Take into account a few factors however. D-Mo was out with an infection, lost 10 lbs, still recovering. Also, he was forced to play out of position at center. T-Jones got to thrive at his natural position. That is not to downplay T-Jones performance tonight, he was absolutely terrific. But D-Mo got the short end of the stick tonight.
That's the second time you said this but it's just not true. We have all of these guys' collegiate careers plus all of Motiejunas' Euroleague career plus summer league. Based on all of that, Motiejunas is still the best young big man we have. Screw one preseason game. Maybe if this trend continues all throughout the preseason I'll entertain that Jones should be the starter.
I agree with this. I'm not saying D-Mo is going to suck or anything, but as of right now Jones looks like the better player is all. Nothing was wrong with Jones college career and he was a high recruit. He also played on a team that was loaded in college so he couldn't just stack up numbers. It's not like he's some guy who wasn't supposed to go to the Lottery. I'm not sure about that. We'll see but with how Jones has played I don't see how anyone can say definitely that D-Mo is better than him. Was Morris our best young wingman over Parsons? One looked to have higher upside while the other just went out onto the court and produced and immediately looked like he belonged in the NBA.
That's not the point. Of course Jones was a good prospect in college. All of these guys were good prospects. The point is that Motiejunas was the better prospect. He showed more skills, more size, and better production adjusted for level of competition. One preseason game does not even come close to changing that. Hell, around the time of summer league half of CF thought Motiejunas would've been a top 5-6 caliber prospect in this draft class, and the other half thought a top 10. Suddenly after one game Motiejunas is a back end of the first rounder again and Jones is a monster. Give me a break.
So...we should have started Morris over Parsons then? Morris was the better prospect. When it came to game time he didn't show it though. Okay, that's nice that he was the better prospect. When they both start playing NBA games though you start going by whose actually the better player and not prospect. Whose saying any of that? You are the one that makes it seem like any one is crazy for suggesting that Jones might be the better player when all he has ever done since being drafted by the Rockets is impress.
We have evidence that Parsons became a better prospect than Morris. We got to see a whole preseason of both of them and Parsons proved himself to be the better player. We don't have such evidence about Jones versus Motiejunas. It's just one game. One game doesn't prove anything.
Which is what I said. But you popped in here and immediately said why would anyone choose Jones over Motiejunas with the same amount of evidence...so I judged both players on the same amount of evidence.
I've never been that high on Pat to be truthful. I've always thought he was soft. I feel like he's just a placeholder until either Motie, White, or Jones beat him out for the job. I want to see him working the post, track down lose balls, tip ins, and boxing out his man. Instead Terrence is doing all of those things right now.
Depends if Pat continues to suck. He's reaching near early Chuck Hayes level of ineptitude on offense.
An under-looked aspect of Jones' game is he efficiently dunks THROUGH people in traffic. When he's near the basket, he's looking to push the ball through the rim 2 handed even with no-steps like its a requirement It seems simple, but there's not a whole lot of players with the strength and reach to do it consistently. D-Mo, Royce, Patterson don't do it that often. Thats a good mark of a "power" forward (Of course there's the 1 dimensional Stromile Swift types, or the Greg Smith types who can pound it in. But its still a nice attribute)
Oddly the knock against TJones is he didnt always hustle, or he's prone to sulk and disappear for long stretches. Though he's been the most consistent assertive performer on the Rockets the whole offseason. It was the same knock on Parson's coming in even, that the didnt always grind it out seriously but now he's a every day focused scrappy player, so maybe it'll hold up for Jones too But its Patterson that needs to stick his nose in there even a little bit more.
Remember that Jones was considered a lottery pick in 2011, went from top 20, to top 5 but in the end 5-10 range was the general consensus. In 2012 he got outshone by Davis and in his own words had to sacrifice for the team. It seems that scouts as well as fans have short memories and don't remember how good Jones was in 2011. Yes, they questioned his motor then as they did this year but still, it's amazing he slid to the 18th pick. I am glad we picked him up, but it's very premature to consider him already better than Patterson and a certified starter.
I say start Patterson. Let Jones have success playing against reserves first. No reason to rush him into a starting job.
Patterson will start the season as he is the best right now based on his experience edge. I think Jones has the leg up on DMo for minutes early in the year based on being more ready defensively and strength wise. I think DMo will get stronger and make it interesting. White is a wild card. I hate turnovers. His turnovers scare me more than his anxiety issue. The Rockets have an odd assortment of PFs. I really don't know who will come out on top at end of season.
The poll really should have asked Pat/Jones/White/D-Mo? The problem is that we have four decent back up PF's and no clear NBA quality PF starter. Maybe one or more of these four guys will become a solid starter at the PF this year but no one is there yet. In my view all four have potential with Jones & D-Mo at the top of the list. Since one or more of our PF"s can go to the D-League, having a glut at PF might be OK except that we have also the issue of no back-up 5. It looks like D-Mo is going to be expected to play out of position at the 5 and with some creativity by McHale and some weight and strength acquisition by D-Mo, that may work. Having Pat play back up center last year was a disaster. Ideally, we pick up a decent back-up center through trade or draft ASAP and get something of value in trade for one or two of our PF's whoever doesn't pan out in our developing system.
