[2016-2017] Donatas Motiejunas as a New Orleans Pelican

You're making a strawman argument here, who said Spurs make superstars out of minimum guys? Nobody is saying that yet this is the 3rd post you've made saying this. what everyone is saying is Spurs had a large role in Kawhi's development. 15 pts and 10 rebs arent earth shattering numbers in college, Beasley averages 20 pts 20 rebs in college and Hasheem Thabeet had like 3 blocks and 9 rebs a night so whoop de doo to Kawhis 15 pts 10 rebs.

Im not defending the Rox, I'm saying that was their rationale when they picked marcus morris, they just took the guy whom they felt had higher potential. Of course player development happens everywhere but the Spurs have one of the best. Not sure why you keep trying to discredit them they have had a track record of success u think Mchale and JB are better developers than Popovich? C'mon dude.

 

I didn't mean to say that his situation at NOLA is the same. I was saying that his inconsistency both in his performance and his PT is very much like when he was with us in the first two seasons.

TJones has been playing well. He deserves starter minutes. Cunningham, I have no idea.

If not getting minutes is due to his physical health, then nothing can help. But this is just speculation. He played more than just a few minutes a game last season with us, and did in the first few games with NOLA. He doesn't seem to be in pain or in any physical limitations in his movement.

I am not saying it's a coaching problem. His inconsistency doesn't call for big minutes. Just an observation that it's a vicious cycle for him.

 

you forgot boxouts?

 

imagine if we have signed him, he would took all the blame for spoiling the chemistry in 2017

 

Unless the team got better, because he was another option when others were struggling.

DD

 

except DMo in 2017 is struggling a lot more than the guys we have? 0 0 0 1 reb 2 turnovers in 6 mins yet he would've been an option.

By this logic, we should've signed Andrea Bargnani, he would've been an option when others are struggling. He sucks you say? Same ****ing thing with DMo.

2 mos in and yet string after string after string of 0 0 0 0 <10 mins for a team that wants to reach playoffs. And this is after sitting out and resting the latter part of last season, the entire offseason and almost half of this season.

Tbh I agreed with you more when you flippedflopped before, it showed you were open to facts so you'd change your opinion based on new information. Recently you keep sticking to your guns and doubling down even if all the facts are staring you in the face. Who the F would play DMo over Nene, Capela or Harell given his shameful and utterly pathetic display so far? Wtf. And yet, he's coming along nicely in NO, he would've been starting when Capela was injured, would've been an option blah blah blah. Just like how Parsons is still better than Ariza despite being injured the entire length of his contract.

Anderson is average with 14 pts and 9 rebs yet DMo is amazing with 0 pts 1 reb in 6 mins. LOL

 

Dude here are the posts I've responded to so here's your strawman:

But if you would've read my posts, you'd know that I started by saying that I'm not a fan of Kevin Mchale at all. He's flat bad as an in game strategist and has no business as a head coach. I think he should coach footwork and big man skills but never leading or running an NBA team. (BTW, Bickerstaff stinks as an NBA Head Coach too.) McHale is a disaster waiting to happen as he proved for many years in Minny and on draft night in 2011. The Rox wound up with the 14th, 20th, and the 38th picks in that draft. The following players went between 10 and 40:

11 Klay Thompson
15 Kawhi Leonard
24 Reggie Jackson
30 Jimmy Butler

With McHale in the room they managed to miss on ALL of them. I'll give the Rox a pass on Isaiah Thomas who's the 2nd leading scorer in the NBA who went 60th that year because everyone passed on him. The Rox wound up with Morris, DMo ( The star of this thread) and Parsons. It was a mediocre draft when it could have been a great one. Hindsight is 20/20 but Morey has to shoulder some the blame for allowing McHale in the room & pulling the trigger on these picks. But at the end of the day I don't care about Leonard, Popovich or the Spurs.

 

None of those posts you quoted said the Spurs can take a random person walking off the street and turn them into superstars though so whats your point? The other dude mentioned sweatshops just to point out effort and talent isn't enough to succeed in life. Would Mark Zuckerberg be a billionaire who invented facebook if he was born in North Korea which has no internet access? Would Federer still be a tennis champion if he grew up as an aborigin in the Amazon rain forest? Would Bill Gates found microsoft if he was born as a blind beggar in some 3rd world asian country? For 99.99999% of people in existence your inner traits are only secondary to the environment you grew in, in fact it doesn't matter what your potential is if your environment is bad it will likely pervert your character and work ethic as well, Melo had one of the highest potentials ever in any NBA player but his "gangsta" peers and the glitz and glamor of the NBA lifestyle probably contributed a lot in him losing his work ethic and desire for greatness.

You're looking at a Kawhi Leonard who has been positively influenced and nurtured by the Spurs organization. As a college player was Kawhi already showing NBA MVP finals potential? Oviously not, his averages of 15 pts and 10 rebs are just ayt in college Terrence Jones had 14 pts and 8 rebs as a freshman in college so Kawhi's stats are just average for your typical good NBA prospect, they aren't franchise or lotto level performance like you'd expect from Carmelo, Lebron, Kevin Durant etc. Leonard shot 25% 3p and 44.9% in college but shot 39% 3p and 49.7% FG his year in the NBA, if he had it all along why didn't he shoot like god in college where the competition was 10x worse than in the NBA? Obviously Spurs played a huge role in his development otherwise he wouldn't improve so drastically in just 1 year against vastly superior competition. If Kawhi went into a team that didn't give him mins or freedom to shoot because of his rep of "Shawn Marion light" due to his big hands, will he still be a scoring machine? Even worse, if Kawhi got into a chaotic locker room or a team obsessed with flipping players to accumulate assets to trade for a star I don't know if he would have found the work ethic he has now, if he came a into a dysfunctional team how do you know he would not get influenced when his teammates ask him to go clubbing every night etc? If Kawhi wanted to improve his scoring abilities but the team has a clown for development coach how will he learn what he needs to do?

