Donatas Motiejunas - X Factor

Dmo's market value is one of the biggest wild cards of he offseason . I fully expect us to make him a RFA and therefore let the market set his value . I think the salary cap rising will play a factor , but teams will still be careful due to his injury and less than stellar recovery . Obviously he can still make a full recovery and get even better than he was in 14-15 .

Will there be a team that offers a contract that pays for 14/15 Dmo ?
Will teams only be willing to pay for what they saw this least season ? In other words try to take a calculated gamble , but with a team friendly contract .
Will teams offer shorter , higher money deals to avoid long term risk ?
Or will teams offer longer deals to try and Maximize value given he recovers ?

When a relatively unproven player enters free agency coming off and injury usually he price tag is quite low ; however with the cap increasing so dramatically , teams have the mandate to spend and some teams will take risks .

I hope the rockets can retain him on a long term deal . I fully believe Dmo will come back better than ever . He has the work ethic and the skills .

 

Dmo will not be able to play the way he did two seasons ago. His back will not allow anymore of that.

 

There aren't any excuses, just explanations of what was actually going on during the games for those who struggle to see it.

It's not an excuse to point out that DMo played pretty well once he got back healthy when he got playing time. Hell he was one of the only bright spots on the roster in the playoffs.

Unfortunately some here struggle to see that due to cognitive biases or simply inadequate basketball knowledge or analysis skills and that's why people need to help them out every once in a while.

As to DMo remaining a Rocket IMO that's mostly up to him. In this FA class there are very few options better than him and he could sign an offer sheet really early in FA which would all but prevent the Rockets from being able to match it if he wants out. If he wants to stay, he could hold off so that the Rockets can spend some money in FA and be able to keep him with Bird rights.

If I was him, I'd want out. The D'Antoni hire would be enough to make me sign an offer sheet on the first or second day of FA.

 

Which playoffs were these?

 

Is it possible that you saw what you wanted to see? It's easy to do. Especially when you want to be right.

 

The 5 games after the regular season ended, they were over in a hurry, easy to miss.

 

Per 36 - 17 and 10 this year, I am sorry that he ruins the narrative that others want to put on him, but he is a very good player.

DD

 

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The numbers support what I saw. He didn't get proper playing time often because JBB is a moron, but when he did, he usually played well. The per 36 numbers were pretty much what they were last year meaning the big difference in numbers had to do with playing time, not quality of play overall.

His 3 point shot was off though. That has to improve.

 

There's serious sample size issues with using stats of those kinds for so few games. It's no more valid than if I was talking up his 44% 3 point shooting in those 5 games.

 

Per 36 minutes - his stats were 15 and 7 - pretty much the exact same as Terrence Jones this year.

I wonder when Terrence Jones is going to get a 10 million dollar a year contract.

 

It is no more valid than any of your posts, yes.

 

Whatever you say kiddo.

 

FA doesn't work like that at all. No free agent in their right mind (that isn't a superstar/Max contract guy with every team in the league as their option) will sit it out early in FA with solid offers on the table just to wait on the Rockets or whoever their team is holding their RFA. He's going to take what he can get, and let the Rockets do whatever they are going to do. That's the smart restricted free agent play you make 100% of the time.

And every team in the league has seen Morey let guys like Parsons walk to wait on the bigger fish and know that he will let D-Mo walk if they can get him an offer early. If a team wants him, they know how to get him. Go strong and early.

So really its up to Morey & Les more than anything. They have to be the ones to decide whether they want to retain their guys over hopes and dreams of superstars that pretty consistently have gone elsewhere 2/3 of the time.

Is an "EXPLANATION" of why D-Mo hasn't been productive really that much different than an "EXCUSE"??? Are we seriously going to mince words like that? If I "Explain" to my boss why I only was productive at work one day every two weeks does it really matter? At the end of the day its about whether the job is getting done or not.

The fact is D-Mo has only played up to his potential 1/8 of his NBA career. Even last season when he came back when he was surprisingly helping the team some games & in the playoffs (which didn't mean much with how piss poor the Rockets PF spot had been all year), he still was far from playing up to his potential that he showed in that half season.

If you're trying to pick an argument with one of the biggest D-Mo supporters here than you're wasting your breath. I love D-Mo and want him back, but I just live in the real world where I see things the way they are. Not one where Anthony Randolph "Just needs a chance" with the Rockets to be the PF of their dreams, and where trading for Ricky Rubio is the secret the Rockets need to make their offense and defense great.

Nobody wants D-Mo to be the next great Rockets big man more than I do, but I realize that he's likely not going to be that, and likely wont be a Rocket in a month.

 

Dmo played ok in the playoffs . Enough to convince me that with a full offseason of conditioning , he will be back to 14-15 levels .

Consider the events leading up the playoffs ... Inconsistent playing time , not fully in game shape , shot not in rhythm yet . Dmo still played smart defense and offense which is more than you can say for about everyone else on the team .

Dmo is tough to properly evaluate . Most people when watching don't see the highlight dunks , athleticism , see a bit of balance issues , shooting inconsistency , and less than stellar strength. A lot of people also see smart decisions , team play , and a rare skill set for someone his size . However , those attributes are tough to put in perspective. How much does it matter if you are smart if you aren't athletic enough to slow down your man ? How much do you skills matter if when more athletic players lock in you just physically aren't a match ?

Personally I think Dmo is better than most of the bbs thinks , but not as good as Bobby and DD think . His full recovery and conintued athletic growth are of utmost importance for him to improve . Yes , he will improve his feel for the game and get into a better rhythm as he gets consistent PT. But for him to be a real role player for us in the future he has to improve on his weaknesses

 

What's his worth? Or what does Dmo and his agent think he's worth?

I know we have a long history of overpaying certain fan favorites.

 

Here's we go again with this lame excuse of not getting enough minutes. Man stop it, when he first came back he was getting the minutes and he didn't deliver. He actually had a set back causing him to miss some more games. They gave him minutes after Detroit nonsense.

 

Did he play 36 minutes a game? No so Per 36 is a worthless stat to me. If he did play that many minutes it's not a guarantee that he would have averaged 17-10.

 

His best minutes were at C, which I imagine would be his role with Dantoni unless Clint finds his hands and free throw stroke.

 

so many people here fail to understand that and want to truly believe useless advanced stats like that are actual facts without taking into account true context.