I meant to say "I do think that he'll be serviceable defensively down the road. Sorta Nowitzki-esque. Maybe a little better." I certainly don't see Motiejunas ever reach Dirk's level from an offensive standpoint.
Huh?? You lost me there Joe. I thought one of Parsons weaknesses was perimeter defense. I would be shocked if Morris was third on the SF depth chart. Morris could be an impact player from the beginning, while Parsons looks like a role player at best.
I also think its because we are crowded at PF. Hill, Patterson and maybe chuck. Donatas wouldn't get any PT and with his talent he needs all the PT he can get. I see a real future for Montiejunas as our stretch 4. I hope he doesn't get pushed into the center position.
He reminds me more of a Pau Gasol type with a worst case scenario being Yi Jianlian. I watched some tape of him recently and his game reminds me alot of a young Pau from his Grizzlies days. No?
Very hard to duplicate the honor of being an MVP, I guess Finals MVP and having won a championship, plus the allstar 3 point shootout and all those numbers One thing that is impossible to imitate : the ugliness of those fadeaways. Those are Dirk's trademark
People need to stop throwing out Dirk's name with DM. Honestly, my highest ceiling for him is to become Toni Kukoc 2.0. And to get that from those pieces in that trade is a steal.
<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7uvJ5rTjsNA?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7uvJ5rTjsNA?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> I'm sure this video has been posted before somewhere but I love how the kid moves for a 7 footer.
I agree with the first part, but disagree with the notion that Montejunas will be a stretch 4. Meaning, he is just going to be a three point shooter like a Channing Frye, Okur, or Matt Bonner. I see sort of a less athletic Chris Bosh to a Toni Kukoc, depending on how he is used in a offensive system. From what Ive seen, he is much more comfortable inside the arc as a jump shooter. He can shoot from beyond the arc, but he has the mobility to get much easier shots than just stretching the defense with outside shooting.
I see him having the potential of a Robert Horry but with better post game. I'm not saying he's just a soft outside shooting Big. I just think he won't be a "banger" type 4 like Scola. My hope is that he will be an opposing coaches nightmare because of his speed and will cause a lot of mismatches. If he can add some muscle without losing speed he could lead this team in fouls drawn.
Fair enough. I just think of Matt Bonner, or Channing Frye when I think of a stretch 4. I think having D-Mo just sit out beyond the arc and chuck 3's all game long would be a waste of talent. I
I think there's a common misperception that Parsons is a SF/PF tweener and a plodder, probably due to the fact that he's 6'10". Actually, he's a pure SF and pretty athletic, no more of a tweener than a young Hedo Turkoglu. He's not a lockdown defender, but he's certainly better than Budinger was at Arizona.
Yeah, Turkoglu is actually a perfect comparison for Parsons, from a "body type" perspective and even in some aspects of their games, although Hedo is a much better scorer and (historically) a better outside shooter than Parsons. A 6'10" legit SF with some playmaking ability.
His defense is pretty bad at the Euroleague level. The positives are he is very talented, big for a PF, highly skilled. The negatives are he is soft, stands at the 3 point line way too much (despite not being a good shooter from that distance), and is poor on defense. I won't put his rebounding as a negative or a positive at this point because before just recently he never rebounded out of his area - never even attempted to. But recently he has begun to do so and if he continues that then he will be a good rebounder. But the offensive rebounding is still quite poor, mainly due to his wanting to stand behind the 3 point line. Granted, his softness physically and lack of D can be attributed to his age. The rebounding out of his area is mental, and he seems to have overcome that recently. However, the standing behind the 3 point line, especially for a guy that is a below average 3 point shooter and that is a legit 7 feet and has a good post game...is a huge red flag. As for him guarding NBA centers, no. He can barely guard Euroleague power forwards. Could he gain weight and guard NBA centers? Sure he could. After the age of 30 maybe. He's already supposedly about 245 pounds and he struggles to guard Euroleague power forwards in the post. So just gaining some weight is not changing him to a center any time soon. I could see it maybe after age 30, once he's fully physically matured, but not any time soon.
I know he has those tendencies but I don't think it's a huge red flag, especially considering his age. Tendencies like that can be fixed through good coaching and McHale prefers his bigs to be down low especially if they have good low block skills.
Also, people are throwing around Kukoc, Dirk, Bargnani, Fyre, Bonner, Pau, as comparisons for Motiejunas. Sorry, but no. You guys are not even coming close with these nonsense comparisons. I'd describe him as a softer version of Christian Laettner, and with worse defense. But if he grew some balls and started playing less soft and started working more on defense (both are mental and effort aspects), then he could be something similar to a Christian Laettner type player. However, if he continues to insist on spending most of his time behind the 3 point line (as he does now), then I foresee Raef Lafrentz without the defense.
Sometimes what the coach is asking the player to do during an offensive set can be misconstrued as being lazy and standing around, when the reality is that is his spot on a particular play. DD
What is McHale going to do? Just bench him? Every single coach has told him to go into the low post and stop standing at the 3 point line. None of have had any success so far. Not even the national team coaches. Rasheed Wallace could have been a low post player and his coaches all wanted him to. He simply refused and stood at the 3 point line. I'm not saying this is what is going to happen with Motiejunas, but it certainly appears that it is what is going to happen, based on all available evidence. And that is why a guy with #1 pick talent, potential, and skill fell down the 20th pick of the draft. Because of his fondness of shooting the 3 ball. And some people are talking about stretch 4 in terms of Horry, Bonner, Fyre, and indeed that is what Motiejunas is right now - a stretch 4. The problem is he's not a good 3 point shooter. He's a guy that prefers to play as a catch and shoot stretch 4, but who does not actually have a good 3 point shot. That makes the mental and attitude question that much more glaring. A guy like Rasheed at least was a good 3 point shooter. Cliff Robinson, Lafrentz, guys like that. Motiejunas wants to play that way with not even being a good 3 point shooter. I said he would be like Raef Lafrentz, minus the defense if he keeps playing that way, but actually to be more correct, he would be like a considerably worse 3 point shooting Raef Lafrentz without defense if he keeps playing that way.
