After Patrick Patterson was traded, I don't think McHale settled on a 4 last year. He let Jones, Dmo, and Robinson compete for it during the season.
And it was a team weakness, in my opinion, thus seeing Chandler and Carlos spending time at the 4 spot.
As of today you start Asik at Center and Howard at PF unless Asik is still hurt. Since as of today Asik is still hurt then the nod goes to Dmo
Offensively Dmo is the nobrainer perfect fit for starting line up--stretch 4, good passing ability, run the floor well, I can tell he is Dwright's best friend on court. defensively his movement is ok for a 7 footer, he got beat on perimeter from time to time but with Dwright in there this is covered. what Dmo need to work on is when Dwright go out to stop a penetration, he must read the situation that he is the remain big and need to help the helper to protect the paint, box out and rebound, he felt asleep here very often and I think this is unacceptable and when it happens, he look ugly. more practice and more communication with Dwright would fix this and TBO I dont like Mchale's experiment, basketball wise we got the answer already coach just need to put them work together more to build up trust and communication, why waste the time experimenting worse options. he may do it just to comfort other guys or encourage good competition but chemistry need time to build up, look at the first big 3 of celtics they took a whole year to gel. well it's Mchale maybe I cant expect much, he may be a players coach try to split the pizza to everyone however I am not really his fan, we need a coach who can win titles.
With DMo starting Dwight got the ball a lot more easily, because Dmo is an excellent passer, I think he starts. DD
Has D Mo looked as pathetic all pre-season as he did last night? At best he is two years away. Maybe he can become a Matt Bullard if he can work on his shot. Maybe if he gains 40 pounds he can be a center. As a pf he seems hopeless defensively. So many maybes I doubt he will ever be more than a role player who occasionally cracks the 9 or 10 man rotation. Jones still looks marginal at best till he improves. Somewhat better than DMo as he doesn't look silly out there. I vote Casspi, who looks like a player,, but we need Dwight and Omer to be on the court ever second he is the power forward or we will be manhandled. We could use Greg Smith with Jones at pf for emergencies when neither Dwight or Omer can be on the court.
It was a team weakness before and after the trade. Delfino spending more time at the 4 was a benefit. Parsons, not so much. With the same 4 players, units with Patterson only outplayed (via +/-) Parsons, Morris, and Thompson (Kings). As bad as Robinson, Motiejunas, and Smith played, units with them performed about the same as units with Patterson. I don't know if Patterson had a lot of bad luck last year, but the Rockets just didn't play as well as one would expect with him in there. The only thing I can think of is that the Rockets offense strives on being unpredictable. Patterson is a jump shooter and is very predictable.
Jones play has been consistent throughout the preseason, but D-Mo's play looks better than last season. This decision is getting harder everyday.
Honestly I have no idea, but I do believe that it's DMo's to lose right now. TJones lacks versatility and Casspi just got here, so I hope it will shake out over the next few pre-season games.
I don't see any way we run DMo out there at the 4 when he's shooting 20% 3-balls. If you want to go big with the starting unit, then it would make more sense to start Asik with Howard. If you are wanting spacing with the first unit then DMo makes no sense. DMo is essentially playing backup center to Dwight. That's the only effective role he is playing here in preseason. If you stick him out there with the starters the opponent is going to pack it in on Dwight and dare DMo to shoot the long ball.
Well, the problem is that neither Asik or Dwight have any range (at least that they've shown so far). Also, I'm not sure you want to burn a lot of Asik minutes with Dwight when we need him to play solid bench minutes at the 5 and provide relief when Dwight gets in foul trouble. Dmo did have a passable jump shot last season (29.3% from 3) and decent rebounding (9.6 rebounds/100 possessions) in addition to his size which makes him the default favorite from the start of preseason in my view. He has been looking awful so far during the pre-season so that could easily cost him the spot. That isn't to say that Dmo is playing better that TJones (he isn't), however he does have better passing than TJones and a stronger post game than TJones (despite being defensively weaker). That said, I wouldn't bet on anyone holding the 4 right now. For all we know they might go with Casspi, Garcia, or even sliding Parsons to the 4 given how weak we are when it comes to the 4.
If his contract extension wasn't so huge that would be a nice deal. Maybe turn down the team option and renegotiate a new deal?
1. DMO and TJones do not have range. So...if you're going to play a guy at the 4 without range...then you play the guy that gives you the best D. 2. 29.3% from 3 is not passable. It's laughable. You don't want guys shooting 3's when they are at 29.3%. 3. There are plenty of minutes at the 4/5 for a rotation of Dwight/Asik and one more guy. Dwight gets 35 minutes at the 5. That leaves Asik out there for 13 minutes at the 5 and another 15 minutes at the 4. That leaves enough minutes for one more rotation guy. That guy should be a guy that can nail the 3-ball. 4. Casspi is outrebounding both TJones and DMo so far this preseason. Dude can board just fine.
How can you call his rebounding decent? His rebound percentage was 210th in the league last year. He was behind guys like Trevor Ariza and Evan Turner. He easily had the worst percentage of any of our PF's and C's last year. I'd like to see where you came up with the 9.6 reb/100 possessions number.
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Donatas Motiejunas TRR (rebounds per 100 possessions) - 9.6 Not to be confused with rebounds/time, or rebounds/game which are meaningless numbers in the context of actual rebounding opportunities.
