I was thinking that maybe T Jones confidence would be built back up by going down to the Vipers and play some games. To me he seems a little bit more timid recently. I don't think its the rookie wall. Dmo has look better lately playing along side of Howard and Asik.
I don't think it's confidence, he still let's his inner Josh Smith come out from time to time where he thinks he's a good shooter and every once in a while he thinks it's a good idea for him to drive with the ball. He's got confidence, I think he's just not always the smartest player and his defense has just disappeared.
First half of the season, when Asik was "injured", DMo was backup center in practice against DH, it was hard when he back to 4 spot we see results, just remember last season when he fall after each push, and now he even try pushing around with ZBo, or Blake be pation, I dont know how about you folks but here is significance progress, and we all now when talented players gets playing time good things happening.
Jones hasn't been himself lately. Its like the emergence of DMo kind of scared him. He has been passing more than shooting. Needs to work on his mid range jumper a lot, that should give him more space to keep the ball in his hands.
whoever got consistent D and 3PFG and RB% will get the roll. DMO indeed have the better potential as he is a legit 7 footer with size and good movement, but not as athletic so he is good for positional defense but not good at grabbing ORB or dish out BLK. TJones is undersized and better athletic vertically so he got good ORB% and BLK but lack the size for DRB% and seems slower on lateral movement on D, this maybe the reason he lost defense rotations from time to time. I like positional defense for it's more consistent and less risky so I take DMO over TJones, latter guy is better fit for a energy guy off the bench, but it's still doubtful that if DMO has the stamina to sustain his high level of play over starter minutes. let's just see it through.
and one reason I prefer DMO more than TJones ever is DMO never impersonate PG after grabbing a DRB although it has been a plague in the team even Dwright start playing it. he has the mind to play correct BBALL.
Jone's deficiencies are showing up on both sides of the ball. Since D-Mo does not get post up opportunities Jones should be outscoring D-Mo. Somehow he is not. The defensive side is much more worrisome. In the NBA if a defender loses track of his main cover and lets him cut freely to the basket, that player will score at a very efficient rate. Jones somehow has lost focus on defense. His cover seems to break free for at the rim shots frequently, especially at the start of games. I honestly have no idea what is going on. While Jones defense has never been even average for a non-prolific scoring PF, it has degraded rapidly since the new year.
They are not changing it after 60 games into the season. He had that chance long ago. Unless there is a veteran like Millsap things won't change much.
Jones is currently blowing his chance, if he doesn't step up, they'll certainly take away the starter role from him. I think he has only a handful of starts left if DMo keeps outplaying him like he has been.
Let's not forget DMO has played over in Europe a lot! He won Eurocup with Trevizo Benetton and Polsih League with Asseco Prokom (euroleague team) while being a leader there, he is also a future superstar on Lithuania National team which is one of the best in the world and if not the most passionate country when it comes to basketball. He is indeed a warrior and a champion. Probably most of you don't even know that on Lithuanian basketball forums everyone is already saying that he is better than Jonas Valanciunas, a guy who is supposed to be future all-star for Raptors. I don't understand who can even hate on the guy? When the practice starts 11 o'clock for rockets at 9 pm he is already in the gym lifting weights, the guy comes to training grounds two hours earlier almost every day! Most of us said he can't defend, it took him like 20 games with consistent minutes to prove everyone wrong and we all know what he can do on offense, don't forget the passing and good screens that he sets that usually gives our guards a free 3-pt shot. What I like the most, that he proved he can be efficient on the court without shooting the ball so often while letting superstars doing scoring work for Harden/Howard/Parsons and that's how it supposed to be, TJones souldn't take 5 shots per quarter, other, more experienced guys has to do it and as I see, the only thing why TJones is still starting is the DMO's foul trouble, if he gets 2 early fouls in 1st quarter we are *****ed so I don't see this happening, until he gets some respect from the refs and he's getting there, he is arguing every single foul he gets with the refs trying to point out that they are wrong in a nice way, he also gets pumped up after every single shot made, every steal made by him or team-mate and it just sucks that he has to play more with Lin than with Beverley, because those two has such a high motor and such passion for game that you can adore and whoever says euro basketball sucks, well they both played in Europe and both of them play defense and both of them play smart and both of them will fight for every single ball. my suggestion would be start giving DMO more of TJones minutes wheter it's from bench or start and maybe look for a PF in Europe, even go for my fabourite player Linas Kleiza, the guy had numerous injuries while playing for Toronto, but now he is tearing in Euroleague playing for probably the best coach in Europe Z.Obradovic. he plays for Fenerbache Ulker and he can play both at PF and SF, he can shoot 3's and he has a big body and he wouldn't cost much 2-3mln a year? Well that's my 2 cents and it doesn't have to be Kleiza, but if Morey would give it a close look at Europe he could find another big to play at PF position , Casspi and Garcia ar not the answers, we don't need a superstar PF, because Howard's nr would drop, we need a superstar PG and solid PF.
