Could Motiejunas and Jones both move out of the rotation?

Your analysis looks good tonight, but there have been plenty of games where Jones and D. Mo have excelled and you've simply brushed those games off. In all fairness, the same thing can be done in reverse even after a horrific night like tonight. Lets see how they do during this tough upcoming stretch instead of this one game before you start thumping your chest considering how easily you've dismissed all the good games they've had leading up to this point. I for one, don't mind admitting you're right, but we're not quite there yet. These young guys will either grow from nights like tonight or they won't, but you don't know how they will respond to adversity until they experience some. Here we go. Time to see what we have.

 

If this team was to truly contend, Dmo is a good enough backup but we desperately need a legit 4. Jones....it ain't his time.

 

Dude....these are the real games. The real games! These are the games we're gonna be playing in April and May. Not some blowout nothing game against the Sacramento Kings for crying out loud!

GIGO

Garbage in, garbage out. You can't take anything out of some gaudy stat line against the Kings or Jazz. It's meaningless. Do you not see that?


It's not time to see what we have. We should have seen more than enough to know what we have. We've got a huge hole at the 4 spot. I'm sorry. I'm not gloating in it. I'm sorry. I know Jones is not the answer and he's not going to be the answer in 30 days either. Now we're down to "hoping" that DMo can hit the 3-ball steady enough so we can run him out there for 20-30 minutes. But his D.....you guys that think he's doing fine on D.....that's a joke guys. Yes, he's gotten better at D. But he's still terrible. He got toasted defensively just like Jones did tonight. DMo's ONLY saving grace has been he's been knocking down some 3's. If he goes cold out there again (likely will) then we got nothing at the 4 to help us. We're scrambling back to Casspi....which is where we should be anyways. And we're scrambling with Parsons at the 4.

This team won't win a ring this year with Jones and DMo playing prime rotation minutes. Neither player is good enough.

 

Tonight was definitely a measuring stick.

 

If only we had Charlie Villanueva!!

 

You don't understand what I'm saying. I'm acknowledging this is a real game against a quality opponent and there are several more coming up. One game doesn't quite prove your point. Be patient and let it play out. Of course if they bounce back and play well in the upcoming games against the other elite teams, I can totally see you dismissing it as luck and saying wait until the playoffs start or something like that.

 

we badly need PF help...and PG too..

 

We are like 59 games into the season. I seen enough over a month ago to know this was going to happen. You should have seen enough by then too. We were watching the same games.

 

Bbasketballholic, how did your sig work out? T game of many. I guess we shhould dump parsons too right? What about harden going scoreless in the 4th? How about collison getting 12 in the 4th? We're gonna keep this thread alive for awhile. You act like u don't see the other problems this team has like pg and swingman depth. There hasn't nor will there be anything that told me this team was ready to win a ring this yr. In your eyes , milsap or hawes could prevent the situational basketball erors that commonly plague the rockets.

 

Dude...please. Sig? Now you're gonna deflect? Dump Parsons? I've never advocated that.

Parsons/Harden/etc. That was on the coach. McHale didn't adjust to the matchups. Heck, he hasn't even adjusted yet by taking Jones out of the rotation. McHale should have played Lin and Bev together late when Collison was getting the better of Harden and he should have moved Harden down to Barnes or Griffin.

Our best 5 players are Lin/Bev/Harden/Dwight/Parsons. That's who we should be closing games with. I can't speak for McHale. Have no idea what he was thinking tonight. Perhaps he was trying to convince Granger to sign here by letting our soft underbelly at the 4 spot go so exposed the whole game.

 

There is a compromise of opinions here. Our 4s are good enough to play against about 75-80% of the league where we are talented enough to compensate for their weaknesses. It is only when we face much better talent bigs, that Jones and DMO get truly exposed.

Unless a miracle happens, neither Jones, DMO or Smith are good enough to start at PF for us. I thought Jones was the answer but he has regressed so badly he barely gets significant minutes as a starter.

 

That's what I've been saying all along. I'm 46. I think I could put up 16/6 against the Sixers playing the 4 alongside Dwight and Harden. Doesn't mean a thing.

 

Jones struggles with bigger PF. He isn't strong enough to defend them. I've seen that, but I've also seen him manage to play well enough in other areas to justify his spot on the floor. Tonight he didn't do that in any way. Neither did Parsons. Do we give up on him too? He has had some very good games against playoff teams, but I guess those don't count now right?

You know what though? Some of the guys you want to replace him with wouldn't do anything against Blake Griffin either defensively. Ersan Elyasova? Charlie V.? Man come on. He would abuse those guys just like he did Jones. Griffin is a top 3 PF in the game. He will get his. He shot 11-25 tonight. I think you take that. Go take a look at his box scores. This was just another day at the office for him. He puts these numbers up on EVERY team he plays against this year. If Parsons doesn't go 3-13, and we turn the ball over like it's covered in butter we win this game.You say they will space the floor though. Well when our guards and wing players are making shots, you know the guys that are paid to be outside shooters, the 59 games I've watched tells me that this has provided more than enough spacing even with Jones and D. Mo on the floor to the tune of the 3rd highest scoring team in the league. Meanwhile, Dwight Howard has experienced and offensive resurgence. I don't mind having a PF that can't shoot 3 pointers because I don't think you need one to win games as long as your guards and small forward are doing the job.

Now 12 total points and 8 rebounds from the PF spot isn't good enough, but this kind of production has been very rare. If anything, the 59 games we've watched say this is more of an outlier and not the norm because Jones averages nearly 12 and 8 by himself.

 

I remember you saying u were a 4yr letterman somewhere,but I missed where u played college ball at.

The rockets were never going to win the title this yr despite your fandom. They have holes even if you and I disagree which are the biggest. When I looked at this roster after getting howard, I expected a #3 seed. Guess what? They're in the 3 spot and ascending. Lin nor Bev are starters on a title team. You say the 4 is the problem. Ok that's your opinion,I can't change that. When this team lose, especially close games, its the same recipe and its rarely the pf rotation.

 

Well the bad news for you is that unless they sign one of these guys off the scrap heap like Charlie V., this is what we have. 2 young 2nd year players that will have their ups and downs. They will not be consistent every single game because they are role players. Even super role player Chandler Parsons manages to stink up the court every few games. I don't believe that Casspi is the answer. You would think Parsons at the 4 would have been used more this year, but it hasn't been. Maybe the addition of Hamilton will give us a small ball option like we had with Delfino last year. I wouldn't mind seeing that tried out in certain situations when Jones and D. Mo are having off nights.

 

I still remember some CF posters (even the veteran ones) saying Jones is a better player than Millsap or Ryan Anderson

Smh

 

That's the bad news for all of us Rockets fans, vator. We are basically one player away right now. We may only be a half a player away. With Asik backing up Dwight...the center problems are resolved. We've got good wing depth with the addition of Hamilton. We're basically lacking a front-line 4 and we could win a ring.

PS: Chandler did stink it up last night but he probably shouldn't have been out there. Dude was sick and running a temperature. I can cut him plenty of slack for that. Parsons has proven himself over and over again.

 

You don't play them all year and then take them out of the rotation come playoff time....what you have been seeing is what you will be getting all the way until we get knocked out of the playoffs.

 

The difference between you and I here is that I know as soon as we signed Dwight we were in championship mode. MOREY is trying to win a championship this year. He's not taking this as a year to mesh and continue to build towards a championship. MOREY wants to win a ring this year. And rightfully so. Because we are close.

 

You did not answer his question though, where did you play ball?

I know Leeb did, because I used to do the radio broadcast of his games, what about you?

DR