RealGM

Hey, Pacers fan here.

Dahntay Jones has been a godsend for us this year, his combination of high energy great defense and great attitude have been key for our recent winning streak, he has also shown some offensive skill as well.

I'm just wondering if dahntay has really improved or if denver just underutilized him.

No flamebait i'm just curious as I always wrote him off as just a token starter for chemistry reasons, yet so far he is playing like an MIP

We talked about it a little bit at the end of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=954870&start=30


I still feel the same way too. I've actually heard from a lot of Pacer fans that he has become a black hole on offense, which doesn't really surprise me. He has no handle and never passed the ball while he was here. He uses his athleticism to get to the rim and draw fouls at times, which is about all he can do decently. I respect his heart and work ethic, but he is still a terrible (and also dirty) player.

I thought Dahntay was underrated offensively. He is definitely athletic and can slash, it's a matter of finishing more often and knocking down his shots more often to build his confidence. Here, in Denver when he failed to score, he'd be replaced by J.R. which put a lot of "mistake" pressure on him. If he doesn't knock down his first 3-4 attempts then he'd be yanked by GK.

In Indiana he got a lot more freedom mostly because they don't have a lot other options on perimeter besides Granger himself. His slashing and ocassional perimeter shots help them offensively so he's given a lot more freedom there to trust his offense.

But one thing I think he should change is actually his defense. He plays physical brand of defense, but at the same time, his dirtiness as Smitty pointed out always extra motivated the opposing player to burn him, like Kobe, Wade, and LeBron would always target him because they feel he's playing dirty defense. When those players become extra motivated, doesn't matter how good/ great defense you play on them, they'd get their 40-50 points. So it's double-edged sword for Dahntay.


He should watch how Afflalo plays defense. He's also physical, but Afflalo plays perfectly legal and clean defense, and something opposing players can't get pissed about. It's just great defense. Rarely, you see a great defender without some dirtiness, Bruce Bowen was a great defender but he was also dirty... but Afflalo is becoming a great defender without having to be dirty. That's what I'm sure opposing players can respect. Afflalo also understands defensive angles that Dahntay still doesn't, how to quickly take the offensive players out of their comfort zone without having to bump them, elbow them, knee them, just pure body positioning, hands and legs positioning.

So if you wonder is Afflalo a better defender than Dahntay? Yes, about 10 x more. And 3 x cheaper. And we're the better for it

Statistically he seems to be doing well at the Pacers,

But my god he was terrible here - a black hole on offense AND defense besides 1 playoff series.

I think he was one of those players last year where people saw that he sucked so bad at offense and was in the starting lineup, everyone assumed he was a good defender.

he had a -87 +/- for denver last year....despite playing 95% of his minutes with 4 other starters, and two all-stars, on a team that won 54 games. as far as i'm concerned, you have to suck pretty bad to do that. i mean...those 4 other starters had +/- ratings over +200. how else do you explain it? it was obvious to basically every fan that he held the team back offensively.....and statistically the team was worse defensively when he was on the court (by 2 points per 100 possessions).

he couldn't hit a jumpshot (thus drawing double teams away from melo), he couldn't handle the ball (turnover machine considering the amount of time he actually had the ball), and his defense was overrated (he tried, and was physical and stuff....but didn't have the knack for it like some do).

he may have improved since last year, and may have gotten some confidence from his contract, but i think a good portion of the stats are simply the result of playing a lot of minutes on a mediocre team (no offense...but the pacers aren't about to challenge boston/cleveland/orlando/atlanta...etc in a playoff series). 3 turnovers and 2 assists a game, while not having a reliable perimeter jumpshot isn't acceptable to a good team from a role wing player. unfortunately that never registered with Karl, and he's still having difficulty putting anthony carter on the bench for entire games (he's like the pg version of dahntay jones....only worse, and he'd never have statistical success on any team in the nba, with all the minutes in the world)

He has put up some good games for the Pacers and I hope he continues to do so. I wish him nothing but the best with his new team. I am glad he is with his new team and not on this team anymore though. He did provide Denver with some of the nasty/mean that this team seems to lack at times now, but Afflalo provides this team with the outside shot that Dahntay was reluctant to take.

Dahntay can be a turnover machine at times, and as pointed out he doesn't like to pass much. Maybe he has imporved in these areas, for his and the Pacers sake, I hope he has.

Good luck with him, I hope he continues to impress you.