when he doesn't grab the board, he taps it all the way to the perimeter. He dives for balls. What is it they say is the most difficult thing for a newb entering the nba to grasp? the defense. Asik and demo must have fun practicing against each other. I'm blaming demo for asiks reverse layups.
Beg your pardon. D-Mo led Europe in rebounds last season. And it was exactly what McHale asked him to work on.
You realize that Motiejunas hasn't played more then 25 minutes in both games he started, it is a team effort the lack of defense stopping the Power Forwards that we've played against recently.
I think we can see why the Rockets were playing PPat and Morris ahead of D-Mo. When he try's to guard someone out away from the basket it's a disaster. Hey, I still like D-mo, but the rockets got to work on their defense. I don't blame McHale for the bad defense as much as I do the players. At some point the players just have to decide they want to play better defense, and I think it has to start with Harden. But, they're all young, they will get better. D-Mo will get better.
Actually Scola gets a bad knock for what he does, he was an average defender with Houston not the best but better then most gave him credit for. I'll also say that before Motiejunas is a rookie and he really hasn't had much experience defending against any bigs outside of the team itself in practice so much like Dirk and Yao, he will eventually get better. Patterson was trash defending the paint until the middle of this season, give him time. His scoring for the most part can make up for his lack defense if it stays increases along with increased minutes.
Interesting thought. I've always thought the defensive identity thing comes more from a scrappy vet that everyone respects. Like adding a Toney Allen/KG type. Perhaps its T-Mac, but never really correlated defense with star players playing D.
Both Patterson and Morris were awful defender. Morris definitely wasn't any better than DMo, though at least he ha the excuse of playing out of position.
Dmo has scorpion moves. Just the tip of the iceberg. Way better than dirk in his first year. Hof potential.
McHale will have to workout subs for certain match ups for now. I'm glad D-Mo is starting, remember Yao Ming made Boozer look like the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon because it was just a bad match up for Yao, but no sane person would take Boozer over Yao. D-Mo and T-Robb will start benefiting from each other as soon as T-Robb doesn't look lost on the court. What is D-Mo, 240 now? If he can put on 10 more pounds of muscle by next season, I'd like to see him get minutes at the center spot too.
Dmo will be a big plus for the Rockets he just needs to learn where to be on the floor and when to rotate. I think with consistent playing time he will get a lot better on D and what can you say about his offense except it is great.
If you think Patterson and Morris were awful..then, Dmo might as well stay on the other side of the court cause he's that bad.
No he's really not. He is already better offensively than PPat and Morris. And while his basic defense might not be as good as Pat or Mooks, he does something that neither of those guys did. DMo boxes out. For every half way decent defensive play that Pat gave us, his refusal to box out created 2nd chance opportunities for the opposing teams. This is not debatable. DMo has only started 2 games and only started playing meaningful minutes a few games prior to that. I love his consistent effort (Pat disappeared for multiple games at a time). DMo will be an 18 to 20 PPG player in my opinion, he has too many great post moves, ball handling skills and a nice 3pt shot to go along with his 7 foot frame. Plus he always runs the court.
Agree completely. Anyway, he's a rookie... rookie with bad defense, big surprise. His D will get better.
No, He improved but it's on a bad Euro team. He did break the single game record with opponent's big men mostly down due to injury. And our second rounder Furkan had a better rebounding rate than him last season.
