Mobley will give us a huge lift when he's back. Hopefully, he cans tart hitting 3's like he did last year, and render zones useless against our All Zone-busting team. Ming, MoT, Rice, Mobley, Francis. We would really destroy Dallas with that line up. Can't wait till this team clicks. We haven't clicked yet, and we're 3 games above .500, wow!
I wouldn't count on it. Cat is tied for third in the league in minutes. Rudy has shown know desire to reduce Mobley's minutes, much less have him come off the bench. Juaquin reminds me a lot of Shandon Anderson in that he has a BAD offensive game and a good defensive game. I don't know about the rest of you, but I was glad to see Shandon go. However, I think Shandon's defense was overhyped, and I don't think that's the case with Juaquin. His D is ferocious! Still, with this team being one of the worst in the league as far as scoring goes, we need Mobley back bad! Rockets rank #22 in points scored per game.
Hawkins needs a J to be a starting SG; he has to work on builidng up those offensive "role-player" skills. However, having him in there has forced the Rockets' offense to really work on execution. Sure, it has looked F'Ugly, but not having a Iso specialist to rely on when things go bad is forcing the Rox to get their offense right. Do you think that if Mobley had been playing last night in Seattle, the Rockets would have worked the ball through Yao to start plays in the second half? Mobley will come back as a starter, but I hope that he stays out a while longer until the offense is well established. Maybe J-Hawk will find his offense, too, with all these minutes--it will only help us come playoff-time.
Cat coming back just does so much for this team. It puts Hawk back on the bench, where he is more effective. It cuts into Moochie's time, which is needed with his play this year. It helps Ming by giving him deadly shooter to pass to out of the post. It helps Steve because the chemistry these two have on the court is fantastic. Welcome back Cat! Whats sad is that after his first bad game page 1 will consist of nothing but "Cat sucks" and "Trade Mobley and KT for Robert Horry" threads.
You left out: You don't play good defense. You don't play good team ball and you don't make smart basketball decisions when the ball is in your hands. At least Hawkins plays good defense and knows his role. We don't need scoring from the SG position as much as other teams do because we have a PG that can score. Francis was 5th in the NBA in scoring before the Seattle game. We need someone who will play good D and hit the J when their open or pass the ball if not. We have one of the top five PG's and soon to be (hopefully) one of the top five C's in the NBA. Cat needs to realize that he isn't part of the two man show anymore.
What I meant was, give Cat's shots to Rice and Yao for the starting rotation. Just an option. You could one, have Cat start focusing more on spot up shooting, passing and defense and taking less shots. Or, you could have him on the bench as an instant spark plug. With the first option, you get more shooting threats, Cat, Rice and Steve. But, who knows how the offense will continue flowing. To me, it seemed as if the offense started to flow better as a team when Cat wasn't in the starting lineup. When Cat returns, and he starts instantly, it might mess with the flow, since in the two spot during the time Cat was out wasn't focused on scoring. But, more so on defense, passing and spot up shooting here and there. Putting Cat in there all of a sudden, a slasher, isolation player that takes even more time off the shot clock when he has the ball, which we don't need with Kenny Thomas already on the floor. Could effect how things have been going. Cat's a good player and a real offensive threat, I'm just curious on how he could effect the new team flow of the offense. But, if you bring Cat off the bench. You get an instant offense player to give the opponent trouble while Steve or Yao rest. Or when Yao and Rice rest. You can have Steve and Cat be the focus of the offense. Start off with the in and out, with Steve, Rice and Yao. Then go for the slashing playmaking, isos here and there offense right off the bench. We do have Mo Taylor on the bench that you could consider as another instant offense player off the bench, but Cat's more of a threat than Mo. And that way, you don't mess much with the way the team has been playing. Just opinions though.
Well, we sure need scoring from somewhere, because the games Mobley's been out we've already dropped from 19th in scoring to 22nd. This teams need scoring, PERIOD! I don't care where it comes from.
Ya got to take the good with the bad, Cat reminds me of another streaky shooting guard who we loved one week and hated the next. Maxwell found his niche with the Rockets and Cat will do the same.
As much as I like Hawkins, I think that people could make the same "impact" argument for him coming off the bench as Cat. We've been seeing teams switch from zone to man or to different defenses to shock the opposing offense. When the Rockets went to man-defense against Seattle in the 2nd half for a bit, they shut the Sonics down with their intensity. Bringing Hawkins off the bench gives that same impact intensity, especially effective to bring against one of the other teams "hot" guards or forwards. I don't remember the game, but he came in with Moochie, made a couple steals and outlet passes for momentum changing fast breaks.
What's that a difference of 2 ppg? What about points allowed? If he could learn to play within the confines of the offense instead of needing to control the ball to get his shots, the team would be much better off. The problem is that if he’s not hot he kills any offensive momentum we have. He should be a catch and shoot player like Reggie Miller. We already have a creator that goes by the name Franchise. When he figures that out and starts playing D, all the Cat hating will disappear. Until then sit his ass right where it is, on the bench....
Actually, averages don't work that way. For our overall scoring average to drop two whole points in a five game span, the scoring average over the past five games had to be much lower than that. With Mobley we averaged 91.4 points per game, without Mobley we averaged 85.4 points per game. Six points is a lot! No matter how good of defense we play, I would find it highly unlikely that we could maintain our current winning percentage throughout the season if we're only scoring 85 points per game. Either Mobley needs to play or we need someone else to pick up his scoring load, because right now nobody seems to be able to.
But where is our defense ranked without Cuttino? Check our point average last year? how many games did win last year again? I hope they bring Cuttino back 'slowly'....I would hate for him to sprain his ankle again
