Around the trade deadline stories were flying around these boards about Cat 'not being Cat', or some such. Many of us weighed in with our takes. Now, Doc said, from his contact, "As for Cuttino, ... they will try to move him. Actually, ... they WILL move him. So, here is the simple question: what has changed so dramatically from the start of the season to make this strong piece of the Rox so discardable? Is it on court, locker room, off court, or just because his relatively good contract can bring in talent better suited for this team? Is it just to ensure SF plays 2? Can someone please give a fair answer to this, please.
My honest and fair answer is that they are both starting 2 guards, and Steve is the better of the two. Cuttino can help bring in another needed position. Case closed.
Cat's a bad fit for this team. That's not to take away from his offensive skills or the numbers he puts up, cuz there's no denying both are impressive. But the Rockets right now need good, solid role players, not guys who think they're All-Stars and hog the ball. That's probably a big reason why they swapped Kenny Thomas for James Posey earlier in the season.
cat didn't really "do" anything wrong, xiki. it's just a matter of needing to fill holes on the team, and looking at what assets you can utilize to fill those holes. we need a strong power forward (figuratively and literally). we need to get steve francis into his natural position. we need a ball distributor who will push the ball and run up the middle of the court on a fast break. our assets to acquire those needs are mobley (low contract, high production, young) rice (high contract, one year left) griffin (although i disagree 110% on trading griffin) rice, by himself, could fill one of those needs in a trade. griffin, by himself, could fill a bong up with...um...nevermind. together, they could probably get you 1 good and 1 decent player. that doesn't fill all of our needs! so you have to move one more person and that is cat mobley. the thing is, as heypee as pointed out numerous times, this is probably the last of our serious trading for a while - unless we're talking about "blowing up" the team (moving francis or ming). so we have to be deadly sure and deadly accurate on who we acquire. after this, we won't have many pieces of value to move... i hope that answers your question...
If it's just about using his talent/contract I understand. However, it sounds venomous. Thanks for your reply.
Why don't they just make Mobley play behind Francis at the 2 spot. That way the starting line up will be like this Pg: ? / Mooch/ Maddox G : Francis/Mobley F: Taylor/Griffin/Hawkins F: Posey/Nachbar/Rice C: Yao/ Cato What you think? Ofcourse thinks can change if the Rockets trade someone else. But don't trade Mobley.
I think trade talk involving Mobley is simply because you get a lot of bang for your buck with the Cat. So other teams are interested in him. Which means we may actually get something of decent value in return for him. So if you package Mobley with someone who doesn't have a favorable contract, that's ideal. Right now the person who has the least favorable contract, IMO, is Moochie. Cato showed improvement last year. MoT improved throughout the season recuperating from his surgery. Moochie showed 82 different hairstyles, and the ability to pass to a teammate ... after 23.5 seconds of dribbling.
I love Cuttino. I love his heart and loyalty to the Rockets. I hope we can keep him in Houston either as a starter or a 6th man energy type player but if we need to trade him for the better of the team, so be it. Xiki, I dont think people want to trade him out of hate.
I do not think that the rocket should keep Cat as a 6th man. It is not fair for him. He can be a starter for any teams and may become an all star that he is wishing for. Considering good things that he had done for the rocket in the past, even he is not fitting as the starter for the rocket now, the rocket should try their best to trade him to a team that he will shine.