Dmo fumbles away too many passes and can't dunk to save his life. At his size and agility he should be able to alley-oop dunk it. At the NBA level the best ballers from around the world are put in their place.
He can dunk on a fast break just fine, but he can't dunk on C's that's true, but we're not talking about entertaining, we're talking about scoring points and he can do that just fine in other ways, besides dunks can be blocked too. You just pointed out his one weakness , a weakness that was obvious even when we drafted him, so we shouldn't even go there, he definitely won't be Blake Griffin, but by adding more weight and muscle he will be able to finish those simple alley-oops just fine. You don't see Dirk dunking a lot too, do you?
Thank you so much for your insightful knowledge from a Lithuanian standpoint. I cannot agree more. I have followed D-Mo since the moment the Rockets drafted him. He has huge upside in the NBA, especially at the center position, IMHO. Of course that brings him into direct conflict with Valaciunus on the National team. I feel sure it will be worked out, especially if D-Mo can obtain consistency from beyond the arc. A bright future for the Rockets and the Lithuanian National team I hope. Best to you.
Well technically we never drafted him we traded for him but never the less I agree with JTR, nice knowledge
D-Mo has great hands. And his lift is certainly suspect after playing 20 minutes the night before and being 8 minutes into the back end of a back to back. Most people call that conditioning.
I like DMo cuz he's not afraid of the thunder and clips like jones when we're down 0-10 he entered the game and bring energy for the rockets and we start scoring again
I do love it when people are knowledgeable, courteous and nice. Like you and the person from Lithuania. However when people are reaching around their backside for their dick to ... I may go off. In a nice way, at least initially.
Best memory from Dmo's draft day for me was the press Confrence of morey abstract after the draft, he says "we still have one minor move still to make but it's nothing to get excited over". I remember him using those exact words, looking back on it, Just shows how much of a GENIOUS morey is. I also take great pleasure in seeing DMo flourish on the defensive end after seeing you say this 3 months ago when everyone doubted your good call by you back then. I have always shared your viewpoint on tjones though throughout his tenure this season.
Thank you sir. People who understand the game in any depth are rare here. You certainly are one of those.
Thanks and that's another thing, he can play multiple positions and that's very rare and valuable, I think, especially in NBA which became more or less PG/G league and to find mobile big mens are hard, that's why coaches more and more look at Europe to bring big men over to the league. The coach trust is very important too and from what I've seen lately he gets it more and more from McHale. PPL, even commentators said DMO shouldn't shoot 3's, but he kept on doing it, even if it's 1 or 2 per night, that shows confidence in yourself and from coaches that didn't told him to stop it, well at least yet and now ppl stopped saying he is horrible, everyone says he needs to improve it. When it comes to LT National team, Kleiza said he won't play in the next tourney as he had a serious knee injury and he might want to comeback to NBA so he will skip this summer ( most likely), many older guys like brothers Lavrinovic are retiring too, Songaila as well, so that leaves PF/C positions open for DMO and JV. I just hope the NBA coaches won't stop them from spending their summers with the National teams, because DMO was a huge part of us winning those silver medals in Eurocup last summer and he could learn a lot from a great coach like Kazlauskas, very experienced and best coach Lithuania has, also Sabonis is always at training camps training together with the team so that gives young guys, especially bigs a lot of motivation going forward. Thanks again for the nice reply, and you're right pplz shouldn't bash their own players or call them crap, never.
