Wow, haven't seen such a bad quarter of basketball in a while. Collectively they're probably shooting 20% from the floor.
Well after the first half Motiejunas seemed to always understand where his man was on defense, and managed to mostly make the correct defensive rotation when required. His block attempts showed he was over aggressive, and he still fouled even after altering the shot as to make it almost impossible. But that is something that is correctable. On offense what I noticed is that he understands the double team and can make the pass to the open man with ease. I never thought I would utter these words, but is really difficult for me to recognize all those huge white guys on the court. My feed is relatively low quality. I mistake Prokom's bigs for each other all of the time. I am not at this point looking at the stats. What I am looking for is whether Motiejunas is always engaged on the offense and most importantly on the defense. Seems he is to me.
Nope. Thomas Robinson is a beast on the court. Much more aggressive and knows how to finish like a man around the rim. He's a considerably better rebounder and plays with much more heart than PPat. The only thing Pats got is a better jump shot. I promise you Patrick will in no way "Lin" us. At best he's a Udonis Haslem clone but weaker on the boards.
Haven't watched him before, but on my first impression he looks like not mobile enough to be an NBA 3 and not strong enough to be an NBA 4 kind of guy. A player you use in stretches when you need to spread the floor. Hope I'm wrong.
He is mobile, but not 3 mobile. And from what I have seen he has more than adequate strength for the 4. At the draft last year, tipping the scales at 215, no. But at 240 today a few PF's in the league will push him around, but most will not. Just my opinion.
HMMMM I think we all would appreciate your opinion here. What I took away from the second half: Motiejunas is going to be a very good to elite passing big man in the league. He would benefit from about 50K free trows in practice. He had a horrendous over commit on help defense leading to a uncontested 3 point field goal. Otherwise his man pretty much disappeared from the opponents offense. When he was in, the offense frequently ran through him. Not bad.
Prokom wins 79-71. Now up 3-1 in the series. Next game Saturday 2:00 PM ET. I think I caught most of D-Mo's minutes, even though I only caught parts of the first half and missed a couple of possessions in the 4th. I thought he showed some flashes of excellence here and there and had he a decent game overall, but there were a couple of things I didn't like: D-Mo for whatever reason went middle (left) all game and kept throwing up these ugly off-balance fade-away hooks for reasons beyond me. Now granted, he mostly did so in the first half, and I'd have to go back and look again if they were forcing him to go middle on his post-ups (I think a few times they were fronting him and bringing help from the baseline). Still, you don't actually have to go middle all the time. Throw in a counter-move every once in a while. There were plenty of opportunities to do so. He's got to be more patient. Also, there were at least a couple of times were he had a wide open shot and wasn't ready for it. Now, obviously this isn't too worrisome in the big picture, but that just cannot happen. If he does that over here McHale better call a timeout and make sure it won't happen again. Otherwise not too many complaints. Still needs to get stronger and work on some fundamentals, but we knew that already.
I missed the over-commit, but I brought this up before. He too often is out of proper help position. I agree with him going to be a very good to elite passer. His basketball IQ is high and he's got good vision. Also recognizes double-teams well. Probably a bit under-used as a passer in Prokom's offense actually. With the NBA game being more wide open, I think it's fair to assume his assist numbers will go up. Good point about his free-throw shooting. I think I've never even mentioned it. He definitely needs to work on it. He's gotten better as the year went on, but he's still way too inconsistent. That probably goes for his shooting as a whole.
Great. Morey drafted Motie and Parsons both in the same year, and neither of them can shoot consistently. What is the point to being white when you cannot shoot?
If i remember correctly (and that is an iffy thing) twice he got double teamed on the low post. Both times he hit the open man for the three. Two bricks. Probably not happening in the NBA.
Carl thanks for the laugh... JTR and HMMM thanks for the insight... i was asking hmm about defensive positioning and desire to play defense last game... with good post moves, a nicr shot, and a willing and good.passer he could potentially be a great offensive weapon... not glad to hear about his.FT shooting but if parsons can improve so can motie... Im very interested in his defense tho... jtr said he was always in position while hmmm says he.over commits... hopefully he shows.the.determination to become better at that end... I believe he will improve these areas... everyone questioned his work ethic, strength and rebounding... but it seems like hes worked hard to improve his strength by bulking up to 240, as well as his rebounding numbers are really up... I really wannna see him in a rockets jersey... i will be pissed if.hes involved in a trade...
Thanks guy. Watched the whole game (and many others) and he had 1 defensive lapse (if you don't count the stupid foul where he had maneuvered the offense into taking an impossible shot from behind the backboard and still stuck his hand in there). But heck TD doesn't play flawless defense 100% of the time (99%? LOL). He obviously has a work ethic - I could see him taking 50k foul shots in practice before next season. He over committed once on help and got burned for it. He is 21 - nuff said. I think he has answered every question posed in the last draft. So he can take criticism and respond by improving. I don't see sulking as his modis operandi. He is a great prospect. Higher upside by far than anyone on the Rockets roster. We will see.
Ive never felt he could be dirk... dirk trained and trained on his shot while constantly being pished off balance or jumping off balance... But if hes weaker on offense but better on defense than thats what i would want... id rather a player be an 8/10 on offense and an 8/10 on defense rather than a 10/10 on offense and a 6/10 on defense...thats jus my opinion tho... Any word on if hes for sure gonna play on his national team or if hes gonna come to summer league yet? Last i.heard it wasnt decided yet... id rather him be.with the team(maybe im greedy) because i feel like working with our coaching staff focusing on developing would be better than working for his NT...
I actually thought he did well defensively in this game for the most part. Mostly in good help position, forced a turnover on a post-up and played good D on another post-up, though he ultimately bailed the guy out by fouling him. Not sure about one single lapse though. Seemed like he lucked out a couple of times, when he was out of position, but didn't get burned, because the offensive player either hesitated, passed up a shot or ran right into him. Another time he rotated well on the initial rotation, but lost sight of his own man, who then went back-door. (There probably more lapses that I can't remember) Also thought he again had a few poor close-outs, despite being in proper help position and I didn't like him trying to strip the ball on two fast break chase downs against guards, instead of timing it up and going for the block. Did this the game before as well. Anyway, good on D-Mo for looking better on D this game. He needs to do it more consistently and against better competition though before I'll call him good or even above average.
