dispite his outrageous contracts and failures as a "franchise player" - as a third option, Howard is better than Cat 2003-04 stats Howard 17 pts 7 rebounds 2 assists Cat 15.8 pts 4.5 rebs 3.2 assists Cat may be a better 3 pts shooter (which is what SGs are suppose to do) - but Howard is a better rebounder (which is what PFs are suppose to do) - at worse - they are equal (which makes the trade imbalanced for the Rockets)
i didn't realize an all-star point guard, top 10 shooting guard, and shot-blocking center was nothing these days. not that we shouldn't do that trade every day of the week and twice on sundays but lets be reasonable. though that may be too much to ask of chad. and mobley is definitely better than howard. juwan put up 17 as the second option, mobley has put up 21 as the second option before and his defense is much better than howard's. i'm pretty sure orlando didn't give us tmac for francis and then decide to hand over an equal player for mobley for kicks. it's more like mobley makes up for the francis/tmac differential and then some so howard helps make up for the cato/lue differential while getting rid of a bad contract for orlando.
Common, you were asking for it: T-Mac Kobe Pierce Vince Carter Iverson Michael Redd Ray Allen Lebron James Those guys are all definitely better than Mobley, and I'm sure two of the following list are: Rip Hamilton (My pick) Jamaal Crawford Manu Ginobili (My pick) Jason Richardson Bonzi Wells Quentin Richardson Derek Anderson Michael Finley Marquis Daniels Jimmy Jackson Remember, we're talking top 10 SG at the moment, so don't tell me who has more potential... Mobley is way past the point of being considered a "potential" player... He's 29 years old, he's not really young anymore.. Eddie Jones, Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell..... There's a large list. Sure, you will pick apart each player, and name a weakness from each of these players and give me your incredibly optimistic view... But in the end, that's what it is, optimistic.... Realistically, Mobley is a top 15 SG. There are 15 teams in the league, so if you're #15, then you are the average SG. Don't forget that Mobley won't have a post presence to play with next year, so expect his FG% and 3pt% to drop slightly. It's not a coincidence that Mobley became a terriffic 3-pt shooter once we centered the offense around a big man.
actually, if you check mobley's stats before YM came to the rockets you will see that his FG% and 3p% were actually higher. Cat was also scoring 6 more points a game without an inside presence. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/cuttino_mobley/index.html?nav=page
