You probably meant to say "leaves a lot to be desired", but that's not really accurate. DMo is one of our better defensive players on the entire team. He has areas where he could improve, but the narrative that he's a bad defender needs to die because it's simply not supported by the evidence.
Well, from a healthy Dwight, yeah. A healthy Dwight is one of if not the best defenders in the game. I REALLY hope we get healthy Dwight back.
Yeah I'd hardly say Monroe was "abusing him" Where do you get your narrative from? Monroe made 2-3 ridiculous wild shots after D-Mo defended him really well that had Bill Worrell sighing as if to say "how the hell does that go in?" Additionally, D-Mo pretty much shut Monroe down in the 4th, or at the very least outplayed him completely during that quarter when the Rockets went on that run.
If Dmo works on his mid range 15-18ft game and can get that consistent jumper like Scola (as well as the FTs), he would be borderline all-star. Would be hard for him to ever get voted in, and there are so many more flashy players that would get a reserve spot before him, but I honestly think he is almost that good.
D-Mo has really come on this season. It's great to see him step up his game. He's become good on offense and fair-to-good on defense. If there's a weakness with him, it's that he's a 7'0" power forward who's more of as "finesse" player than a power player. He had a hard time against Detroit having to bang bodies with big, bulky guys like Drummond and Monroe. He's 7-feet tall and I've only seen him dunk it once this season. I don't think he really needs to change his game, but it does expose a Dwight-less Rockets team when the opponents have a big body in the middle.
This. I was actually surprised by how well DMo did considering the fact that Monroe has a pretty big frame (I doubt his listed 250lbs weight is anywhere near his actual one). Monroe made some wild shots though. Not much you can do abou that. Despite those crazy shots, DMo still outscored him. So he won that matchup anyway.
Monroe had 19 points, 12 rebounds, and a block. DMo had 21 points and 4 rebounds. I wouldn't really say Dmo won that matchup.
That's fair, but Monroe had Drummond out there to help him, DMo was the only big guy out there and it's not like he's a beastly rebounder that can overcome that to begin with. Most of his rebounding game is boxing his man out to lead to team rebounds and that doesn't work as well with guys like Smith, Jones, and Dorsey having to fight with Drummond or fight with Monroe depending on which one DMo puts a body on.
What's so special about the midrange shot that makes that the criteria for DMo to get in the All Star game? He's posting up great, hitting his threes....why is this midrange jump shot so darn important??
Well that would make him sort of unstoppable on offense. If you can hit 3's, midrange, AND tear up the post....damn.
Fair enough, but elite big men don't require big men playing alongside them. See: Dwight in last year's playoffs
Well he doesn't require bigs playing alongside him to score to to play defense, it's only a rebounding issue because of how he plays. I don't think anyone confuses DMo for an elite rebounder.
At the and of the day we need to agree, that it is DMo's first season when he's real starter and play +20min.. it means let it go, and evaluate after next season -- after another summer in which he improve again, after one more season, when he wont be the one that refs and other teams commentators see first time and assume hes rookie.. just say, good progress let it flow..
I just look at the three and the midrange jumper as the same thing - spot-up's for spacing. Does spotting up from midrange really open up things that a spot up three doesn't? I think the three is preferable.
