Could Motiejunas and Jones both move out of the rotation?

Dmo played ok Defense last night but Greg Smith was awful, his man went on a facial rampage.

DD

 

To be fair dmo shouldnt be judged for his defense tonight cuz he was playing alongside smith and not asik. Having said that it's not looking like we'll have a traditional power forward. Asik and casspi it is.

 

You used to be a quality poster but lately, you are just spewing out a bunch of garbage.

As of now, DMo might not be a solid rotational player, but it saddens me to see fans like you making derogatory remarks toward a second year player, especially someone who seemed to have work ethics and well-liked by his teammates and fans.

You are entitled to your opinion but you certainly have lost a lot of respect from me.

 

It says DMo had +5 over under, though he entered the game when Rockets had 10 points lead. We won by 17, so that's +7 for DMo. Can't trust NBA stats
Which is why I won't judge Casspi for his +1 either. Though it kinda surprised me, that for the little period of time Casspi was defending (trying to) Splitter, Spurs didn't give him the ball in the paint not even once.

 

D-Mo not being in the rotation is not an indication of who he is as a player. Its only an indication of how good this team is, and how the Rockets have received a gift from the basketball gods in Casspi, and potentially another gift from the basketball gods if the Twin Towers experiment can work for 10-15 minutes a night.

D-Mo has taken huge steps in his development both physically and on the court. His skills haven't developed much, but that was never the problem last year to begin with.

During the season-

-injuries will happen
-trades might happen
-cold streaks might happen
-etc.

D-Mo and Jones I expect to be major contributors this season at times. Very few teams are lucky enough to have this type of talent as their 9 -11 spots in their rotation. The Rockets are lucky, and fans should focus on the positives. D-Mo and Jones might be out of the rotation NOW in OCTOBER, but they need to keep working hard because their number WILL BE called at some point in the next few weeks, and they need to be ready.

 

I expect Asik to be traded - and Dmo to be the 9th man until that happens.

DD

 

Dmo should be the final player in the rotation. He is ok with me

 

After watching last night, I think DMo is dealing with injury. He had a brace on his knee and didn't seem like he was moving as quickly as he normally does. Usually he's one of the first guys down the court in transition, last night he was almost always the last. Perhaps both Jones and DMo are banged up and that's why they are getting so few minutes.

 

He has a brace on his left knee but he looks fine to me. I'm not sure what game the bashers were watching last night, but D-Mo played well in garbage minutes. Hit a 3 (the other two rimmed out.... no air-balls), nice post ups, a real nice hook shot, and a great pass to Smith.

Only real negative thing I saw was that there was a play were he was playing center on defense, and he turned his head which made his body turn right, and that made him slow to clog the driver on the left hand side.

D-Mo is fine. He isn't playing because this team is good. Why is this such a problem???

 

He probably injured left knee after that failed landing vs Pacers after the dunk. It really looked very bad on his knee, but he only shoved that his wrist was hurt. Commentators were surprised it wasn't his leg that got injured.
I also think DMo isn't that bad on defense and all those quick fouls he gets is because NBA refs hate rookie European bigs.

 

You can't really take anything of value out of garbage time statistics. DMo played clean up last night.

But you can look at the play on the court. Defensively...he was totally absent. DMo at this point in his career is not a two-way player. He likes the offensive end, likes taking his liberties there, but on the defensive end, he just stands around and watches the action go around, over, and through him.

Offensively DMo simply is not efficient enough with his usage. He takes too many shots..specifically long jump shots which he can't hit with any kind of efficiency. He's way too quick to pull the trigger. He's too inefficient.


kuku:

Sorry you feel that way. But what I'm saying isn't garbage. And it's not personal. I don't have any personal vendetta against DMo. It's just plain observation on what is happening on court and where this team is at and what it is trying to accomplish.

This is a championship contending team. Not a lottery team. Not even a team trying to make the playoffs. This is a team that is going to contend for a ring....this season. With that in mind, you have to understand...the days of running guys out there and "letting them develop" on the clock are over for the foreseeable future. So, if DMo, TJones, and GSmith do not crack the rotation...then they're not going to get developmental minutes like young guys on rookie deals would have gotten just a year or so ago on this team. Won't happen guys because we are coming out of the gates looking for homecourt advantage in the playoffs. We are looking for that #1 slot in the West. We are attempting to win more games than any other team in the West. So, it's going to be nothing but rotation guys, guys that have earned their minutes, running around on the court for us this year.

At most, there is only one rotation spot up for grabs. We know Harden, Lin, Beverley, Parsons, Garcia, Dwight, and Asik are in the rotation. If those guys average 30 minutes a game each (very reasonable expectation), that leaves only 30 minutes a game left to be divided up between DMo, TJones, Smith, and Casspi. And the guy that is going to get those minutes is the guy that is most productive working in harmony with the other 7 guys I just mentioned. Isn't it obvious who that player is at this point in time? Isn't it obvious that Casspi is a better fit with the other 7 guys than DMo, TJones, and Greg Smith up until this point? If that is the case, do you really think somehow that is going to change in another week or so??????

