How did Jones look?

nixon7

Benchwarmer
I see from the box score he played 12 minutes, not stats to speak of, but only -1 +/-, I assume in garbage time.

Not terrible statistically considering he has never even practiced with his teammates.

So my question is: Given all this, how did he look?

I just got home and am about to start the DVR to decide for myself. But I welcome any feedback in the interim.

Please do not reply with "this guy is a scrub, no points and only one rebound". He had no shots (and in my book 0-0 is better than 0-6, especially with no practice time, it might actually indicate that he is a smart player, realizing that shooting out of rhythm might be a bad thing to do team-wise) and it might or might not matter that he got only one rebound, depending on the situations. I am more interested in:

- did he defend on ball?
- did he make some defensive rotations? (not was he perfect, how could he be with not even one practice?)
- did he seem totally lost? or did he have some basic BB IQ?
- did he intimidate any shots?
- did he box out? resulting in others on the Knicks getting rebounds?
- did he go after any offensive rebounds? resulting in another Knick getting one?
- did he run back on defense?
- did he show any offensive skills at all? pick and roll? any good passes? any ball skills for a big?

In a few hours I will have formed my own opinion on all this.

Just trying to figure out what can be figured out before Sunday's game.
 
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nixon7

Benchwarmer
Double argghh. DVR F*ed up. So now I will watch the Knicks in 60 at midnight, hoping they do not cut out the parts with Jones on the floor. I will re-record from 1-4 AM and try to skip to the good (Jones) parts in the AM. But anyone responding to this thread in the interim gets bonus brownie points.
 

skisloper

Starter
Double argghh. DVR F*ed up. So now I will watch the Knicks in 60 at midnight, hoping they do not cut out the parts with Jones on the floor. I will re-record from 1-4 AM and try to skip to the good (Jones) parts in the AM. But anyone responding to this thread in the interim gets bonus brownie points.


He looked loss, awkward and nervous......hes a tall lengthy guy.........if we clinch sunday he will get alot of floor time with charlette and atlanta
 

tiger0330

Legend
He played in China and averaged 15ppg and 10 rebounds. Isola said he could avg 10ppg and 6rb if he played over there, don't expect KMart II.

I was reading that Yi Jianlin the former NJ Net won the MVP over there and is looking to come back to the NBA, maybe we should have got him instead.
 

bigapple

Starter
too less time comitted 2 offensive fouls about 2 tos still didnt showed to much for luck he is not fat.
 

nixon7

Benchwarmer
Finally got a look at the tape (DVR). Here is what I saw.

To be expected: Nervous, out of synch, winded.

Positives:
- active on the floor, moved well
- communicated well, spacing on offense and defense good
- set picks and rolled smoothly
- boxed out on the boards
- help defense and rotations good
- bothered shots without committing stupid fouls
- made a nice cut to the rim, turnover was Carmelo's fault (late with the pass)
- made a few nice passes
- got triple teamed and fouled when he posted up

Negatives:
- gave up the baseline twice on-ball defense
- seemed to lack toughness and aggression
- made one really bad pass out of a postup double team

Hard to tell yet:
- unable to assess can he finish offensively
- unable to assess does he have a mid-range jump shot
- unable to assess can he rebound in traffic
- unable to assess his shot blocking ability

Overall a solid serviceable but unspectacular contribution for someone who has not played in at least a month, and never practiced with the team.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Finally got a look at the tape (DVR). Here is what I saw.

To be expected: Nervous, out of synch, winded.

Positives:
- active on the floor, moved well
- communicated well, spacing on offense and defense good
- set picks and rolled smoothly
- boxed out on the boards
- help defense and rotations good
- bothered shots without committing stupid fouls
- made a nice cut to the rim, turnover was Carmelo's fault (late with the pass)
- made a few nice passes
- got triple teamed and fouled when he posted up

Negatives:
- gave up the baseline twice on-ball defense
- seemed to lack toughness and aggression
- made one really bad pass out of a postup double team

Hard to tell yet:
- unable to assess can he finish offensively
- unable to assess does he have a mid-range jump shot
- unable to assess can he rebound in traffic
- unable to assess his shot blocking ability

