Lets look at his history. First year he needed to work on his defense. Second year he was a much better defender and was one of the better defenders on the team despite being jerked around by Westfail. After last year it was rebounding. This year he was much improved in his rebounding. He was getting boards in the paint not just the long ones. He also was driving more and has some nice post ups that weren't taken advantage of.
While he may not have improved to somes expectations he has improved his game. He's still only 24 years old and this should have been his rookie year.
Exactly. Thank you.
JT and Donte, despite horrible coaching have been two guys that have worked on their games and improved in their weaknesses. The only thing missing for Donte to be good is an actual team to be good on. As VF frequently observes: we do not have a team yet. We have a group of talented young players who sometimes pass well to each other.
I don't know what more you want out of the guy. He's never going to be our first, second, or third option. He just needs to be a good defender, good rebounder and good shooter. He's steadily gotten better in each of those areas, and he's still only 24. His shooting will probably continue to improve, mostly because he has been focusing on the other two things first, which is right. As a bonus he can run, is great in transition, and can handle the ball a bit. His bonehead mistakes have also decreased.
His defense is actually pretty good right now. If it gets even better, (along with his shooting) he's a guy that would crack the starting lineup (eventually), and we could thrown on Durant/Kobe/etc. His already a mini Kobe killer.