Funny thing about LA. When he was 22 years old, in his second season, he averaged 17.8pts and 7.6rbds. He was good, but nobody was confusing him with and all star. It took him 4 years to reach the All Star game. Now, 6 years later, he averages 23 and 11. It is possible for players to improve over time.
Defense is about her work... But the problem with Jones has nothing to do with Youth, Strength or any other excuse... It has to do with heart.. He basically let other forwards intimidate him and that is a big no no... Rodman was his size or smaller and he basically stood toe to toe with any player on the court and Jones still has more talent. Jones reminds me of a bully or man who beats a woman... Jones can kick a homeless man and be tough, but when playing against a griffin, LMA or others his balls shrink up.... T_Man
Not to mention Jones' offensive talent is already much better than Chuck ever was or will be. Hopefully the whole team takes defensive improvement seriously and we see some changes all around. Especially with Ariza around to help light a fire on the defensive end. I have faith that Jones will continue to improve as he grows. He won't ever be a superstar nor was he meant to be but if he makes some solid defensive improvement and continues to grow offensively like he has the last two years then he could end up being a really nice piece. On a side not I hate how everyone on this board got a case of superstar fever. Like, no player is worth a crap if they aren't a superstar. TJones is a very good YOUNG two year player that will continue to grow and improve in the next couple of years. We are lucky to have him, IMO. We are lucky to have Dwight and Harden too. We have TWO stars on our team and that's incredible.
He didn't improve offensively last year, he just took more shots. Jones made him look much, much better than he actually was. His rebounding did improve though. And Aldridge has been a capable defensive player from game one, and was never even close to the liability Jones has been.
He's better than he was 6 years ago, on both offense and defense. Some blazers fans used to call him LaMarsha because he was so soft.
There's no call for a post like this. You are really overreacting to a long time fan who is well thought of around here.
This can't be said enough. With Beverley, Ariza, and Howard, Rockets have a real chance to have a great defensive team around Harden. Even though it wasn't pretty, Rockets were scoring on Portland. Portland scored more.
Jones couldn't hold position on Aldridge with 1 arm in the post, Aldridge would either shove him back or get fouled as Jones pushed back (or at times the refs would ghost call him for 2 arms)
I think people forget who was checking Damien Lillard for 6 games!!! If the rockets get a good defensive coach TJ will improve his defense dramatically and his shotblocking ain't to shabby.
¿? Ok, Motiejunas, Drummond, Antohony Davis and so on, got the same problem: lack of heart. Jones showed no other problem than pure lack of experience. He has enough size/length to become a capable defender 1on1 defender, he just has to learn to play bigger, improve his positioning, learn the small tricks to annoy the offense and make himself bigger... All that is named experience, and that same lack of experience makes the Drummonds and Anthony Davis ones bad 1on1 defenders as well. You could speak about lack of heart with Harden, who shows absolutely no interest to stop his man. Jones' issues seemed pretty different to me. To me, Jones has an even bigger issue -and need- at his defensive game in his defensive rebounding. He has bad habits at trying to rebound based on his athleticism instead of look for his man and block out (like Howard btw), that's a problem generated by the fact that he has been formed and trained as wing untill college, where he could still get pretty much every rebound based on athletic superiority. Not now in the NBA... That's a terrible habit for a big man and certainly very difficult to correct. More concerning to me than lack of experience.
Beverley was playing sick/hurt and still didn't give up multiple career nights to Lillard. Sampson is a good defensive coach and Jones played like he wasn't being coached. Rockets played good defense when Beverley, DMo, and either Howard or Asik were in the game. DMo has shown vast improvements on defense. Problems on defense were Harden, Parsons, Jones, and to a smaller extent Lin. One of those problems has been fixed. Harden is going to play. Canaan is most likely going to play as second best creator on team when Harden is off the floor. Rockets don't have Sampson now so the defensive coaching has probably taken a nose dive. Rockets need a new defensive coordinator.
I think TJ can be a solid rotation player, but sorry, I don't se him as a starting pf on a championship caliber team.... That's not a cut... Saying he's a solid rotation player for the NBA places him in like the top .0000001% in the world at his profession... but sorry, we need an upgrade and TJ can come off the bench...
If he was drafted in the top 5 or even top 10 you would be having much higher expectations of him. If you look he is already better than about nine or ten other people drafted before him. Just needs some time. And some of you just want a move to happen just to happen.
What series did you watch? Lillard dominated that series dude, he averaged over 25 pts and close to 7 assists shooting almost 50% from the 3pt line and Beverly gets a pass but the 22 year old TJ is to blame?
What basis would you say 'always be'? He's a young guy and generally experience does help your defense. Knowledge of your opponent goes a long way too. He was only a poor defender against top notch players against the rest he was average. He will probably improve considerably.
And get Dwight in foul trouble? I'm not saying there isn't a better defense when your PF sucks at defense, like Fronting or Doubling with a weakside man, but it shouldn't have to come to putting Dwight on Lamarcus. You aren't actually saying the PF on our team doesn't need to play defense, because we could just switch Dwight whenever the other team exposes TJ's lack of defense.
If I didn't actually watch the game I would've read all the haters comments and thought that LMA only scored when Jones was on the floor. Jones must have been the one who gave up that three with .9 left. Hell he probably hired our coach and called Bosh and told him to take all that money too. He must be one of the worse players ever.
Lillard played on par with his season stats. Aldridge went off the charts. You shouldn't look at ppg for Lillard only, without looking at his minutes per game. The dude played like 44 mpg in the first 5 games. Beverley played 33 mpg, which means Lin was on Lillard for about 11 mpg.
This thread is about TJ... not Harden and not Bev... Do they have problems? yes they do but this thread is about TJ. Does TJ have skills? Yes.. Is he young? Yes... But that is not a reason to back down from any player in the league... There were several games that he just got punked... Especially by Blake Griffin.. You could see it in his play and his body language. You can't play passive and scared and Jones has in a lot of games. This has nothing to do with talent, that is all heart. Even a young Kobe wouldn't let Pippen intimidate him. Again if you're going to be a tough guy then prove it against other PF's in the league and not against some homeless guy. So as I stated before a guy like Kurt Rambis who had less than half the talent as Jones would not back down from any player. The guy would take crazy punishment, but he wouldn't back down. ALL HEART and Jones needs to get some. T_Man
