I really hope he doesn't take Nachbar's already insignifcant # of minutes. He's shown increasing improvement... no reason to totally put him on the bench when he looks pretty good. Actually, one thing that wouldn't shock me: Pike when Yao is on the court and playing well. Mobley when Yao is either on the bench or sucking. Pike compliments Yao better, Mobley's better at making his own shot.
I got a feeling that Moochie is going to be the odd man out when Pike and A. Griffin get healthy. I see moving Mobley to the point when Francis is out, and either Pike or JJ will slide over to SG. Jackson can clearly play the 2 spot. Looks like JVG gave Mooch extended minutes early on to see what he can do...........and has seen enough! Can't shoot, can't defend and is a turnover waiting to happen, o/w he's been outstanding. Anything to get TLTPD (The Little Turnover Prone Dribbler) off the court - I cringe when he is running the show Don't know what happened but he has seriously regressed. Also, hope Mike Wilks gets some PT one of these days. D R
I hope Dallas Rocket and Pippendagimp are right. Moochies minutes need to be drastically reduced, and fast. I'd like to see Mobley, Pike, and Jackson on the court at the same time, sometimes. Thats some serious shooting ability surrounding the big fella.
I saw Norris in at crunch time last night. Scary! Either VG really likes Norris or he is giving him enough exposure to try to increase his trade value. With Norris' A/T% I would say that is not working. Likewise Boki may be getting make or break minutes while Pike and AG are healing. Someone has got to be traded/piggy-backed for draft picks or a two for one swap giving us fewer rotation players and maybe even an upgrade at backup PG. The way Cat is playing right now, he is at an all time high trade value but is also better all round than Pike and AG. What to do?.
Because he isn't good enough to make their roster. Cat, while not a good option at PG, is a better option than Moochie.
Joe Joe, Don't forget that Cat played PG as a rookie when Michael Dickerson was the SG. So he does have some experience and is a far better choice than TLTPD. D R
Mobley will play about 38 minutes a game. That leaves 58 minutes for Jim Jackson, Eric Piatkowski, Bostjan Nachbar, Adrian Griffin, Scott Padgett, and Toray Braggs. Padgett and Braggs will most likely be the benchwarmers who never play. They might play at power forward. So about 14 minutes for each guy. I think Jackson will play 30 minutes a game. It will depend on who we are going to play. Different matches. And whoever is shooting well that night or day will get the most minutes. Whoever is on fire...or heating up... That is why we can be good! We are very deep! They are veterans too!
I'm hoping Van Gundy considers giving Pike some minutes at the one so Mooch's minutes are reduced. He could be a Matt Maloney type point guard that just throws the ball into Yao and spots up for the 3.
pg-Steve 30/Cat 10(With jj and pike on the court)/Mooch 8 sg-cat 25/Steve 5/pike 12/JJ 6 sf-JJ 28/Pike 10/Boki or Griff 10 pf-cato 12/MoT 28/Braggs or padgett 8 c-yao 33/cato 15 Depending on match ups and necessities, boki and padge play when offense is needed,braggs and griff when defense is needed.Seems reasonable to me,there is a consistent 7 man rotation with the rest of the players playing spot minutes based on need.Well,and then there's mooch.....
I remember that JVG said he wouldn't play Mobley 40+ minutes like last season. I'm guessing 34 mins. is probably optimal for Cat (in the regular season--playoffs is another story). Right now, the coach has no choice but play him more because of Pike's injury. I'm pretty sure when he's available, Mobley's PT will decrease, but not dramatically. He'll also take up some of Moochie's time. I don't think we will see much of Moochie and Francis playing together. Here's what I think: PG: Francis 36, Moochie/Wilks 12 SG/SF: Mobley 34, JJ 28, Pike 20, Boki/Griffin 14 PF/C: Yao 30, Cato 30, Taylor 26, Padgett 10 So the core rotation will be Francis, Mobley, JJ, Cato, Yao, Taylor, Pike and either Moochie or Boki. A lot depends on how well they play from game to game, matchups, foul troubles, and injuries. I'm not counting on EG coming back. And I predict Amaechi will be in the IR doghouse when everybody is healthy.
Cat was a pg in a big man orientated offense, just like to point that out to those of us with short term memory