I know you don't care about the Spurs because I don't give a **** about them as well. But they're the cream of the crop in the NBA when it comes to player development you don't become a contender for like 20 years without a steady stream of marquee FAs unless you're amazing at player development so to say Kawhi would still be 100% the player he is now even if he didn't go to the Spurs is just wrong.

 

@roslolian

Spot on . I would add , I think the rockets are also a top tier org in terms of player development, but just not as good as the spurs .

The Spurs have had pop , and they've had vets with cred that play the right way . They are truly the model organization.

The rockets' moves have been products of their organizational situation . I won't go over it in depth but from trying to contend to trying to reload back to contending . We've had a dictate from management to rebuild while staying competitive and haven't had the luxury of top picks or necessarily time to develop the players we've taken .

The fact that players like Patterson and Morris have had solid careers outside of our team means we have a decent eye for talent . The growth of guys like Dekker , Clint , and montrezl means we are getting better ( or the situation is getting better ) for in-house growth.

I kinda went off on tangent . But I agree with your kawhi statements 100%

 

WTF? We're talking basketball dude. Leonard lost his father in high school in a shooting and dedicated himself to making it in basketball.


http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-sondheimer8mar08-column.html


Leonard had motivations outside of the sport that drove him to success in it. As far as his college career goes, the guy did enough for your beloved Spurs to trade a valuable rotation player in George Hill to nab him at the 15th pick after the Rox stupidly passed on him. The Rox would later pass on Jimmy Butler and Reggie Jackson in the 1st round.(2011 wasn’t a good night) Was he fortunate to be drafted by the Spurs? (Of course) But this kid was a motivated, hardworking gym rat before joining the Spurs. I'm sure the Spurs knew his story before they drafted him. They told him to get better at shooting the basketball and guess what he did. You want something done right give it to a worker! That's what the guy is. He bust his ass, the Spurs didn't sprinkle dust on him to make him good, he put in the time and the sweat. And it happens all over the league, the guys who are great at any sport bust their tails working at it, nobody hands it them. (5’9 Isaiah Thomas of Boston)


Another poster suggested the Rox shouldn't have bothered to draft a talent like Kawhi because he wouldn't have been the same player. How do you know? There are better players than Kawhi in the NBA that never played for the Spurs. Guys all over the NBA have won the genetic lottery and work their tails off to get the most out of it. (Look at Jimmy Butler) It’s straight nonsense to suggest it's ok to screw up in the draft because another team is better at developing talent than you are. If that's the case, somebody needs to lose their damn job. To be fair, the Rox have had success in that area. I never said the Spurs weren't a great organization, but if a player doesn't have the core talent and a drive to be great, you can preach until the cows come home and nothing is going to happen.

 

So if he was this good and this amazing and didn't need the Spurs help how come his first year performance in the NBA is vastly improved over his college year? The NBA is way more difficult than college, top college prospects like Beasley who averaged 20-20s in college couldn't even hack it as a star in the NBA and eventually got kicked out of the league before he made it back. But Kawhi performed better in the NBA than in college after just one year, if it was all him as you keep saying and Spurs didn't do anything except tell him to score more how come his performance was so drastic in just 1 year? If you can shoot 49% FG and 35% in 3 pt all by yourself why are you shooting 25% 3p in college where the competition is way easier?

I'm not taking anything from Kawhi, obviously he was an amazing prospect otherwise the Spurs wouldn't get him But the Spurs enabled him to reach his potential, it's not like the Spurs didn't help him out bro so why do you assume he would have been as good if he had gone to a team who didn't know what they were doing? When Kawhi tells the coach he wants to score more and the coach tells him don't waste your time cuz you got big hands you'll never be a scorer what will Kawhi do? Its not like Kawhi was shooting lights out when he got drafted obviously someone taught him how to score properly otherwise with his work ethic and drive as you keep saying eh would have been shooting lights out in college.

 

The Rocket that never fully played a whole season (82 games) as a regular starter

Pity. Or not.

 

Here's a question to ponder, would these and similar players become even better have they been able to stay with rockets for a long time within a stable and well known and nourishing environment?

You gotta admit that changing environment and starting all over again is stressful, time consuming and energy sapping and that playing within the known system , having security allow for growth and development. Of course exactly opposite may be the case in some cases which is fascinating of itself.

ps
i wonder how well fare players after they leave the spurs (not being resigned), surely they sign for nice money but how do they perform? i hear corey joseph is in kinda doghouse in Toronto now marjanovic, gary neal, what was the name of that brasilian guy who went to atlanta, havent heard of him in a while except he was injured but he was one of the important cogs in SA defense

 

Can we start a TJones as a NO Pelican thread? lol

 

There's this

Terrence Jones signs with New Orleans Pelicans

 

Most guys suck once they leave the Spurs, all their flaws come out. Spurs have been winning all these time so majority of their drafts have been 2nd round picks. Other teams pay these guys big money because of what they've been doing on the Spurs, then realize these guys are 2nd round picks once they start playing.

 

Update: Dmo has made his first shot and is currently shooting 100% from the field in tonight's game we could have used that #blamemorey

 

LMFAO!!!!

 

Missed his 2nd and 3rd shots but still had 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. And a team high -4. Did a bit of everything. Exactly the type of player Rockets need.