re: Terrence Jones has agreed to one-year deal with Pelicans

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You are literally talking out your arse dude. His defensive rating got better every year til his injury according to NBA.com. His defensive FG% did the same. Where before the turmoil he was above average in every defensive contesting category. His DRPM was decent and in the upper half of the league in terms of PF's before his injury. Offensively he did get more efficient. Tapping out at 35% 3p%. And nearly 55% fg%. I really just don't know where you are building this narrative that he wasn't improving?

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You don't have the same understanding of him that I do. I have watched literally every game he's played in.

His first year, he was a rookie and spent most of his time in the D-league. He only played in 19 games and averaged 14 minutes in those games. He was good in the d-league and was pretty athletic in the NBA, so there was potential there.

The next season, he was a full-time NBA player. He got the starting job because Houston really had nobody else. He was decent on offense and average on defense. Some people may overrate his defense because he was athletic and was a decent shot-blocker. But overall, he was average and would get exposed by the top PF's. One example is in the playoff series with the Blazers, Aldridge torched him for 46 points and 43 points in the first two games of the series. He went from playing 36 minutes and 26 minutes in the first 2 games to only 13 minutes in game 3 because of his horrible defensive performances.

His 3rd year, like I said, he worked on his 3-point shot over the summer and was expected to increase his percentage, and we were hoping for a break-out year seeing as it was his 3rd year in the league. The only thing he improved was that he was a slightly better 3-point shooter. But he could still only shoot them when he was left wide open. He was decent, but was completely overshadowed by Donatas Motiejunas who had a break-out year. Both him and Motiejunas were rookies on the Rockets at the same time, and there has been huge debate as to which player was better from the moment they were rookies. Well, year 3 left no doubt. D-Mo completely overshadowed Jones that year. D-Mo was reaching the potential people saw in him as a rookie, whereas Jones looked more or less like the same player.

And year 4, he was just awful. The stats really don't do it justice.

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Whats the catch?

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He had a terrible year last year due in large part to injuries that teams must be assuming could have long term effects and make him not a good basketball player permanently.

Yeah, I'd certainly try him out at the league minimum. If he can get back to where he was, he was a decent player. But I think that nerve injury might have caused permanent damage and he might never be the same.

I think it was more along the lines of getting strength and mobility back in the foot, ankle, and knee. That takes awhile. From what I read, I don't think the nerve damage is permanent

If it acts up we aren't on the hook for much. If he's fully healthy he's our 2nd best frontcourt player

No the difference is the optimism of boom is making them players they've never been before. The optimism around here is him being pre-injury form.

I think that is fair. I am slightly excited in the sense that there is maybe a 25% chance we get his 2nd year production on a minimum 1 yr deal. And I don't care if there is a 25% chance(or greater) that we get last year's production because he is on a 1 yr min deal. He will probably be somewhere in between. And that is fine because he is an end of bench guy on a minimum deal.

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Nearly every post I have seen discussing him, however, see him as a guy guaranteed to get minutes and perhaps a guy that closes games

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Keep reading brotha

He was the guy he would need to be once in four years to be the guy you are hoping for.

My whole point is that we can do that with any player if we want to hope for the best. I am hoping Asik is post all star 2014-15. But the objective projection says he will be less than that

It's just confusing to casual observers when we talk about this guy like he could be great - yet, we got him for the min in a cap explosion year. There is far more bad, objectively, than good over those 4 years

You obviously understand that it's much easier to be optimistic about someone who makes $1 million rather than someone making $10 million.

If Terrence Jones comes in and plays 10 minutes and scores 5 points a game and grabs a couple of rebounds, it was a great deal.

If Omer Asik plays 15 minutes and gets 6 pts 6 rebounds, we're going to be a little sour about it. The more money someone is being paid, the higher the bar is for "optimism." It's certainly not a hard concept to grasp and I think you get that.

So I'm a little unsure about why you're trying to link the two.

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We'd all like to believe that he's a solid defender, but the only thing that supports that is a pretty questionable metric

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I actually posted three different stats just because of that reason.

You wouldnt see me accusing Jones of being a good defender, but the numbers do say he was getting better. Topping out as average to slightly above average depending on the metric.

My only point, and it remains my point, was that out of who is available in terms of front court guys for that price, Jones was and is the guy with the lowest risk, highest upside. Which is not to say his upside is anything great, and was more to do with the competition at minimum salary, front court players that are left.