I think it's time to shake up the starting lineup. It should be: Francis Mobley Yao Taylor Rice Posey would be a much better 6th man. Griffin apparently has hit the sophmore (?) wall. Rice gives us the vet leadership on the floor that the Rox desperatly need. Also, maybe it was just me, but Mo Taylor has the best post entry pass of any Rocket. He got the ball to Yao in the perfect spot every time he went down there. Francis gets the ball to Yao, but it usually forces Yao to step out of the position he was fighting for. Plus, Taylor seems to have stepped up his intensity on both ends, especially as a rebounder. Posey, Griffin, Cato, Hawkins and Moochie make for a decent 2nd 5, probably better than some first teams in the league. They can still sneak in the playoffs. I think that Utah is primed for a bad streak as those old legs get tired. It is going to be extremely tough. Plain and simple, we just need to beat the Miami's and Cav's of the world. Rice's leadership probably makes the difference in those two embarrasments.
The only thing Rice should be starting is his car as he leaves for the airport out of town. Hell, bench the entire starting lineup except Yao... Hawkins Tito Nachbar Cato Ming I'd rather watch this starting lineup over the underachieving bunch of PANSIES we have now!
You have got to be kidding me. start Rice? He's a one dimensional player now that's a liability on defense. He needs to come off the bench period.
I agree with both starting. Rice just knows the game and is a steadying influence out there when healthy. I believe given time that mo-t will become more consistent with his offense. I know that most on this board don't like the guys defense, but it is not that bad. Plus the guy can be very pysical on offense. I was at the last game where they played at SA, and he really seems to like the contact at the offensive end. On one posession he knocked tim duncan to the floor and poceeded to step on little timmys stomach! the spurs fans were pissed and I was loving it! And like you said, he can pass very well and hit the open jumper. I would like to be able to say any of that about griffin. To be honest, after a year and a half of games I still don't know what he does well.
Rice should come off the bench. With Francis, Mobley, and Yao starting, we have plenty of offense. We need a defensive player in there with them, which is Posey. Rice can come off the bench to give us instant offense(if he is capable of that anymore). Plus, Rice gets hurt all the time, why count on him starting if he only plays half the time?
Actually, Rice is only hitting 1% better on his threes than Griffin...at least Griffin blocks an ocassional shot...
I would not start Mo T. Not because he is not playing better than EG -- I think he generally is playing better. But because I like him as a scoring option on the second team. Yao is the primary front court scorer for the starters. Cato is an offensive downgrade from him on the second team. Mo T has more offensive game than EG. When you bring in the second team, if you had Cato and EG, neither of which has a well developed low post game (save Cato's alley-op and dunk ) you might be forced into a perimiter only game. Taylor provides an effective low post scoring option.
If we start Mo Taylor, who's gonna be our inside offense in the 2nd unit? Both Cato and EG basically have no post moves and at least Mo has some. Plus, am I the only one who noticed that when Mo and Ming are on the floor at the same time, Mo always seems to be the 1st option in the post over Ming?
I honestly believe that Rice has played much better defensively than people give him credit for. I was one of the fisrt to speak out against the trade that brought him here. He is old and slow. But, he still hits shots, he has a nice entry pass (which Cuttino, Stevie, and Posey have no clue how to do), plays tough in the paint and is the only veteran leader the Rox have. Posey would still get a lion's share of the minutes. But, Rice should be out there in the beginning and the end of games.
That is a good point. But it seems that Mobley usually ends up with the 2nd unit and could be their offense. I think, last night at least, Taylor was the first option because he had the hot hand. Otherwise, Yao was the first option and Taylor did well to crash the offensive boards when Yao was taking a shot. That is something Griffin definetly hasn't figured out yet.
If Mo T plays like he did last night on a regular basis, everything else should fall into place. We've been getting zero production from the 4 spot recently. However, Rice has no business starting right now as he is a serious defensive liability.
i like starting mo because he is bigger and passes WAAAY better than griff. also, rice should start because no matter what you say about him, defenses have to respect his shot and that creates better spacing.
CoinToss, carayip, great points about Mo and his importance to the 2nd unit. Much better (right now) to have Mo as the primary low post option for the 2nd unit than sharing the post with Yao. However, that probably means Posey sits in favor of Rice, which is unfortunate since Posey's played so well. I just can't see the Rockets starting Posey (who isn't a scorer), and Griffin (who's still developing) for much longer.
The reason Rice and Taylor can be successful off the bench is because they match up with the reserves of the other team. You saw against LA that our reserves were clearly overmatching the Lakers. I mean, the Rockets at one point had Norris, Mobley (starter), Rice, Taylor and Cato on the floor against Brian Shaw, Kareem Rush, Devon George, Robert Horry (starter) and Mark Madsen. It was absolutley clear that the Rockets' second unit was better and they should be. That's sort of the point of having a good second unit. You hope that, on most nights, your starters will play better than or at least even with the opponent. That's why they are your starters. The bench's job is to maintain or expand the lead. In this case, they brought the team back. Whatever the case, if your bench is clearly better in most situations, you don't want to break that up unless there is just an absolute HOLE in your starting lineup. In our case, there just isn't. Griffin is still a ways away from being a legit starting power forward in this league. Taylor has offensive skills but that's about all he has. That position is a wash. To me, you give Eddie a shot because of his defense and rebounding, but if he isn't shooting well and you need scoring, you come in with Taylor. The problem with the reverse is that, if Taylor isn't scoring, Griffin probably won't make the situation any better. Posey is not a good offensive player, but he does seem to have good chemistry with the starters. Rice is the kind of gunner off the bench most teams want (i.e. Eddie Johnson). That position works for now and, frankly, it is very similar to the four with your offense coming off the bench. There is no other position that is even remotely close in terms of the backup deserving play over the starter. So, you just ride with that for the moment.
Thread title says it all......AMEN. Ball movement, spacing, discipline.....all improved with that lineup. Question is, who's going to be your hustler? Who's going to hit the floor for a loose ball? I don't know the answer, but it's not inherent in the lineup. BTW, I mailed Rudy a copy of "Zen Master, Basketball Man" by Phil Jackson and "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, yesterday. Maybe he'll read them! ls
I think every thread till Friday should have a trade scenario. Thus: Houston trades to Seattle: PG Moochie Norris PF Maurice Taylor SF Glen Rice PF Jason Collier Houston receives: PG Kenny Anderson PF Vladimir Radmanovic C Vitaly Potapenko C Calvin Booth
Mr_Gootan - How much do two big piles of crap count towards the cap, anyway? I'd have to run and check RealGM.
If you put MoT as the starting PF, Rice as the starting SF, and Posey as the starting SG, you have Mobley's instant offense coming off the bench. Couple him with EG, and I think our 2nd string would hang with anyone's. But that's if Rice is healthy, has his legs, etc. And that's also assuming MoT is also healthy enough to play starter's minutes.
Jeff is right. I would go further to say that I can count five games we have lost that the defensive liability of MoT was mostly the cause of those losses. There is not one PF in the West that we can matchup with, using MoT. Despite his troubles I would take EG over MoT everyday and twice on Sundays. I just hate MoT down the stretch in crunch time. I have no confidence in his ability to stop any PF. Webber, Duncan, in fact, the whole bunch have MoT for lunch. They salivate at the thought of going against MoT. He is being paid alot of money so there is pressure to play him. He was marginal at best before his injury and clearly is no saviour now. I prefer to be wrong with EG than to be right with MoT.
