Blaming Mobley or one player for the offense isn't the answer

One player can make a HUGE difference if that player is controlling the ball.

I blame both Mobley and Francis for NOT trusting their teamates.

I honestly believe it is time to shake things up and trade one of them....Mobley.

I would get Arenas as a FA and move Steve to the 2 guard spot.

Mobley is redundant....

DD

 

I agree with you, actually... although I don't know why you pick on Francis to end up your post about not picking on one player for the offense!

But yes, Mobley isn't the root of all problems on this team. It goes beyond that. Mobley isn't a horrible player at ALL; he probably fits the profile of a vast majority of players in the NBA.

The Rockets doesn't simply need to discard Mobley (or Francis); it needs to replace some of its players with better, smarter, more solid individuals who fit in the flow of the game. Mobley/Francis aren't detracting from the effort, I just dont' think collectively they're contributing enough.

Posey has played well I thought. He and Yao have good chemistry off the picks that leave Posey with wide open jumpers in the middle of the lane... also finished pretty well in the lane from Yao passes. He doesn't get the ball often in a passing situation so I'm not surprised he hasn't passed to Yao much...

The only bummer was his defensive "intensity" last night. That wasn't pleasant, but I'm willing to chalk that up as an exception.

 

I don't think it's blaming Mobley, just recognizing that Francis and Mobley are too similar in what they do and that we can't have them both on the court doing the same things as often as we do and then having another guy in Moochie coming in who does the same things as well. You can't have two starting guards who just want to score all the time and don't have very good passing instincts or even a willingness to pass to the open man.

 

Oh good, we're going for the record # of threads that all cover the same topic. Could this not have appeared in one of the other 18 Mobley threads? Sorry.

 

Like I said before, Steve Francis is way too talented for us to trade him.

The Rockets just rely on him to do too many things. He cannot be your leading passer, leading scorer, run the offense, get everyone involved, rebound and play 45 minutes a night.

No person can do all that. We need a PG to run the offense and let Steve relax and concentrate on scoring. If this happens, Im positive Francis would play better defense.

Cuttino Mobley gets singled out for 3 reasons:

1. He takes way too many shots when he's not open.
2. He cannot pass
3. He's a good enough scorer that someone might give us a decent player in return.

In a perfect world, I'd love to trade Moochie Norris and bring Cat off the bench. Who the heck would want him?

As far as Posey not passing to Yao, who cares, that's not his job. His job is to slash, play defense and run the break.

If we get a primary PG, we wouldnt have to rely on Francis to always feed the ball low. Steve is a better passer than Mobley. If we can get a better passer than Steve, that would make the offense run a lot smoother and Yao would also get more touches. A true PG does not shoot 17 x a game. Some of those shots would definitely go to yao.

 

No! If we're going to move Steve to the 2, then shouldn't we get the "true point guard" everyone's been raving about the last two years? Arenas? Terry? These guys aren't true point guards. I mean, while we're at it, why not bring in Larry Hughes to be our floor general?

I'm not a big "trade the team away" guy, but if I had to trade Mobley, I would keep Steve at the point guard position and move Posey to the 2. Then, I'd fill in the 3 with a consistent perimeter shooter.

Basically, the only two trades I would like to see happen: Mobley for a consistent outside shooter, or Mo Taylor for a veteran, low-post banger. I would be opposed to probably everything else.

 

Well for all those that say Francis was never a pg in college is the reason he's not making good decisions is very lame. More times than not, alot of sg or lead guards in college become pg in pro's. Arenas,Cassell and you can make a case for Bibby since Miles handled the ball alot. The reason why Francis and Mobley makes bad decisions with the ball because Rudy never gave them limitations or restraints hile running the team. Mobley first yr, he had Pippen,Hakeem and Barkley, so the coach did have to do anything. The next yr Barkley and Hakeem got hurt an basically it Francis and Mobley show. Instead of teaching the guys, he basically let them run or isolate all the time, turn the ball over and what not. The next yr Hakeem came back in limited form and Taylor was signed. The rockets made a push for playoffs mostly with the iso, but also Hakeem went on a very good stretch run and east east we dominated. The next yr rules changed and zone were inserted. Instead of building an offense that could attack zones, Rudy just figured he'll play the same iso ball and let his guards dribble into the teeth one on one and kick out. The result along with injuries were lotto bound. This yr, the team is playying good in stretches and poor in other. the offense still looks like crap when Ming or Taylor isn't providing any low post presence.

Which i say still goes back to rudy. I saw last night when finley hit a couple of 3's during that 3rd qt run and rudy called a to and kind of got on Mobley. The next couple of offensive possessions finley hit a couple more and rudy called a to and was pissed at Mobley again, but he sent him back out into the game. This is like whipping a childs ass, then telling them you're sorry. With Hawkins and Morris on the bench, he had options so why not use them. When players like Francis and Mobleys screws up this yr, for the first time Rudy has options. I've seen where kobe has made a bonehead play in successive possessions and Phil pulls him out and talks to him. The same can't be said for Francis and Mobley because when they come out, they sit down over away from the bench.

