Are Cat and Franchise playin too many min?

Too many mins.

We need to whoop a team's ass to give them the rest they need.

I'd like to see us beat Philly by 20 points, while Francis and Mobley play 30 a piece.

 

It would be nice if we could beat the hell out of the crappy teams. I dont like Francis and Mobes playing that much either, but we dont really have a choice. Once Griff, Morris and Oscar get comfortable (and I dont know when that will happen) Francis and Mobleys minutes should go down. Not that those three play the 1 and 2, but Mobes does switch over to 3 and Steve switches over to 2. When those three get comfortable we can maybe run Moochie, Oscar and Griff or Tmo out for a while. Finley played around 40 min a game last season and he didnt seem to tire out so I wouldnt worry too much.

 

Yes.

Cat = 45.60 mpg
Steve = 44.00 mpg

I know they're still young and spry, but enough's enough already.

I think 40.00 mpg is the limit I'd want my stars playing, on average. It's like having your star pitcher on a pitch count. You want those guys to have some left in the tank for the playoffs.

I still don't think we'll make the playoffs, but ideally speaking they are playing too many minutes, IMO.

 

Those two overtime games and the really close games against Suns and Minny have inflated those numbers. I think we can all agree that they are not going to be averaging 45 min each the whole year.

 

If they keep playing these kind of minutes, they will run out of gas after the AS break. I agree that we need some blowouts so we can see some Tierre Brown and Terence Morris.

 

I don't think we necessarily need blow-outs (perhaps at this early stage of the season, yes) - we just need for Torres and Morris to see a little more court time. Plenty of teams rest their stars in big games for a few minutes on the bench, and I think that's what we're going to need to start doing with Francis and Mobley; I gues it's important to win games early on in the season and get off to a good start, but it'd be nice seeing Francis and Mobley playing 5 minutes LESS per game - take 'em out in the second quarter and over the 3rd/4th or something.

I hope it's just a matter of Rudy letting Oscar and Terence adjust to life in the NBA before playing them consistently.

 

My concern is that with so few people spread thin, that Cat and Franchise will have to play hurt a lot. My concern was greater last year when we had only four guards playing the the majority of the minutes at three positions. At least this year we have more guards and a lot of small forwards.

As long as we continue to play small ball, our guards will get a lot of minutes. My hope is that Oscar Torres comes through and that Tierre Brown gets some minutes as well.

I wish Cat and Franchise played fewer minutes as well, and I also don't think 45 min/game is a trend. IMHO 36 minutes per game would be more appropriate if we want to keep our stars healthy and ready for the playoffs.

For what it is worth, they are 1-2 in the NBA as far as minutes per game. The person at #47 in the NBA (Stackhouse) put on 36 minutes. It was interesting to note the number of guards that placed highly in the NBA as far as minutes per game.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/default_regular_season_leaders/LeagueLeadersMPGQuery.html

 

Yes, but unless we find more production from an unexpected source, they're going to be playing lots of minutes all year.

Let's face it, even if Willis and Thomas succeed in filling our most optimistic expectations, we're not going to do more than tread water with our front court.

What sort of production are we going to get? 12 and 8 from Thomas and 10 and 10 from Willis? I'd be delighted if they contribute that much.

Thomas is a great passer. He's got good moves and good footwork but has trouble finishing. Willis, in many ways, is the opposite. He's got an ugly physical game that's often effective. And he never passes. Not a bad combo, but pedestrian.

We don't have the sort of "super sub" that Mobley provided us with a couple of years ago and at the beginning of last. Walt Williams could be instant offense... but he hasn't been able to do that yet. Griffin could grow into the role as well... but he's to raw currently. Oscar Torres... well, I can hope, but haven't seen him enough to say much.

So until we find someone to supply some fire power off the bench, Francis and Mobley might be top 10 in minutes.

 

Why can't Moochie spell Francis and Torres spell mobley? Why does Rudy have to play francis at the 2? I don't think they both should be out at the same time, but Moochie can come in to get francis a rest, then when francis returns oscar can spell Mobley. I really only want them to play 38-40 max.

 

Because Francis can put it in the hole!!

But that doesn't stop Moochie playing 20 minutes a night and Francis/ Mobley playing 38 a night each (which would mean Francis spends 10 minutes at the 2)

I think Rudy likes the smaller lineup with the guards out there to force some TO's and get some penetrating buckets - go with what works eh?

