Terrence Jones sidesteps questions about Portland incident, impresses Dwight Howard

Actually...what I have decided is if we are going to run an offense that spreads the floor then the 4-man has to be a hot shooting player. If he is not...then why play him?

And....if the dude at the 4 is a 30% 3-point shooting guy.....I see no reason to play him over a guy like Omer alongside Dwight.

You tell me....if DMo and TJones are 30% shooters out there...then why should they play the 4 over Asik????????

Let's look at it another way.

There's 240 player minutes per game. Of those 248 minutes Harden, Lin, and Bev are going to get 96 of those minutes. Parsons is going to get at least 30 of those minutes. And Dwight is going to get at least 30 of those minutes (probably more). And Asik is going to get the leftover minutes at the 5...whatever those minutes are.

That leaves 66 minutes at the 4 and 3 to be filled. That leaves 66 minutes of player minutes to be taken by player that are going to be playing with Harden, Lin, Beverley, Parsons, Dwight, and Asik. Now....IF...we are going to be smart....and I'm sure we are....THEN...we are going to give Asik approximately 14 of those minutes....and get his minutes up to around 30.

So, that leaves 52 minutes at the 3 and the 4 to play around with Harden, Lin, Beverley, Parsons, Dwight, and Asik. Guess what? Assuming Parsons plays 30 minutes all at the 3, then that means another 16 minutes have to be filled there. We ain't gonna play TJones at the 3. Who is getting those minutes??? It's gotta be either Garcia or Brewer or Williams possibly Covington (not likely at least to start the season). Now perhaps you want to run Casspi here backing up the 3. Good luck with that. I don't think McHale is gonna go for it. Casspi cannot defend 3's. He's a liability defending 3's and that would put too much pressure on Harden and/or Lin playing alongside him. You keep believing Casspi is going to play the 3. All I'll say is good luck with that. It ain't gonna happen.

So...once you figure out that the backup 3 minutes are going to Garcia or some other yet to be determined player (possibly even a player not on the roster yet)....then that leaves you with 36 minutes. 36 minutes to fill at the 4 spot.

Here's your rotation guys:

Harden
Lin
Beverley
Parsons
Garcia
Dwight
Asik


Now...you tell me......what do you need with those guys on the floor? What do you need knowing that one of Dwight/Asik is going to be on the floor at all times?????? What do you need knowing that one of Harden/Lin is going to be on the floor at all times????

What do you need to take those rotation minutes and what do you not need taking up those rotation minutes????

1. Do you need a top-notch defensive player???

Response: If you need a top-notch defensive player, what kind of defensive player do you need? A paint defender? With Dwight and Asik in there? Silly. if you need a defender it's a perimeter defender that you need. Does Terrence Jones or DMO fit the bill there??? NOPE!

2. Do you need a playmaker????

Response: Absolutely not! Lin is the second-best playmaker on this team. At least one of Him and Harden are going to be on the floor all 48 minutes. So, do you really need TJones bringing up the ball and initiating offense at the top?? That's stupid. While TJones does have playmaking POTENTIAL, he's nowhere near as good a playmaker as Jeremy and therefore won't be making plays for this team. They can horse around with all that stuff in training camp and preseason games but the reason they are doing that, the reason they are looking at TJones playing up top is to gauge where his game is at. There's no way we are going to go into the regular season with TJones coming off the bench and being a playmaker at the top. No way.

3. Do you need a rebounder???

Response: Well, if we actually need a rebounder with Dwight and Asik on the floor for 48 minutes there's something wrong. But...let's say we need some more boards....you could make a case for TJones here...but not DMo.

4. Do you need a finisher at the rim??

Response: Enter Greg Smith. He's a much better finisher than either TJones or DMo.

5. What else is there? Do you need a spot-up shooter???

Response: If you need a spot-up shooter..would you prefer to have a guy like Casspi spotting up or do you want TJones and DMo popping 3's????

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This is not about Casspi. I don't know what Casspi is really. Not a huge fan of Casspi. I just know he can shoot the ball a little bit.

This is about who is going to latch down on those final 30-40 minutes available in the rotation and whether or not one of TJones/DMo/Smith makes the most sense there.


Let's revisit Asik for just a second. Do you think that TJones and DMo's offensive production and efficiency is great enough to overcome the defensive and rebounding that we would lose if we replace Asik with one or both of them??? You'll have to answer that for yourself. That's a pretty easy answer in my book. No way no how. Not with those guys firing up bricks from outside. The ONLY CHANCE that TJones and DMo have of offsetting Asik's defensive production is if they are close to 40% from the arc.

So, in the finality of it all...with Harden, Lin, Beverley, Parsons, Garcia, Howard, and Asik...what do you need to complement them for those final 36 rotation minutes? Rebounding? Defense? Playmaking? Somebody posting up in the paint? Or shooting?? Guys...it's obvious. We need TJones or DMo to be able to shoot in the high 30's out at the arc or else we need to find somebody else and give them those minutes.

 

:grin:

Hopefully, Terrence Jones has a fully functioning brain and good basketball IQ, both of which would completely rule out the possibility of TJ being Josh Smith

 

Again, TJ shot 36% last month of last season in D-league. He was a rookie that was injured. So he's still sorta a rookie. Give him some time. He is so versatile, he just needs to learn to play solid man D. It's his starting position to lose.