We landed Ming...Now, how do we keep Moochie off the court?

BOOSTER SHHHH its too soon to let the Cat out of the bag.

 

Have any of you seen Welsch play? I imagine all of you guys that want Jiri must have seen him play, that's the only way you could know he has "great court vision" and that he can play the 1, 2, and 3. Since I don't have the access you guys do, I'll just have to defer to the stats on this guy. At 6'6" 205, he's the right size for a SG in the Rip Hamilton mold, but is too thin for SF. He looks like he's good scorer at 15 ppg, but his assist are only 2 per game. Hmm, who do I know that averages that many assist, yet gets called a ball hog. . . Oh yeah, Mobley. Also, he averages 2 TO per game, so he gets one assist per every turnover. Steve got 1.64 assist per every turnover making him better in that category. Now some of you say that he would replace Mobley as the starting off guard. I'm not sure how to make this decision. I defered to the stats again, and it's pretty freaky, but some how that ball hog mobley gets more assist per turnover(1.13) than this great team player, Welsch(1.04). Now, some guy i've never heard of wrote a blurb about his defense for nbadraft.net. I believe the guy when he says that Jiri is a good defender, in EUROPE, but I imagine he hasn't faced players with the speed, size, and strength that he will find in the NBA. Well, it seems to me that Welsch is just Europe's version of Mobley, so if you hate Mobley so much, why would you want his white clone? By the way, Norris gets about 2.57 assist per turnover, he's getting pretty close to Kidd who gets about 2.82 assists per turnover. Norris is a good pg, if anybody is to blame for the problems you guys have with him, it should be Rudy because he designed and called all of those plays.

 

Thank you Oski2005! Somebody talking some sense. Here I go again pushing for Chris Jeffries. He's 6'8", is a better passer than Welsch(statistically), can board, has some serious hops and is a proven defender who is quick enough to guard SGs and big enough to guard SFs. He makes up for the defensive short-comings of our guards and doesn't need the ball in his hands to contribute. How many offensive minded players does this team need? It's time to address the team's man-to-man defense.

 

Oski that was an amusing post. Keep up the good work. Who's stats are yo going to compare next, Ming and Shaq?

How do I know he has good court vision? Well I defer to the experts. Heres what a few of them have to say about Jiri.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/tracker/player?playerId=18341

http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/basketball/nba/2002/draft/profiles/jiriwelsch.html

http://foxsports.lycos.com/content/view?contentId=498850

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/2002/draft/draftboard/players/3057058.html

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/sports/nbadraft02/players.asp?playerlast=w

 

That also goes for Cato, MoT and the Wizard.

 

If Rudy and CD really want to run a three guard lineup, using two off-guards as opposed to two point guards would be better. We could use Welsch as our other off-guard.

 

I read all of those and it seems that none of these "experts" are as high on him as you guys are. A few of them said he couldn't handle the point in the NBA. Instant offense was one term they threw around. But you guys say he is a great team player even though you need to be a little greedy and a score first type of player to be instant offense. I don't see what's wrong with comparing and using stats, they are the only hard evidence that exists to show what a player can do and what they have done. I need to try and understand this logic because according to you guys, you are basically saying Ming has better stats than Shaq, but he isn't better(duh), and Jiri has lower stats than Mobley and is better than him We already have 3 shooting guards in Mobley, Torres, and Francis, so why do we need another? I think what we need is somebody who can try to guard guys like T-Mac, Kobe, Odom, Miles, and Finley. Chris Jefferies is the guy I hope we take. He scores more, he may not have the "court vision" of Jiri, but he uses what he has to get more assists, though he gets just as many TO as Welsch. He's also an athlete with good jumping ability, scouts call him a good defender and he can rebound. I hope we work this guy out, as long as his knee is ok, I can't think of a better pick at 15. I know we want to jump on the Euro gravy train, but we shouldn't be overlooking homegrown talent and that's what Jefferies is.

 

Once again, how much of the Rockets' ills are on the players, and how much is on the 'system?'

Moochie's dribbling routine is mind-numbing, but can he be blamed if the offense asks him to create off the dribble instead of moving the ball?