You gotta be realistic about where the team is, where the development of the players is, and who fits and who doesn't fit. That doesn't mean DMo, TJones, and Greg Smith are bad guys. They're not. They've obviously got some talent and ability. Otherwise they wouldn't be here. But we're not a lottery team developing kids. We're not a team without two superstars just fighting to make the playoffs and looking for the second superstar. Those days are gone. And because we have two superstars now and our contending window is open right now we're not looking to develop these guys like we were a year ago. We're looking to maximize wins NOW!

Oh...the other side of the story is...young guys on rookie contracts need to develop. They need to play. It's really not fair to DMo, TJones, and Greg Smith to park them here on the bench in suits. It's not fair to the development of their careers. They need to go somewhere where they can play in actual NBA games and get better. At least 2 and possibly all 3 of these guys need to be traded for the good of this team and for the good of their own careers. The only question is when. My point is it should be sooner rather than later because if they are sitting the bench on this team until the trade deadline their trade value will go further in the dumper. We are more likely to get more back for them now than at the trade deadline when they will be viewed as salary filler to make trades work. Go salvage some draft picks and get and expiring contract. Don't be surprised if they are moved sooner rather than later.

 

I agree completely, I don't think that people who "hate" on DMo and artificially prop up Casspi are "haters" or fanboys" I think that they are just really terrible at player evaluation.

I don't see why it has to be "hating", people have stupid opinions all the time. There were people who thought that Marcus Morris was going to be a great player, there were people who thought (and even sadder some that still think) that Patrick Patterson is a good player.

I don't take it personally when someone says something stupid like "Omri Casspi has All Star potencial [sic]"

 

Who is the better player today...Patrick Patterson or DMo?

 

Overall? DMo.

Patterson has a nice mid range jumper and is respectable from the 3, but that's literally all he is good at and he can't create his own shot. Patterson's D makes DMo look like Duncan in his prime and now that he's bulked up a bit, DMo is the better rebounder as well (not that it means anything, Patterson is a terrible rebounder).

Give me the quick 7 footer who can create for himself over a guy who can only help the team by knocking down open long 2's or 3's.

Patterson is basically a healthier poor man's Mike Miller, and Casspi is pretty much the same.

 

How about trying to add something intelligent to the conversation? I know that's probably difficult for you given your handicap, but if you want anyone to respect you, occasionally you have to bite the bullet and post something of substance.

 

yeah i just don't see how Asik and Howard work on the court together. The reality is that Asik will be an underutilized asset as long as Dwight is in Houston. He won't be on the court for more than 20 minutes a game. And while i think that 20 minutes will really help our team, if Morey is getting attractive offers for Omer, he should think extremely hard about moving him.

But waiting till the trade deadline will likely yield the best return, so I'm good with keeping things as they are for now. I just hope that we recognize that Asik can only play the 5, and he really shouldn't be on the floor trying to play any other position. He's just not a fit anymore as a starter with the makeup of our current roster.

 

D-mo didn't look that bad last night ... I'll admit that I'm a fan of his but that probably means I'm harder on him than most in terms of critiquing his performance. On defense he looked adequate and there were a couple times he was caught out of position but those were caused by him covering for smith . I offense he looks good. Yes, his jump shot isn't there yet from three. I think that if he were allowed to take it he would have a very good 15-20 foot shot . I think he is adjusting to NBA range and he doesn't quite have it yet. Now we all know how good he looks in the post so nothing needs to be said there. The most underrated part of his game is his passing, he is a terrific passer for someone his size . He seems to play within the offense well and makes good swing passes to set up open 3 pointers and he make one pass to smith last night that was incredible , smith botched the lay up , but still the pass showcased d-mo's passing skills. I think in every preseason game so far he has had at least one play a game where he creates an open dunk or layup for his other big with great paint passing.

I'm only mildly impressed with Casspi , he is a streaky 3 point shooter who happens to be having a good shooting preseason . He might end up 39% over the course of the year , but he will probably have lots of hot streaks and cold spells . I think he will be a lot like delfino who wasn't a bad player but wasn't great either. I would rather have Garcia take those minutes and dmo be given more of a shot . I think regardless of who starts at the 4 , Asik will prolly get about 15 per game there , and like someone said earlier , the remaining 33 won't go to just one player. I think D- mo can etch out 15 of those and hopefully get more and more acclimated to the NBA, because regardless of where he is now I think most people would agree that his potential is sky high.

 

39% with hot spells and cold spells is what we want. We don't want 20% with no hot spells and only cold spells.