This isn't about D-Mo growing a pair or having confidence issues. The coach needs to realize he can play the same way with the second unit as the first unit, inside out. And the players on the second unit need to respect the offensive scheme, not play wildly. But of course they've had no practice time. So we shall see. D-Mo gets position quite often. This happened tonight on 4 different occasion. He has his man posted up. The perimeter player fakes a pass to him and instead throws a ridiculous cross court pass (no one should be doing this except Harden) for a wild 3 out of rhythm. That is not a productive possession.
Whatever else you might think, DMo has absolutely won games for the Rockets this season with both his offense and defense. One of those games was against a Grizz team with both Gasol and Zebo healthy on playing.
Yes it would be great if our coach recognizes tactical mismatches. If we had such a coach, this forum wouldn't be so split on whether we want him hired or fired. D-Mo needs to DEMAND for the ball. He needs to get angry and assert himself. That's what it takes to climb towards the top in the NBA when you are not automatically dropped into nobility. At the very least, it certainly can't hurt.
I think Dmo is critical to our success. If he continues to grow he can back up Dwight and play the 5, or the 4. The less minutes you can play Dwight right now the better...and that's a key value of what J Smith actually brings. If you can win with howard playing 29 minutes against the Griz, you have to be happy.
Indeed he did. We have to see what D-Mo does over the long 82 and playoffs. I hope can be a reliable member of a very good PF/C tandem with Dwight and Josh Smith. D-Mo's lack of fouling on post defense recently has been awesome. I'm confident he can keep that up. But he needs to be stronger with the ball and play with more of an edge.
It's just one game, but that starting unit looked significantly better with Smith at the 4 than with DMo. Howard/Smith and DMo/Smith both worked MUCH better than Howard/DMo. Our offense just flows much better with a PF who can attack the rim and run in transition, with the ability to catch the ball on the move and score. Much better spacing.
I agree with this. For all the posters saying DMO is weak, "done" etc., you need to chillax. He had a decent "team game" as DD pointed out and only took four shots. He got good position in the post with the second unit but was rarely passed to. I remember Beverly tossing a horrible pass in the post that ended up a turnover. He's not really a banger, that much is true, but we know that if/when he gets into a rhythm, his post game is nearly unstoppable. Right now he has to contend with Howard demanding post touches and figuring out his role with J.Smith in the fold. I think this is primarily a coaching issue. If McHale told the 2nd unit to let the offense run through DMO, I think we would see more of it..that, or no one is confident enough to make a pass into the post. Its frustrating to watch but none the less, I think with some more practices in, we'll see DMO get his shots. He did manage 31 minutes in the game which is a good number for him.
Lol you're wrong. Maybe DMo should make the entry pass to himself when he posts up Come on man think!
Are some of you stupid? DMo can't just get a touch whenever he wants, team HAS to involve him, to be more specific post him up in order to let him work downlow. His defense is always there, but his offensive production is ON THE COACH/TEAMMATES. If they don't involve him, they shouldn't expect him to produce on that end.
This post is the truth. Papa is out of the rotation as is Canaan. D-Mo going forth will play with the following guard/wing players: Harden, Bev, Ariza, Terry, Brewer., Shved. Aside from that Smith could possible make a post entry pass. Out of those players, you can forget about Ariza ever throwing a post entry pass to D-Mo. Even when D-Mo has his man sealed Ariza blatantly blows him off and swings it around the perimeter. This happens legit two-three times a game. Forget Bev too because he's just not that type of pg. He'll either ignore D-Mo and go in for a wild drive or throw a bad post entry pass that results in a turnover, giving a reason to half the team to not attempt another pass in to D-Mo on the post. Terry sometimes goes to D-Mo. But let's face it. Terry shouldn't be making this plays as his job now is exclusively to catch and shoot. I don't blame Terry on this one. He's doing what he should do. Harden is the only one who looks for D-Mo consistently. Big shocker that your star play with the most IQ would go for the highest percentage play. Brewer is an unknown but it doesn't look promising because he's gonna follow the Bev/Ariza mindset most likely. Smith is an enigma. He could absolutely make those passes into D-Mo. And I think he will as time goes on. But he could also just as easily ignore him. We shall see. Shved is supposedly a playmaker according to McHale. But he's an unknown as well. Based on McHale's comments and his sheer size/length I'd say he's the most likely guy to actually throw in a successful post entry pass and actively look for D-Mo. His play will be interesting going forth. Overall I'm really disappointed by the decision making of Beverley and to a lesser extent Ariza. This highlights the fact that the Rockets desperately need a playmaker at the PG position. Bev is just not going to cut it. And I'm not basing this on just his inability to get D-Mo involved. The guy cannot run an offense. This will kill us in the playoffs. By the way. I'm only passionate about this because the way this team works, establishing a low post threat is absolutely integral to any success. And regardless of how amazing Howard played in last year's playoffs, you simply cannot dump the ball into him on the post and expect an easy two points every time. D-Mo is the only guy on the team who can provide that threat on every single possession as long as the team keeps him actively involved. The team really needs to understand that.
I wonder why the same team has no problem passing the ball to Dwight in the post but having problem to do so with Dmo??
Boy, they struggle so hard to get the ball to Dwight in time. It's ridiculous. Bev is the worst. He needs like 5 seconds every time.