If the offense is based on driving and creating, then Moochie is actually doing his job, so can you really be upset with him, should he be 'kept off the court?'

The Rockets' problems aren't just personnel or injury-related, but TEAM related as well. Fact is, as frustrating as he was last year, Moochie is actually an ideal backup PG:

* - Takes care of the ball

* - Runs the 'offense'

* - Can start in an emergency

Granted, Moochie has deficiencies (doesn't drive right, can't defend, streaky shooter), but maybe that's why he's the backup.

 

Must admit I didn't read the whole thread, but it will be hard to keep Moochie off the court if he averages 5 or 6 alley oops to you know who.


It's a Ming Thing.

 

Keep Tierre....I know they aren't, but I wish they did. Moochie IS a good backup, but he gets paid way too much to be a backup. His dribbling too much isn't completely his fault if people are just standing around. He's a nice guy and a fan favorite(maybe his hair?) and hits all those clutch shots. Is he really worth it though? The 3 guard line-up creates mismatches sometimes offensively, but sorry it just isn't happening on the defensive end until our frontcourt is bolstered. We can use it sometimes, but definitely not in the 4th quarter.Yeah Tierre was a rookie and made those type of mistakes, but he had a completely different style. He pushed the ball, found the open man, and RAN the offense better than Mooch. He's much cheaper, and if Steve & Cuttino are healthy they play about 40 min. anyways. Yeah and Tierre can score fine as well. He does have a left-hand heyp...Why would we waste a pick on dime-a-dozen backup pg's when we already have one here who would do just fine and is committed to working hard and improving.

 

Moochie Norris is the Rocket's MDP.

Most Dribblingest Player.


keep in mind that Doc Rocket said that the #38 pick will make the team. does anyone on this BBS expect a big man of quality to be available at #38? i didn't think so. it'll be a little man, possibly juan dixon if he's available (although i fully expect the lakers to take dixon...he'd be perfect in the triangle).

seriously, we'll be taking a guard with that #38 pick...probably another sleeper pick...since we already announced that he will be making the team.

what of mooch? well, imo, he'll get packaged with KT for a pick in next year's draft or a banger/thug....ahem, ahem...golden state anybody???

 

Nothing changes for Moochie without Francis approval...

Moochie loves to dribble so unless Stevie gets after him about it expect more of the same.

 

I agree with tozai. Keep TB.
If the system is Moochie's malfunction then why was TB able to push the ball so much more?

 

If the offense is based on driving and creating, then Moochie is actually doing his job,

But Moochie's not doing this. What he does is dribble without purpose. Basically, stand there and dribble... occasionally he'll do something fun like dribble in a circle, or mix in a turnover here and there. But all it does it run down the shot clock.

 

I don't think we have the 38th, we switched with Miami and now have the 53d, I think.

 

Oski-other way around. We can switch from 53rd (the 2nd rounder from Toronto we got via the Dream trade) to Miami's 38th, unless Miami offers us some sort of compensation not to do it.

I don't like Moochie as a backup on this team. He's a worse defender than Francis (if you thought that was humanly possible), and he dribbles...and dribbles....and dribbles...I want to get rid of him just so Rudy will not go to small ball so much. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up seeing more of Moochie, playing the 3 guard lineup with 2 shot blockers like Ming and Griffin...of course with the way Moochie, Francis, and Mobley almost always let their man get by them, Ming/Griffin will be in foul trouble quickly.

I think there may be a decent backup readily available, however he will probably need seasoning-a guy like Marcus Taylor, or Tito Maddox, or Steve Logan will almost assuredly be there.

I don't know about Dixon fitting on this team...the guy can't play PG, even though he'd play excellent defense on PGs. I guess if you'd go small with Steve, he'd be a huge defensive upgrade defensively on Moochie. Ideally, Dixon would make a good fit if you had a bigger PG (like Jason Kidd or Gary Payton) that could play D...or a swingman that can handle the ball/distribute a lot, like T-Mac, Grant Hill (healthy), Kobe, or of course Odom.

 

How to keep Moochie aka "the little dribbler" off the court? Answer: super glue his fro to his locker and sell his locker to a CBA team. Problem sol-ved. Next question.