get's his starting job back is if he just plays out of his mind but his offense is more reliable on put backs, garbage baskets and occassional jump shots. You can feed the ball to Dmo and he can get you buckets at any time. I can't believe I'm saying that but he's improved so significantly in the post. There is a point to be made that he would benefit us on the 2nd unit as our go to guy but why screw around with the chemistry of the starting 5 currently? Tjones should split back up minutes with Smith to work his way back into shape and eventually take over back up minutes with Smith being more of a specialty player of defense if you need him for the likes of Lamarcus or Dirk. Chances are he bolts next year to go elsewhere to be featured more on a bad team.
I think you have to give Jones at least 20 game run to see what he has. Problem is, we can't do that this year. running out of time. and the arms race is on. I almost think it's better to give him some run in the D league and then bring him back to the bench for the playoffs. And then next year see if he's better than DMO, which he likely is not. ut give him a chance to prove it. He's probably not tradeable.
To my knowledge, No. Also, I like our depth and I do not want to trade D-Mo. He's a young player, who's 7'0" and he just continues to improve.
If healthy, I'd say individually he's around DMo's level, maybe slightly below with DMo's recent surge, but he is the only PF we have who can get double figure points/rebounds without a single play ran for him. If he gets healthy and eventually gets to the level he was at earlier, he might be the best of our PF's, if not simply the best option to start.
We'll trade Papa, Dorsey, Pelicans first and one of those seconds for Dragic...and sign Dalembert Dragic/Bev/Canaan Harden/Terry/Brewer/ Ariza/Brewer DMO/JSmoove/TJones Dwight/TJones/Dalembert
