Motiejunas two main problems are, he is getting used to the physicality of NBA bigs (which if Dirk and Yao have shown given time he should overcome that hurdle) and he is being coached to not play to his strength (the post game) and to take jump shots usually behind the arc. I hope Motiejunas doesn't become the another promising PF that gets ruined because of bad coaching.
I'm fine with him taking an occasional three here and there from a kick out but that should not be a staple of his role on this team. He runs the break like no other big on our team - he is always the first down the court and he almost always has his man pinned under the basket. Also, if the offense is struggling, aka jump shots are not falling, by all means feel free to put DMo in the post for an easy basket. Some may say his defense isn't up to par or criticize his play, but for a rookie, there will be growing pains. It's up to the coaching staff to put him in position to succeed and fully use his talent.
Someone gets it. "Shoots too many threes", "Not a good three point shooter", "Camping out at the 3 point line", so on and so forth. As if that's his choice, ha. Yeah, let's blame Motiejunas! Dumb ass rook. Oh, never mind the fact Patterson & Scola were post-players turned into Channing Frye. Let's blame Patterson & Scola too! "Stop shooting so many threes Luis!" Long before either had become vital parts of the Rockets’ rebuilding, coach Kevin McHale, himself once the prototypical low-post scorer at power forward, instructed Patterson and Luis Scola to work on their 3-point shooting. For McHale, that represented fully embracing the idea of using big men to spread the floor. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Dice Scola: "En Houston me piden que empiece a tirar de tres puntos". Alguien duda que Luis a corto plazo la empieza a meter de 3?</p>— Alejandro Perez (@AleRPerez) <a href="https://twitter.com/AleRPerez/status/213294311947771904">June 14, 2012</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> "In Houston they're asking me to start shooting three-pointers", Scola said." Direct your blame in the right direction.
Right after Donuts was drafted McHale said he wouln't be shooting 3s in the NBA. Different personnel, different plan.
I don't think he looks lost. I think that he is getting ahead of himself in certain situations and since he is so aggressive, he tries to make plays and over commits himself in the way of ticky tack fouls and such. On offense, he cannot get discouraged by not getting the ball when he has his man posted up on the blocks. He has to continue to try and make without the ball and eventually his teammates will reward him on subsequent posetions. It appears that since he has a tendancy to be overzealous in certain instances, his teammates are not going to him to kind of let him know that he needs too chill out and play his role. However, this is not to say that either the person with the ball or dmo is in fault. I think it speaks more to the new lineup developing chemistry on the floor with a rookie taking the place of a vet. Furthermore, I think we can all remember instances where it seemed like Patterson would look like he's not even on the floor. This appears to be a product of the general attitude of the guards in which they look to score more while the bigs are relied upon to defend and rebound, hence the perimeter players tendencies to gamble and play unsound of defense.
Dmo has been playing great as a starter, he is still adjusting but his per 36 min stats are very encouraging. DD
He needs to get better on the defensive boards. I know Asik gets a lot of rebounds, but Motiejunas has been making Biggie Smalls look like King Kong on the glass. Offensively, he has just been amazing. Fouling him and letting him shoot three pointers has been the most effective defense against him.
