Donatas Motiejunas - Pelicans' X Factor

Os Trigonum · Jan 4, 2017

DudeWah said: ↑

One thing I am convinced of is that D-Mo is perhaps one of the keys to this season. There's a lot of talk about how "hot garbage" he is, but from what I have seen D-Mo is still a young big man who makes mistakes. That being said, however, this team performs way better when D-Mo has a good game.
 
 
His strengths are as follows:

1) Solid positional defender

D-Mo is hardly out of place during defense. He is in the right position almost always. He does a good job standing his ground. His rotations are very good as well. This year he has even managed to start blocking Shots. His one weakness on defense is during pick and roll defense he sometimes fails to pick up the shooter resulting in an open 18 footer. One other point of concern is sometimes he over commits to the double team.

2) Great passer

Motiejunas (like many European big men) can pass the ball very effectively and make the right pass. McHale has mentioned many times the offense becomes less sticky whenever D-Mo is in the game. He does an excellent job keeping the ball and overall offense moving. My only knock on this is sometimes he makes the pass too quick and does not look for his own shot when he is very open or in a position to make a good move. He needs to work on this.

3) Low post scoring ability

I still believe the Rockets use Motiejunas wrong in the post. There are times when he has his man sealed and the guards simply do not throw it in. This has to be a confidence killer for a young skilled big man. That being said, this is part of an overall problem of our post entry passing being terrible. D-Mo's downfall here is his inability to hold his post position sometimes. As well as his iffy (sometimes terrible) ability to convert in traffic.
 
 
His weaknesses are as follows:

1) Consistent Rebounding

Donatas has some games where he cleans up a lot of boards. But other where he does not go strong to grab the rebound. I liked what I saw last night that not only did D-Mo actually go after every rebound, but when he grabbed them, he grabbed them hard and did the Dwight swinging elbow thing . I think Motiejunas' biggest problem here is that he does not actively go strong after every board in every game. He often lets guards and forwards take the board away from him. He needs to be more like Dwight and clean up everything since he is a legitimate 7 footer.

2) Confidence

Motie is one of those players that feeds off of confidence. This has been evident ever since his first Rockets' interview. Motiejunas needs to go back to being the confident player to play up to his potential and start playing consistently, this leads to point #3

3) Consistency

Although he is a young player, he is receiving consistent minutes with Jones out now. That PF spot is his to take and he needs to put in performances like last night's every single game. There is no reason with Jones out and Tarik Black (who is terrible) his only competition that D-Mo should not be playing 30+ minutes a night. That being said, I feel like he is starting to actually become acclimated to the work load and hopefully we can see that sort of effort going forward.

4) Hands

D-Mo loses a lot of passes in the post as well as rebounds because he lacks the hands to get the ball sometimes. He really needs to address this and start playing bigger.
 
 
With these points in mind

I truly believe a lot of the success for the Rockets (especially in the immediate future) depends on D-Mo. This gets compounded because Terrence Jones is one of our biggest trading piece for our next big piece, be it a third star or whatever. The Rockets are going to depend a lot on Motiejunas going forward.

My hopes are that last night is the beginning of solid consistent showing for D-Mo going forward, rather than an aberration. I think the game is finally slowing down for him some. He looks a lot less rushed than in times past.

For the Rockets case, that would be the best scenario as they are going to rely heavily on Motiejunas going forward.
Click to expand...

Honestly I had never read the original post of the infamous "X Factor" thread. @DudeWah makes some good points here, and I'm wondering how this analysis will hold up for DMo's Pelicans career. Plus . . . you can never have too many new DMo threads. Assuming DMo is actually healthy and eventually plays himself into shape and gets some minutes, which of these points will apply given the Pellies' roster and DMo's skillset? serious question.

nobie · Jan 4, 2017

DMo fits perfectly with AD, they wanted a big that can switch from F to C and back with AD, and can switch inside/outside with AD as well. If DMo is healthy and plays decently, Pelies will want him to stay next summer as well.

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Donatas Motiejunas - Pelicans' X Factor

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Donatas Motiejunas - Pelicans' X Factor

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