Overall a solid serviceable but unspectacular contribution for someone who has not played in at least a month, and never practiced with the team.
Nice scouting report. Earl Barron was better so this guy has as much of a future with the Knicks as him. Haven't seen enough of him so you don't know about his post game, whether he can knock down the short jumper etc. What I do see is a guy with a huge wing span but not strong enough to establish position down low. You would expect he could show something as in your positives because he played in the NBA and was playing in China but I didn't see enough effort or motor for myself.
 

erivera

Benchwarmer
expect nothing from jones and be happy with whatever you get. he's not getting big minutes in the playoffs. he'll probably be inactive if the knicks get their big men back.
 

DrB

Benchwarmer
I see from the box score he played 12 minutes, not stats to speak of, but only -1 +/-, I assume in garbage time.

Not terrible statistically considering he has never even practiced with his teammates.

So my question is: Given all this, how did he look?

I just got home and am about to start the DVR to decide for myself. But I welcome any feedback in the interim.

Please do not reply with "this guy is a scrub, no points and only one rebound". He had no shots (and in my book 0-0 is better than 0-6, especially with no practice time, it might actually indicate that he is a smart player, realizing that shooting out of rhythm might be a bad thing to do team-wise) and it might or might not matter that he got only one rebound, depending on the situations. I am more interested in:

- did he defend on ball?
- did he make some defensive rotations? (not was he perfect, how could he be with not even one practice?)
- did he seem totally lost? or did he have some basic BB IQ?
- did he intimidate any shots?
- did he box out? resulting in others on the Knicks getting rebounds?
- did he go after any offensive rebounds? resulting in another Knick getting one?
- did he run back on defense?
- did he show any offensive skills at all? pick and roll? any good passes? any ball skills for a big?

In a few hours I will have formed my own opinion on all this.

Just trying to figure out what can be figured out before Sunday's game.

Jones was just waived....gone after 3 days. This means Wallace, K Mart and Tyson should be back.
 

tiger0330

Legend
The Knicks might not use that roster spot. We can only play 13 guys in the playoffs. If you include Sheed that would be 13. 14 if Stat comes back for the 2nd round and we would have to inactivate Camby, Sheed or White to make room for him.

If we do maybe we pick up Singleton, the Chinese playoffs are over so I'm not sure what the hangup was in signing him. I would love to get Yi Jianlin, he wants to come back to the NBA and he won the MVP in the CBA this year.
 
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finestrg

Rotation player
Peculiar signing all around. Really made no sense to me on a few fronts.

#1 - I didn't think he was the best big available by A LONG SHOT. I can understand the James Singleton attraction (that dude could've helped us) but after he didn't work out, there were plenty of much better options available over Solomon Jones. I don't see how he was our plan B. I talked about some of these guys over on the "options for next year" thread:

Here's the 3 top bigs we should've pursued:

• Marcus Cousin, 7' 255, Japan - Infinitely more skilled than S Jones, not even close. Let's be frank here -- Jones had no discernible NBA skills whatsoever. He's a big body, a space-eater and that's about it. Cousin, on the other hand, is probably the best keep secret out there in terms of potential NBA big men. The dude has one of the prettiest jumpers you'll ever see from a big man. Straight up water out to about 20' or so. Talking Channing Frye-good, at that size. But unlike Frye, Cousin can do more than just shoot -- he's physical, an underrated athlete, he can rebound (esp. on the offensive boards from what I've always seen), and he can post up well. May not have Frye's 3-pt range but the rest of the package is just overall tougher/better by comparison. He even knocks down his FTs at a good clip. I don't remember him in college -- I only started following him a couple of years back when I saw him play in the D-League for the Austin Toros (DL all-star that year). Love his game -- can't say enough. He'd be a GREAT reserve big man for us or for any NBA team for that matter. Could probably start for more than half the teams out there in the NBA -- I think he's that good. Now if we bypassed him because he was still playing in Japan and Japan refuses to release players from their contract obligations like China etc., then I understand (looks like that's why we didn't land Singleton). But if that's not the case and we never even looked into signing him or worse--don't know who he is--then to me, esp. with our decimated frontcourt, that's unacceptable.