 

I don't want to see anyone on this team traded, and I don't think Mobley and Francis are freezing Ming out purposely.


I agree with this sentiment after hearing what Sean Elliott had to say regarding the matter. He said somehing to the effect of, "its hard as a veteran to run an offense through a rookie." I think that in Steve's mind it is hard for him to not be the #1 option every time down the court. Steve usually passes the ball when a player is in a postion to knock down a high-percentage shot, or when he is being covered by his defender to the point that he can't take the shot.

The notion of option 1 and 1A have been discussed, but Steve needs to learn to trust his rookie teammate. Early on in the season, they showed a nice PnR move, what has happened to that?

As for bashing on Cat, my take is that he needs to be the sixth man. Its not a demotion, but a key role, because when he comes off the bench he will become the instant offense sorely needed when the reserves are in. My problem with Cat is his knack for taking a completely stupid fadeaway shot with three defenders on him. Cat has been in the league for five seasons, and yet he still takes the boneheaded shots he did his rookie year, but the funny thing is that they seem to increase from season to season. Last night was a great indication that Cat is not starting material, he was severely outplayed the entire game. I think the team attitude toward Dallas was "we can take'em", and they ended up getting their asses handed to them.

The only question I have toward all this is why does Rudy not bench a guy or cut his PT if he makes a stupid mistake? It may sound juvenile, and I know that this is the NBA, not college BB or HS BB, but something needs to be done to show these guys that if you stray from the gameplan, or make a mistake that you continue to make game in and game out, you better look forward to grabbing some pine.

 

Leeb,

Well said, why not take his A$$ out of the game, and insert Hawkins at least he will play hard on both ends of the floor.

I think Rudy has lost this team. All except for Yao...I would trade Mobley to shake up Steve.

I mean Francis is locked in, what is he going to do, mope for 6 years? No !! Winning cures all.

And getting a complimentary player instead of a redundant player would make the Rocks better.

Best example is Indiana trading Jalen Rose for 2 role players.

We should follow suit.

DD

 

You're right, that took guts and it's worked out really well for them. At some point, teams have to have the guts to trade starters in order to get well. You can't just trade the #5/#6 guys, sometimes the #2-4 guys have to go too.

Like I said elsewhere, I've been a Kings fan longer than anything else. The Kings were getting better the first year with Jason Williams, Webber, and Divac... but the other two starters were Williamson and Abdul-Wahad. When management showed those two the door over the next year, some fans were going NUTS (including me). Williamson seemed like a "solid" player, and Abdul-Wahad seemed so athletic/young/talented...

But the Kings were willing to trade starters to get better. They got Doug Christie in free agency, they gave Peja (the Rockets equivalent would be Nachbar) playing time. Don't forget, J-Will hit the road a few years later for Mike Bibby. These guys are CRITICAL parts of the Kings machine.

There's absolutely no reason to be stuck on Mobley just because he's shown brilliant stretches. I don't bash the guy's game either; I really do think he's probably a top 15 SG in the NBA. But the Rockets need someone else.

 

There has to be consideration given to the Francis-and-Mobley-joined-at-the-hip factor here. Remember it was Steve who persuaded Cat to resign a few years ago because they're such podnahs. Get ready for Francis (whom I would definitely keep over Mobley)to pout for half a season if there ever is a parting by trade. I think it's going to take awhile for this generation of players to see what the games has always been about: five moving parts in a machine.
I think it's no coincidence that all this crap began about the time that Glenn Rice (the most vocal proponent of moving the ball) went down. And I'm not a huge Rice fan but he makes a valid point for teamwork.

 

With Gary Payton, Cuttino Mobley would be Andrey Toney.

With Steve Francis, Odom and Jefferson would be a Quitten.

Does Francis complement anyone??? Well, maybe he complements Cato...I guess that's a start.

 

Now now.....where is the sunshine?

 

Cuttino needs to download this video

http://www.basketballdrills.homestead.com/

 

Uh no. Andrew Toney was a dead eye shooter. Cuttino will never have that type of jumpshot.

 

After watching the Houston/Dallas game, I am convinced that Houston has got a big old problem that has yet to be resolved.

This team has no discipline, is not result oriented and is not well coached. They played a good first half, and they didn't learn from it, instead, they thought they could afford to play their old basketball again in the second half, they got slaughtered. Sometimes, they may get away with it, if Catino can have a HOT night, but it does not make this team accountable/better. That is why I have no confident that this team can win a game against a "weaker" team, and we have seem it again and again.

They may have the sufficient hardware, but they don't have the software yet, to be able to systematically execute and develop a well planned, improving ball game, to demonstrate that they are actually getting better and solving their old and new problems. When you watch them play from a higher level, you see random noise, you don't see an upward trend.

There is a lot for Houston to learn from the Lakers, on how to play the offense. If Catino continues to play his own game, he should be disciplined, regardless whether he makes the shots or not, because he is the road block in developing the PLAN that works for Houston if they want to have another championship. If he can change, the others will follow, otherwise, trade him.