You guys must have watched a different game than I did. I saw Cat driving and dishing, getting to the hope for layups, shooting off of screens, grabbing an offensive board and passing the ball out, and swinging the ball around the perimeter. I also saw the Wolves pull away when he left the game. Maybe Francis shooting threes 1 on 4 and getting torched by Hudson over and over had something to do with us losing. Nesterovich schooling Yao didn't really help either. Of course there is no way that our PFs going 6 for 21 contributed at all. It must be the guy who had one turnover and shot 7/16 within the flow of the offense. I'm sure if Cat did read these boards he would be used to the scapegoating by now, but you guys are rediculous.
Yeah...I wish Rudy had some kind of experience with getting a big man the ball in good post position.
Mobley's got to go, he's a poor man's Francis........Rockets need a legit 2 with height and consistency (6'6"" with atl least 45% FG) Isnt it a coincidence the rox have played poorly the last 4 years when Mobley got involved more in the rotation???? Any one but Mobley, include Griffin too. How about Piatkowski or Michael Redd? Cuttino, stop fantasizing you'll ever be an all-starr, coz you wont....
Cat had 1 assist in 42 minutes. I don't care if not every pass leads to an assist, if you pass enough you get more than 1. Maybe it was you who was watching a different game.
You guys haven't mentioned Rudy and the fact that he thinks Cuttino is an awesome player. Cuttino isn't going anywhere.
Hahaha, 15-foot finger roll -- it's so funny cuz it's true. Go Cat! Elsewhere, you selfish f*cking moron...
Didn't see, read, or follow the game, but... It sounds bad. I remember someone (Jeff I think) mentioned how some TV analyst mentioned indirectly that Mobley has this mentality like..."I did this n this, now it's time to get mine" Unfortunately, from the pattern of how he's been playing, it seems true. Either he does it during the game, or he has one brilliant game followed by a horrible game. Mobley would look good on the T-Wolves actually. Too bad they don't have anything we need. They'd love to have him. Takes tons of scoring pressure off of KG, can take the clutch shots, and has a cap-friendly contract, which is most important to them. Maybe there's a 3-way somewhere here? Mobley and Moochie to the Wolves, Joe Smith and a Houston 2nd rounder to the Sonics, Brent Barry and a future top 15 protected 1st rounder to Houston? I think the Sonics would have to throw in a small contract, around 1 or 2 Million. Sounds good to me. When the offseason comes, Glen Rice, Eddie Griffin and a (top 15 protected) 1st rounder will look AMAZING to the rebuilding teams, like, oh, Elton Brand and the Clippers for example.
Let me get this out of the way, first: insulting players on the team you support by means of name-calling is not only immature, it also serves no purpose (well, other than showing that you can't think of something intelligent to say). Calling Cat an "SOB" or a "f*cking moron" has no place in an actual discussion about the Rockets or basketball. Insult the player's game, not the player as a person. That being said, I know that Cat is a popular scapegoat, but I don't think he did anything particularly wrong last night. You can point to the assist total, but I don't think that that tells the story alone. From what I saw, Cat gave us a big boost when we couldn't get a lot of things going offensively. He especially did a good job when he drove and took the ball to the hole aggresively. The only problem I really had with Cat yesterday was his defense. Multiple times he ran out on a shooter, only to run past them on a pump fake. Offensively, however, i think he was fine.
Don't blame cat , I think he did a OK job. rockets lost because: 1) less team play; 2) lower field goal percentage because thegood defense; 3) Yao let his opponents score too easily, Yao is soft, Yao will never be a star(>20 ppg) if he can't play more physical and have no explosion force,
I agree. My ad homonym attacks on Mobley (calling him a selfish SOB) is not exactly merit based argument. My bad. I'm just ticked off and venting. Mobley didn't lose the game last night, but I've been ticked at him for months. I just decided to let it out last night. This is just fun - identifying a cause and then expending your energy in furtherance of that cause. Dump Mobley. Now. It would be a nice valentines day present.
Again Cat did nothing wrong yesterday except for that one ISO incident in the 3rd quarter. Otherwise I saw him driving to the lane, kicking out to the open man, taking shots that were within the Rockets gameplan. If you want to blame the ball for not getting into Yao so much, blame Francis for the one doing ISO almost all night. Sure he scored a lot of points, but he didn't do it productively, and left his teammates out for almost the entirety of the game. I think the Rockets worst performance came from Griffin and all those threes he jacks up. He was wide open, and still he couldn't even touch rim with his shots. And the bad thing is, he just kept shooting them all night. As for Yao being soft, I don't think that's all true. He could and should be more agressive but he spent a lot of his time trying to cover Garnett since he was working Griffin and MoT all night. A lot of Garnetts assists came from wrap around passes to Nesterovic since Yao had to come and help Griffin and MoT when they were pushed under the basket so much. Our Power Forward dilemma tonight was the difference. Griffin was taking careless shots, and playing poor defense, and MoT couldn't get the job done. I'm not saying our PF is where we should put all our strength into, but when Griffin and MoT can't offer an offensive production to make up for their lazy defense, then it's much easier to focus their attention on Yao, and that makes it harder for the Rockets to throw into Yao on the post. Had Griffin made his open buckets, and MoT put up some points and atleast matched Garnett in point production, the Rockets would be sitting on a W last night, but neither of our two guys could get anything going offensively or defensively.
