I mean I agree with him not being able to play SF, but the dude is a PF with an odd skillset, that's all. If he can take his shot blocking/mobility and mold it into being a good interior defender, nobody will even care about his jumper.
Don't waste your time, there is no convincing Holic. His mind is already made up on T. Jones no matter how much his game improves.
There is not a P.F in the league that Jones cant take off the dribble he just doesn't get enough opportunity. I have always been a Jones fan and I will admit that his D. needs to improve but its also lack of defense being stressed.
I have high hopes for TJones! I believe he will have a breakout season in which he improves his defense and offensive effeciency. I expect about the same from DMo!
probably not. the issues were with the whole team. bev being slowed down with an injury. harden not showing up on defense or offense. parsons getting outplayed at the 3. 4th quarter problems/coaching. the biggest one is coaching. LMA went off even with asik on him (defensive schemes). dmo would have fouled out going into halftime. the whole team didnt play well except for howard.
I see a lot of negativity in regards to TJ's defense. I'll just say this - If Carlos Boozer can be adequate in the Bulls defensive scheme going against starting caliber NBA PF's than so can Jones if the the TEAM defense was to improve dramatically. You can't as a coach just rely on either having elite individual defensive players at all 5 positions who you just throw out there, or rely on two of three crazy good individual defenders to make up for everyone else who doesn't want to play defense. You have to practice, game-plan, and execute correctly. I think Jones deserves criticism for being a negative on the defensive end for the most part last year, but he doesn't yet deserve the label of being a throw away defensively for the remainder of his career. He's got the tools athletically. He's got to have better coaching on that end & you've got to take into account his career trajectory up until this point(basically the fact that up until last year, he never had to guard anybody). At Kentucky, Jones played on the perimeter a lot his freshman year, and in his sophomore campaign he played alongside Davis & MKG who could guard 5 guys at the college level pretty much by themselves. Jones' first year he played primarily in the D-League where defensive bad habits are made. Last year was basically his first year of playing organized basketball where he's really been challenged on the defensive end. Point being.... Jones needs to be coached better as well as get better himself on the defensive end. Last year was probably the first time in his career he's really had challenging match-ups on the defensive end. Let's just see what happens in the 2nd full season as an NBA starter before we throw labels on people.
BINGO you win, nailed it. Good post. To me one of the biggest non talked about potential aquisitions this offseason is going to be a Defensive Coach if they do it. Losing Sampson killed the rockets in the playoffs. Im very curious as to who the rockets hire to fill that void.
Tjones plays small on post defense, he squats to try and stop the post players from running him underneath the basket, as a result, he shrinks his size and allows easy over the top jump shots and rebounds. If he's dedicated to getting stronger this will have a tremendous impact on his game. Plus finding a reliable 3 pt shot. Those are 2 things he can work on alone.
I'm a ROF, Rocket's Only Fan... :grin: As many have mentioned, are guys our babies! Some did not even have playoff experience yet. My hope is that the Portland series left a bitter taste in their mouths and that fuels their ambition to play better and adjust where there are weaknesses. Terrence Jones specifically did have flashes of what he can do but overall lacked a defensive polish (as did many on our team). I think there's a huge opportunity for him to really own his role on the team this year, and I look forward to watching him do this. Just like any other player, he will have on and off days, but hopefully this year his on days will far outnumber his off days, especially when the rest of the team does not show up to a game.
Carlos Boozer is bad defender, but still a better defensive player than Jones. The team defense will improve some with Ariza over Parsons, but Rockets still have Jones and Harden...guys who were probably the worst starting defenders at their position last year. The Bulls team defense does not have two defenders that are the worst at their position. Also, the Bulls got Gibson in the game more than the Rockets could get Asik in the game off the bench. For the Rockets TEAM defense to improve dramatically, one of Harden or Jones needs to be out of the starting lineup. Harden is too good offensively to bench. On a side note, the Rockets defense wasn't too bad last year. They had a weakness at PF that was exploited by some teams and definitely in the playoffs. Also, Beverley was playing hurt/sick causing the Rockets to play with three poor defenders in starting lineup in the playoffs until Asik was inserted.
If you had to trade either Jones or Dmo, you choose Jones. The guy is a tweener and has a high value at this moment. Dmo brings more versatility to the team with his size and skill set. He may not be good at defense, but he is pretty good at pnr defense. At least that is something.... Don't get me wrong, Jones is a good player and will most likely get better. The real problem is Jones is his defense and size. To tall and slow for Sf, but to small and weak for a PF.
