Has Rice ended three guard? I originally thought so, but I keep hearing about this Torres guy. If the rockets keep Torres and Jones, Rudy will have the flexibility to run all kinds of crazy lineups. I have loved three guard as long as a shotblocker can anchor the defense. Three guard gives the Rockets better penetrators without losing too much. Francis and Mobley both are aggressive on the boards..Francis a lot more so. I would think Mobley can abuse 85% of the SFs better than they can abuse him. If the rockets ran more this would be even better in the rockets favor. Crispee said it in another thread that being uptempo isn't always getting the fastbreak, but attacking defenses before they are set. Horrible paraphrase. Getting Mobley on a SF in the open court is in his favor always. Francis can work without the ball for a change so he only has to look for the shot or work for the offensive board better. Make other teams adjust....Duncan and Robinson can't block shots if they're still trying to find their man or zone. Cato, Griffin, and KT can all run. Willis is a good rebounder to help. I don't like Rice at the four, if you want a three at the four use Morris. Need big bodies for picks and to box out. After running up and down the court with say Cato griffin Cat wink and Moochie....you could bring in Torres, Rice, KT and Willis along with Francis and still have a potent and mostly rested line running completely different schemes.
Who are u kidding. Cat at three is one of the worst ideas i have ever heard. He is too small, can't defend and wouldn't be able to get his shot off as well as if he were playing two. Sometimes, people seem to overthink when you should really put your best players out on the floor at a position that they are comfortable with. Putting Cat at three is like saying Kevin"Forehead" Willis is better than the Dream.
Well, we can mark down The Jockstrap as someone who never noticed Moochie, Francis and Mobley play together last year, nor noticed how Mobley outplayed Vince Carter and Sprewell in crucial 4th quarters last year. Not to mention stripping a Marion one-on-one face-up for a win only to have Shawn pin the ball to his hip and shovel it in from 10 feet....what slop! Joe Joe...I would have said, yeah, we'll see less 3 guard now, until Mo' went down. Now I think we are back to square one having to rely on it, but this time with a hefty SF who can shoot and play low post. It is certainly a game of mismatches. Remember, Walt played a lot of 4 in April 2000. I do like Rice at the 4, from what he's said about his low post game. I am definitely interested in seeing who we play in the 4th with Moochie, SF, and CM. Your guess is as good as mine.
I've seen Cat play some three. He defends most pretty well against slower players. He can get pushed around by the bigger ones, but most offenses aren't centered around the SF. Cat can be damn annoying when he wants to be for the giants. Have you seen Cat play Quitten? I've only seen it once and I thought Quitten was about to cry. Maybe Quitten has adjusted since then, but I thought it was funny at the time. I haven't seen Cat play long strecthes at the three, but I've never seen a three give him a hard time getting his shot off, unless that three plays some two. And that particular three gives three's a harder time. I see no problem playing Cat against Spree, Quitten, whoever the spurs put there, Fox, Odom, Finley when at the three, Battier, Marion, and many more. Thx, crispee. The reason I don't want Rice at the four is so he can come in after three guard, a la cassel, and be the offense to rest the others.
I would think the 4th quarter lineup would consist of Mooch Steve Cat Rice and probably Willis because of his size, experience, board work, and scoring ability. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Willis play a lot of his minutes late in games. So I guess that would mean a lot of Cato and Collier early on, with Willis in mop-up duty, i.e. like a pitching rotation. Of course, if say Griffin or Thomas is working on a 20-10 night, this changes the lineup and probably keeps Mooch on the bench. OH the choices, the choices... .
Live, I don't think that 4th quarter line up would be a good idea for the simple fact that there isn't a legit shot-blocker to play some get back D. If you put in Cato or possibly EG , then yea, but remember Willis' reach is a liability. My favorite lineup in the fourth in the three guard mode would be: Wink Cat Torres Rice Eddie I like the fact that the guard has plenty of options to pass to, especially with Rice, Francis, and Eddie being able to hit from almost any spot on the floor. I know we haven't seen that much of Torres, but watch him when he doesn't have the ball. He is constantly moving and allowing himself to get open shots, not to mention open lanes and easy lay-ups. He has already turned into one of my favs'. I like the addition of Willis, but I don't think we should start him, unless we are starting EG and/or Morris. We have three decent shot blockers in Cato, EG, and Morris so there isn't any reason not to have at least one in 95% of the time.