<blockquote><hr>Originally posted by Rileydog I agree. My ad homonym attacks on Mobley (calling him a selfish SOB) is not exactly merit based argument. My bad. I'm just ticked off and venting. <hr></blockquote> So you admit, that you did not post intelligently like you asked others to do..."Ok. Let's bash Mobley, but do it intelligently." <blockquote><hr>Mobley didn't lose the game last night, <hr></blockquote> so we can pretty much discard everything here based on you not posted intelligently. Some people like Sane here did not see the game, and you just want to distort it on purpose. <blockquote><hr>it is just for fun.<hr></blockquote> Hey, this is just for fun for me too. I love bashing "moronic" bashers as much as you love bashing "Son of b****" players. So, for more fun, we await your "Mobley hating poetry" because what you wrote here was just unintelligent "not exactly merit based" hating with little creativity worthy versus the "hating poetry" you are working on. And these are all your words, not mine. And people say exaggerating, meritless hatas don't exist. They bash for venting and for fun and don't care at all if they distort the game for those who read cc.net for lack of being able to watch. So basically, without disclaimers from Rileydog like he finally gave us, we can all mark him down as a distorter of truth for his own fun.
Heypartner, I am not going to say that Cat single handedly resulted in our loss BUT I say with confidence that he did not help from preventing against it. Being one of our veterans, some responsibility should be placed on him. All the great things that we've seen over the past few games (cutting, moving the ball, NO ISOs) were all gone and forgotten. I am now questioning whether our GREAT PASSING GAMES were flukes or the norm. As a fan, I would like to believe that it is the norm and when we opt away from it, it is just merely a bad game but it is safe to say now that we DEFINITLEY have more bad passing games vs good ones.
hikanoo, You should probably direct your comments at Rileydog since you both agree that "Mobley didn't lose the game last night." I'll meet you in a different thread to discuss the game. How can we possibly discuss it "intelligently" in this thread with its "not exactly merit based" discussion of the game. I'd rather write "Mobley hating poetry" in here "just for fun" than discuss the game.
i dont understand why people find it so easy to bash Cat instead of actually seeing faults in other <b>very </b> obvious reasons: 1. hell, Yao could not consistently get the ball out of the double team. This was actually the main reason our offense struggled. props to t-wolves for doing their h.w after the butt-whooping. solid double and triple teams, especially by KG. 2. Steve could once again not lob the ball down low to Yao. Matter of fact, he could not find open people all night actually. Very first play of the game, he had cat cutting in for a lob, missed him, and instead gave the ball to Posey at the 3, who wasnt really that open. I think Steve sometimes is too committed to running the play instead of breaking it down sometimes when u have open teamates under the basket. 3. Eddie clanked jumpers from all over the joint!! and no, his defense did not make up for the bad offensive output. oh my god, he was 3-14, and no one bashes him??? 4. Defense kind of broke down, another main reason, as illustrated in the chronicle by feigan. too many open 18 footers. once again, did u see steve just leave his man when he didnt have the ball, and try to play zone, then make a desperate attempt to run at him as he had an open J??? 5. Yao not getting job done defensively. Nesterovic burned him several times one on one. No excuse. These are only a few of the problems. Once again, if u are going to blame someone, blame the leaders of the team, who had the ball for the majority of the game. Cat did not have his bette game on yesterday, but by no means was he to blame totally for that loss people!! Poor cat
HP, I like your posts, but let's be accurate. Admittedly, SOME of my comments were not merit based. However, I haven't conceded anything regarding the other observations and opinions . . . he's a ball hog he thinks of himself first he disrupts the flow of the offense I'm not saying he's the only problem. I'm saying that I think he is the biggest one. I was clear on the stated purpose of my post . . . this is nothing more than a Cuttino rant. I enjoy your contrary viewpoint, and much of it is well argued. You just overextended a little.
I don't know if Mobley can take so much blame for one loss but he will play well one game, looking to pass, taking what the offense gives; and then the next game, he'll revert to jack-em-up Cuttino. In the long run, it might be better for the team if Cat finds a new home. He does have trade value. Of course, I'm probably still high on the (im)possibility of getting Brand, which would take Cat and probably EG to fulfill. The thing about Cat: it's difficult for Les/CD/Rudy to trade him because his contract is reasonable/he's a nice guy/he says the right things about playing with Yao/etc etc. But this is a business, and sooner or later, they have to think that (other) decent scoring guards are not impossible to find. In fact, we already have one. His name is Steve Francis.
These is alot of problem with the Rockets right now. Mobley and Rudy T is the problem. I'm not a fan out Mobley but it doesnt mean i hate him. I just think he's under the wrong system now. He's best suited for up-tempo offense like Kings and Mavs. Sometimes it's so frustrated watching the Rockets that i rather trade all the players and build the team around Yao.
