This. Jones has proven himself in the last few games to be quite the shot-blocker and re-bounder. Would love to see him with the starters. Truth be told, from all of our young big men he's probably the most playoff ready, if you consider his pedigree of having played in two national championship games (2011 and 2012) and winning one last year.
The only thing TJones has proven is that he manage not to foul out during the 30 minutes of plays like other PF's do, also a good shot-blocker. But he has no rebounds, had two games but that's all. Overall I'm happy that our defense get stronger since TJones got more minutes. Hope team is ready for play-offs and maybe someone will step-up...
Not a terrible idea. I do like going to Smith early in the post to sort of break the ice, but after that he's sort of a no-show when sharing the paint with Asik. Against LA on Wednesday you do face the question of whether or no you want to try and match up size with size, or try to force them to match down to you. Even though Jones isn't a good shooter by any stretch, he can at least handle the ball well on the perimeter enough to bring Gasol out a bit from the rim on defense. If you the gameplan is to force them to go small, I think starting Jones isn't a terrible idea at all. -Also, reg OKC in round 1- OKC best lineup offensively is when they go small. Most likely its going to be a run and gun matchup. Even if Smith starts, I dont think he will see that many meaningful minutes. Probably going to see alot of small ball.
You obviously have some type of grudge or beef against "SlowMo?" I don't know where tf that even comes from.... He doesn't really have to be a Faried, he can be a lot better considering he actually has an outside jump shot. We of course have to give him time to develop kinda the way Faried has been doing the past 2 years. If you haven't followed him all season he's been fairly consistent with his fair share of off games. I'm sure your stat predictions are based off this season and would you expect anything else out of a 16th overall rookie? He's still played well but obviously has room to improve. haters gonna hate I guess.
The guy has had his fair share of poor moments, but also has had some very, very good looking moments as well. He's not someone I want seeing a ton of minutes late in the season, or in the playoffs right this second for sure, but I do think this guy could be a major part of what this team does in the future. I wouldn't call him garbabe, I would call him a prospect for the future who needs some work in the offseason.
Yeah, he's had a lot of bad moments. His long range shot isn't hitting anymore, and his freethrow misses kind of piss me off because some of the people here were talking up a storm about him being a great shooter. I just look at it as a rookie slump, and his flashes of brilliance every once in a while still make me a believer as well.
I like the idea of Jones starting. I like Smith as backup center. I just don't think DMo is ready for the playoffs. I'd rather just run 3 big men and Parsons. DMo plays if there is foul trouble.
He only played in one championship. Kentucky did make the final four the year before but they got beat but I agree with what your saying. I still dont know about the starting but there is no way our coaches shouldve taken this long to give the man a shot. Imagine him in with Asik. Teams would have to scratch the penetration plans.
He was given many shots. Just not much game time. In the 80 or so minutes of garbage time before this current stretch, he stunk it up. ' He is playing great now, and has been on a shot blocking rampage starting back in last D League stint. Rockets have a history of bringing rookies along slowly and putting them in position to succeed when they do get PT.
Naturally I want Dmo to succeed but the dude fouls more than I would out there on the floor. As a starter he would often have two fouls before he'd have two points. Not quite ready for prime time, although he'll get there; he's shown flashes of his talent. Thing is, our one glaring weakness is the 4, especially now that Ppat (who was growing into the stretch-4 role) is gone. I imagine McHale will continue with Smith to start and go from there. What'll be interesting is how many and which of these 4's we still have going into next season. But I guess I should worry more about what Howard and Pau and the refs will do to us tonight, going against undrafted and 1st-year 4's.
I like Jones off the bench for the moment. He is much flashier but isn't as tough in the post (offensively or defensively) as Smith, who also has a better post game and can set better picks. Jones gets plenty of minutes anyway when Smith picks up a couple of early fouls or when he rests or spells Asik. I wouldn't mind seeing Jones at the 3 once in awhile too, in a big lineup, provided he can hit the midrange shot (he definitely does not have consistent 3 point range, and I don't want him taking those shots).
Jones should have started long ago. As a matter of fact, he should start tonight. He and Asik would match up better in the rebounding department.
Jones has been nice lately but I do think its a little premature to have him starting at the moment. I also don't think he's as good a rebounder as his numbers seem. He is a good offensive rebounding guy though. The thing I like most about his game is his ability to block shots. I want to see how he plays once the scouting report comes out on him as of right now there's really no data on him for other teams to use. Dmo, smith and Trob have logged more minutes and teams kinda know what they like to do out there on the court. I'm not ready to say tjones is a starting pf for this team going foward only because even though he's been the most consistent out if all the pfs he's also the only one who hasn't shown the ability to create his own offense and that's what we need at the 4 spot since asik will never be that guy.
He is a guy I want playing 25-30 min off the bench though and I think any team would love to have him do that.
I think it may be premature to say Jones is the better rebounder out of those two. Both appear to be good rebounders. Jones has the edge on offensive glass and Smith on defensive.