 

At this point in their careers, they can play as much as they want and not lose any gas. Look at Finley in Dallas, has been playing 40+ minutes for years.

When they get up in age to 29,30,31.. thats when you worry about minutes. This guys are about 20 years younger than Dream, so we definitely dont have to be as worried about getting them rest. If they played less than 35 minutes, they would probably just get pissed off. Absolutley no reason to play them less.

 

It's really just way too early in the season to be worried about this. We are only five games into the season and every game has been close. So, naturally, you are going to have your two best players in for long periods. Especially when the offense runs through them. Once the entire team gets a little more comfortable, the minutes should definitely go down. But there is no reason to start worrying about running out of gas after five games.

 

These minutes will accumulate over the course of their careers. Rudy is not doing a good job of protecting them, IMO. He's wearing them out for short-term success. More minutes now = shorter career.

Also, it doesn't have anything to do with Torres and Morris not playing. Those two don't have to play to reduce Francis and Mobleys' minutes. It's the small ball that's doing it. Last night, there were 13 minutes where neither Willis nor Cato were on the floor. Mobley getting minutes at the 3 is why he played 47 minutes. Why so much small ball just to beat a McDyess-less Nuggets team at home? We should be making them play our game, not reacting to what they do. Cato was playing well in the second half, yet he's pulled 5 minutes in. Why? Griffin doesn't play at all. Why? Simply having Griffin on the floor means Walt or Rice isn't playing the 4-spot, which means Mobley doesn't have to play the 3-spot, which means he can rest. The team ran out of gas at the end of the year last year. At this rate, it will happen again.

 

Last year we lost every game by a few points. This year we are winning by a few points. Unfortunately, we need those guys in the game or we will end up with the same record as last year. Another year like that could devastate this team. They need some success. Winning cures all the pain.

 

They are just getting a lot of minutes because all of the games have been real close. The rockets will eventually start blowing out a few teams and with the tough stretch coming up I'm sure the rockets will get blown out a few times. At the end of the year I expect them both to average about 39 minutes.

 

I did some counting of minutes. Classifying our players by their so-called 'ideal position', I figured what percentage of time each position is on the court. Here is my classification:

Guards: Francis, Mobley, Norris, Torres
Forwards: Rice, Williams, Morris, Thomas, Griffin
Centers: Cato, Willis

Through the first 5 games of the season, following are the percentage of the minutes their position should have played:

Guards: 110.6%
Forwards: 95.2%
Centers: 88.4%

Or, as a percentage of the total:

Guards: 44.2% in 2 positions
Forwards: 38.1% in 2 positions
Centers: 17.7% in 1 position

This tendency toward small-ball was especially apparent in the game against Denver. By the first measure:

Guards: 137.5%
Forwards:76.0%
Centers: 72.9%

Are our front-court guys sucking so bad? Thomas shot 7 for 11 but only played 28 minutes. Cato got 6 boards in 14 minutes (that's 20.6 per 48 minutes) and shot 3-4. Willis pulled down 11 rebounds and was only allowed on the court for 21 minutes. And this was a game that saw some big Rockets leads too. I didn't get a chance to see this game. Maybe their defense was atrocious. Maybe they all got socked in the eye, not just Walt Williams.

 

I don't think RT is using his bench wisely. What is the use of a deep bench when you don't use it. And what is up with the 3 guard set going 10 min or more. I HATE RUDY T ROTATIONS but I love him being our coach. Can he get a assistant to do the rotations.

 

Right now Rudy is doing these because he wants the other players to see how it is. This way when he puts them in for the game, they are hungry and will want to show what they are made of. But I agree, Rudy really uses some wacky lineups. I hope Houston can soon have a blowout win game and let francis and cat rest most of the game. When the rockets go through that big stretch of back to back games facing tough west teams, this is going to hurt.

They are young, quick and athletic, but yet they are humans that need rest sometimes.

 

Am I the only one who thinks Rudy always over-extends his best players? Hakeem always played a high number of minutes... ditto Barkley and Drexler, even when they were coming off injuries.

I remember some stat a few years ago showing that Shaq was playing fewer minutes than a lot of centers while still being dominant. That, I think, is what made me first say Rudy sticks with his starters way too much.

For all the talk about the Rockets being deep (Torres being amazing, Mooch being a starter on other teams, etc.), Rudy T sure doesn't let it show.