• JaJuan Johnson - 6'10" 230, D-League - underperformed in the DL this year after being the #1 overall DL draft pick but just on talent alone, there's no comparison between this kid and a journeyman like Solomon Jones. This kid would've been much more than a warm body to throw out there -- there's a ton of skill here. Inside/outside offense ability is very high and he can rebound and block shots, much better than Solomon Jones anyway. I thought he looked good in Boston and he was very good in college at Purdue. He was a 1st round draft pick for a reason and I think it's only a matter of time before he's back in the NBA somewhere. 6'10" athletc with those skills?? ****, I would love it to be here with us. We could use him. He'd be a tremendous young frontcourt player to move forward with. And he could help us right now, even being thrown right into the mix if necessary.

• Jordan Williams - 6'10" 260, free agent - big/wide body, strong, surprisingly crafty in the post and a GREAT rebounder. Again, no comparison between this dude and a stiff like Solomon Jones imo.

------------------------------

How 'bout some of these guys over Solomon Jones too:

• Hilton Armstrong, D-League - he's been productive down there recently.

• Jeremy Tyler, D-League - he couldn't have given us what Solomon Jones did? Never mind getting a chance to see & evaluate the potential this big kid might actually have up close.

• Samardo Samuels, D-League - did he play for anyone this year? The Cavs maybe? If he did, he wouldn't have been eligible for the playoffs I think. If not, he would've been a nice option.

• Jarvis Varnado, D-League - think he was up with Miami for awhile which may have made him ineligible for the playoffs. Tremendous rebounder/shot-blocker though.

• Hassan Whiteside, D-League - slow to come along but there's a ton of potential here. And say we brought him in right now and he never properly developed -- I'd still rather have Hassan Whiteside running around out there eating up space over Solomon Jones.

• Luke Harangody, D-League - always loved/respected his hustle. Yeah he's slightly unorthodox and a little on the small side for a PF, but this dude's a lot more skilled than he's given credit for. He was out knocking down 3s in the DL this year.

• Sean Williams, D-League

• Craig Brackins - back from Europe, currently in the D-league - 6'10" 230 hybrid 3/4 with a real nice inside/outside offensive game. Anyone remember this dude at Iowa State? Nice player with potential.

• Even a raw guy like Mickell Gladness (D-league) for his length & shot-blocking prowess would've been nice. This kid once led the nation in blocks at Alabama and was averaging 2.3 blocks/game in limited mins. in the DL.

Whole point here is, I'd take any of these guys over Solomon Jones. I mean in the draft, unless you're targeting some specific need or player you fell in love with, isn't the general rule of thumb to take the best player available? So why didn't Glen use this strategy when trying to get a backup big man late in the year here?? That's what I don't get.

------------------------------

And #2 -

Wasn't the whole idea of picking up Solomon Jones for insurance? We bring this guy in, he plays a couple of games and then we let him go? Why? Because we thought Sheed was ready? Is that it? Well as we saw last night, Sheed's not ready, and if it's serious and anything more than normal soreness, we're right back in the same position we were in a couple of games ago, pre Jones. Now all of a sudden, we're looking at bringing Chandler and/or Martin back a game earlier than we may have wanted to in Atlanta, no? Ahh, who knows -- maybe we were set to bring back Chandler/Martin for the last game in Atlanta anyway. But what if, God forbid, either one of those guys break down again in the ATL game or sometime in the Boston series or thereafter, then what? At least Woody could've thrown Jones out there for his size and to eat up space. Now we don't have that. Weird...I understand having 12 guys ready to play & 3 guys inactive for any given game, but to me, we should definitely have a full 15-man squad ready to go heading into the playoffs just in case. These guys have fought too hard to have our playoff run derailed because we chose to cancel the insurance we just added... Makes no sense. Zero. You go out and get insurance, you keep it -- you don't get it and then cancel it a couple of days later w/o having a better replacement option ready to go. If we get another big within the next couple of days then half of this rant is moot -- if not and we enter the playoffs with a 14-man roster, esp. considering how frail this older frontcourt has been all season -- BIG MISTAKE. HUGE.
 
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