[ClutchFans] Terrence Jones makes his Rockets' rotation debut

DMo/Howard or DMo/Asik might work since DMo actually knows how to shoot the ball.

 

biggest issue on his jump shot is his form isn't consistent, he might be able to develop a decent shot, not this season though (although even he would be shooting better from 3 than anyone but Lin over the last 5 games ).

 

Dmo's advantage in his offensive skillset is a smaller gap than Jones' advantage in both rebounding and defense individually. Jones though is 21 and a roleplayer, so it's basically an inconsistency guarantee.

 

This should be our final starting line-up

Bev/Lin (interchangeable)
Harden
Parsons
Jones
Howard

 

I completely disagree, I think you mean DMo was better than Jones all of the preseason except about 15 minutes. I was happy to see Jones get some real playing time, he did good yesterday.

I really think DMo would be the best player starting with Howard, he is one of the better players at feeding the ball to Howard. DMo also passes the ball very well.

 

No I really don't, it wasn't that I thought Jones played overly well, it's just that other than that stretch against Scola, he was awful with long stretches of out of control offense and poor defense, I've never really seen someone chain together turnovers and fouls quite like he did. You just can't give minutes to a guy who can pull out a 10 point swing to the opponent at any given time.

 

Disagree again, DMo is the best post player on this team by a long way, and needs playing time to let his eagerness subside and let the game slow down for him, same as Jones.

DD

 

Excellent recap, The Cat!

Hey, maybe instead of arguing the merits of Jones versus Donuts, we should celebrate Jones putting in a badly needed 32 minutes off the bench in a victory (far closer, and lengthy, than it should have been), and speculate about whether those minutes were a fluke, or represent what he can do night in and night out given similar matchups. The jury is still out on that, of course. Can Jones be consistent? Can he produce at this level on a regular basis? I don't doubt that Motiejunas will get a similar chance to show what he can do at the 4 spot this season. Maybe then it would make sense to argue about the comparative merits of the two.

No? Too logical?

 

Deck - love what Jones did, and want him to stay - hopefully he starts, but we also need to find time for DMo- too - as I believe he has much higher upside - but needs playing time to get wherever he is going.

Happy that Jones broke the dam let's hope McHale let's other water flow as well.

DD

 

Correct I agree.

 

I am very happy with the 7 10 and 4 T Jones put up on Monday. While I do agree that D Mo has the higher upside, I believe Jones is the much better player RIGHT NOW. D Mo may never tap into his potential. Jones is serviceable atm and the team is in a win now mode, not a develop mode.

out of all the options that McHale has put as far as line ups, I liked Jones with Howard a bit more than running small ball. Jones played excellent D on Fkn Rudy Gay Maaaaaaaan and showed versatility not only with on ball defense, but off ball weak side defense with his 4 blocks. Jones can spread the floor but also finish down low when needed. This hybrid 4 may give us a special X factor moving forward!

 

I disagree with those who say D-Mo has more upside. Once Jones gets a consistent shot, he will leave D-Mo behind. It will take D-Mo much longer to learn how to play effective defense. As you all saw, defense is what kept Jones on the floor.

 

100% incorrect, it is much easier to teach a talented offensive player to play adequate defense than it is to teach a talented defender to play better offense.

DD

 

One-on-one defense is what kept Jones on the floor the other night, and that was against Rudy Gay.... not Kevin Love.

A big reason why Jones hasn't been able to crack the rotation even last year is his team defense. Knowing where to be, where to rotate to, who to come out on, how to guard picks, etc. has been the main bugaboo for Jones and D-Mo. D-Mo like Jones, one-on-one has always looked adequate....

and if you think I'm lying go back and watch the 2 games D-Mo started against Lee & GS. Lee is probably top 5 in the league in the low post and D-Mo did very well guarding him one-on-one.

As for Jones' improvement defensively... I need to see what he can do against teams with more scheme & movement in their offense before I can tell you whether or not he's that much improved. Toronto ran... or simply didn't run an offense at all... Iso Gay... Iso Derozen... Lowry jacking up a 3 on the break.... there is pretty much no team defense to be played in that game.

With D-Mo & Jones, too much is made of their physical attributes & skills... BOTH guys are very elite in their talent.... its between the ears where the light bulb needs to click for them to earn a long term role on this team and consistent PT. Jones has his chance tonight.... lets see what he can show us against a well coached (yes... Philly is already considered well coached IMO) Philly team that will run more team oriented offensive sets.

 

Against Philly tonight the thing to watch will be Jones' team defense. Philly seems to want to run alot of the same stuff the Rockets run in their offense as well (probably why MCW is putting up ridiculous stats for a rookie) with a ton of drive and kick action with 4 out, 1 in with a big rolling. Hawes has been pretty good this year as well because he's another threat to pick and pop, and can really open up the floor for MCW & Turner to operate in the paint.

Jones is going to need to need to be aware of when Howard helps on the P&R and has to come out of position. Thad Young isn't a 3 point threat but always seems to shoot lights out against the Rockets. Philly will attempt a fair amount of 3's a game even without that many great 3 point shooters. Its going to be interesting to see how Jones handles the task defensively of staying with his man, or helping the helper on defense. Is he helping when he's supposed to, and does the defense rotate like its supposed to.

All things to watch for tonight. Terrence on offense I'm not worried about. Just dont shoot 3's. Continue to move the ball, or make a solid move to the basket.

 

In overtime against Toronto, Jones was sticking to Landry freakin' Fields at the 3pt line off a switch while Rudy Gay took 5 seconds to back down Lin for a 3-point play.

 

The small faults that were seen in Jones' game the other night were the direct result of him not playing much. That can all be corrected before the break with adequate playing time.
I also agree that it absolutely ridiculous that D-Mo still hasn't played. I have a bad feeling that neither will play tonight because i am sure Garcia will be back and McSmell will go back to his old "experiment our season away" mode.

Fake "Twin Towers" power, activate!!! Form of, 1st round exit!!

 

McHale needs to get this lineup figured out. So if Garcia wasn't out on Monday, TJones probably wouldn't have played as usual, and we would have kept going. But now he's good enough to start?

For the record, I'm not questioning his ability to start, I love the move, it just seems like players should've gotten a chance and we should have opened up the rotation more instead of sticking with such a small group to start with. If Jones has the ability to start, he should've at least gotten playing time before now. Poor coaching IMO.

 

I can see keeping Asik and trading DMo, even if Omer doesn't like it. It would be nice, though, to get an upgrade at PF or PG for him.

 

I like DMo against second units. He has offensive skills most 2nd units can't handle or defend against. Plus his defensive or rebounding inadequacy is less glaring.

TJones overall package is better fitted against 1st units than DMo.