my favorite moment was the baseline hook shot. it sorta clanked down but man that was an unstoppable move.
Lots of people rag on D-Mo for his sub-par rebounding numbers, but if you watch closely when the opposition puts up a shot, D-Mo immediately looks for someone to box out. He loses a handful of rebounds every game because he's keeping someone on the other team from getting to them. Too bad there's no easy stat to reflect that, but the other Rockets are padding their stats a bit due to the smart work D-Mo puts in.
That's something the Rockets have sorely missed this year thus far, how many easy rebounds were given to the other team simply because no one boxed out at all? When DMo is back up to speed, he's going to add a lot to the starting unit.
You'll never be able to convince some posters of that, but yes he boxes out very well. It mitigates his terrible individual rebounding abilities, so that the team as a whole had little to no drop off in rebounding with him on the floor. He has to play the 4 next to a 5 that can rebound. When he has to play the 5, that's when he is painfully over matched by guys that are longer and better athletes.
DMO makes everyone on the court better, that surely will improve team chemistry going forward. Game against L.A should be his breaktrough. We need to start giving 20mins+
I disagree that he has "terrible individual rebounding abilities" in the first place. If he focused more on grabbing rebounds than boxing out, his numbers would go up and you wouldn't make that claim. Overall team rebounding would suffer, but people who only look at the simple stats would be happy with D-Mo's rebounding skills. That's why I love it when he boxes out; he willingly puts the team above his individual stats. That's rare on this team.
I think he's still on Le Tigre, but by the end of the year he should have that down and be working on Ferrari. Blue Steel and Magnum are at least 2 seasons away IMO.
He does choose to box out over going after the rebound, which is the smart thing for him to do, and yes it is very much a team first mentality. But he is a terrible individual rebounder. He can't jump, has short arms, and he has weak hands. When there is a battle for a rebound he almost always loses. He could certainly inflate his individual numbers at the expense of the team, but to his credit he doesn't. And because he doesn't, the team as a whole is better off. He realizes his own shortcomings, and chooses to help in other ways.
Part of it is because all too often he's going up battling with 2 or more players from the other team with no help from anyone on his team because no one boxes out and when they play him at the 5 he's the only one even trying to get a rebound all too often. The Rockets as a whole have rebounding problems because of inconsistent effort on the boards. Dwight Howard has spoiled them into just assuming that someone else will get them all without any need for them to help.
Clint seems to buck that trend but then again he always has been a great rebounder. DMo rebounds well with another big, but suffers when he plays center with a small ball lineup. I agree that DMo does better than his numbers suggest but he doesn't have the length or athleticism to be a good individual defender but can platoon rebound quite well.
Well yeah, he's a great rebounder himself, he doesn't need much help much like Dwight doesn't need much help. DMo absolutely needs a big next to him to maximize his potential, he's just not a center even though he can sort of hold it down for a while when necessary.
D-Mo is the man! A joy to watch Rox games since he has been back on the court. Season starting to feel a bit more sync'd up for sure.
Donuts looks good out there. Sure, it'll take time for him to adjust to the speed of the NBA game and for his body to get into "NBA shape" after being out for so long, but damn, he does look good. Sharp passing, quick post moves, that great hook shot from different spots on the floor (a shot he's still improving, which is pretty freakin' exciting), and moving well without the ball. Evidence of the 3 point range he had last year. Signs of his solid team defense that we saw last season. Good rotations, positioning, boxing out. Hell, just seeing that big 7 foot body on the court instead of in a suit is exciting. So far, he's looked better than I expected in the brief stretches he's played. This Donut is NOT stale!
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Where's the LIKE button for this post! Great to see him back and improving bit by bit. Even though it was against LA, he's getting better game by game.
