d-mo has played more pro and has more experience than patterson or morris had together. furthermore, euroleague is more physical in the post than nba. All ex nba players who come to europe or europe players who come to nba confirms that. So there should be another reasons for d-mo not getting minutes. I even more surprised that t.jones did not play aswell because it is always harder for international players (unless you have been drafted in top5) to get minutes at the beginning of the career. still think it's because mchale is stubborn and does not give rookies minutes (last year morris was not playing and parsons was only a lucky guy).
He looked completely lost in preseason. Don't understand why everyone is clamoring for him to start. Terrence Jones deserves minutes ahead of him anyways.
Europe is more physical in terms of rules, but it has twofold impact: (A) it's easier to score in the post (for bigs and little guys alike). (B) it's harder to defend if you are a big. and we saw both of those with Donatas. While he often struggled with his finishing, but he did create good opportunities in the post for himself. But defensively it wasn't pretty. I think he'll adjust. As you say, international post players often struggle at first. You have to le-learn defense. And you have to adjust to increased scoring opportunities. Some of the dunk opportunities he passed... people say it's softness, but he seems to love to dunk on people. I suspect there's an element of surprise for him at times. You don't have so many dunk opportunities in halfcourt in Euro game, because it's so much more packed inside. Even a physical monster like Nikola Pekovic was mainly a 5-10ft shooter in Europe. It took him a full year to readjust to the NBA and focus on scoring at the rim.
