Cuttino leads league in minutes played

He was showcased, poor cat.

 

You know who Cuttino's back up is? Steve Francis...

The Rockets have ZERO at the back up 2 guard. Posey and Hawkins couldn't hit the ground if they fell out of a tree, and Rice gets killed trying to guard the quicker shooting guards. He's just going to have to suck it up...

 

All that is nonsense. Posey was scoring 14 pts a game before he got here so do not blame Posey for any of that stuff. I have nothing to complain about Hawkins. I think it is downright crazy that Rudy is playing Cat so many minutes. In fact it is plain stupid. There is no excuse for it whatsoever. Cat is important but not that important. I can see playing him like that for stretches but not for the whole season. We have options, Rudy, use them for christsakes.

 

Posey shoots below 40% for his career. He averaged 14 pt while jacking the ball 13 times a game. That is just terrible especially for a 2 guard.

 

There's no rule that says the 2-guard has to be a great scorer. Just play Posey with Rice at the 3. Rice's offense can compensate for Posey's lack of offense.

No way should Steve and Cat be playing the minutes they play. I definitely think the wear and tear is starting to show. Neither guy has been consistent at all lately compared to earlier in the season.

If they continue going at this rate their careers are not going to be very long. Especially with the Rockets offensive system where both players rely 90% on their athleticism and their one-on-one play. They're forced to work twice as hard on offense compared to players on teams like the Kings and Jazz where all 5 players share the workload instead of just 2 doing it all.

 

Not to say it wouldn't be nice to see Cat down to around 36, so he can focus more on defensive intensity, but Hawkins/Posey/Maddox are not the answer, nor is giving more minutes to Francis. When Maurice and Cato come in, if you replace Mobley with Hawkins then you make it tough on Maurice to be effective, because defenses will cheat off Hawk and Cato....thus, Rudy likes to have Mobley or Francis out there with him, and they generally get their rest by allowing Maurice to slow it down and do his wing ISO.

We are not that deep.

Cuttino can get his rest by being the corner-3 spotter, and that is his role a lot. There is really nothing wrong with that, especially since he is hitting a respectable 36% since December, although I'd like that at 40%.

Hawkins and Posey just cause too much collapsing D around Yao Ming and Maurice for them to play the 2. You can't underestimate the effect of that, especially when combined with Griffin or Cato, and especially when your offense is so dependent on penetration and spacing like Dallas, Maurice needs single coverage, and you have a lot of low post for Yao. Those offenses are less effective (if not stupid to run) when you have 2 poor shooters on the floor together.

Defenses simply have much more options when there are two bad shooters on the court together. To win when you have to field multiple poor shooters, your defense has to be better than theirs, or you need a legit superstar, if not both. Sure we can argue this point, but the formula of all the bad teams in the league is generally the fact they are not deep and are forced to field combinations of bad shooters. That's a fact, no?

we also are leading the league in OTs, and about to set a Rocket's record. That gives Mobley and Francis an extra 5 minutes each time, as they need to play the whole OT.

 

Newsflash:
Steve Francis leads the league in turnovers. Rudy T can't trust any of the other players he drafted/signed for the 1/2 so he plays SF and Cat for 40+ minutes a game.

 

Wouldn't it be great to have a guard like Jason Terry coming off the bench to spell either Francis or Mobley, giving the Rockets a threat from the outside in the second unit?

 

1) I don't think Hawkins is that big a liability. He leads the team in 3pt FG%.

2) Even if Posey (and the alleged Hawkins) are not good middle to long range shooters, they are both good shooters from mid-range in.

While I won't argue that it may be easier to double off of Posey or Hawkins to stop Yao or Taylor in the low block, surely this can be compensated for in several ways....having them on the weakside...getting them the ball and have them penetrate into an overloaded defense that has 3 players guarding 4 (assuming 2 on Yao or MoT).

The league is loaded with marginal shooters who quite often light up the Rockets. Having our players taking root at the arc surely doesn't help the FG%ages.

Mobley (& Francis) play far too many minutes. We are not finding a way to take advantage of our strength - very young legs. (Low mileaged ones for Hawk ).

 

promoting other threads, 'eh.

No doubt, though. If we get another SG or a big, defensive, pure PG, I'm all over lowering these minutes to demand defensive intensity. Rudy seems to be in an unpleasant situation where he can't demand intensity from two guys who play hurt and can't be subbed for much without shooting yourself in the foot for lack of quality depth.

The deal to me, though, is you are pretty much stuck finding that player via draft or middle class. Trading a frontliner for that is a philosophical difference between your trade post and me.

we just aren't deep, and it is hard to get deep via trades. Players are just going to have to develop like Nachbar. If Nach becomes even as good as Turkoglu, then I could see giving Posey more minutes at the 2 with Maurice in the lineup with Yao, or if Griffin's offense gets more consistent...and so on and so on.

 

Thank you!

I always wonder about the people that don't think Hawkins can play the SG for about 10 minutes per game. The man hits about 40% from long range; that's hardly what I'd consider a poor shooter.

Nobody expects him to be the #1 scorer on the floor. He just needs to come in and hit his open shots, when his man does double off of him.

We are not that shallow at the SG spot (now the PG and both forward slots are different stories).

 

Cuttino's got awesome stamina, and almost never looks tired. This team, in case you haven't noticed, doesn't have a backup two guard. So when Mobley rests, Steve moves over to the 2. Usually this results in a huge defensive matchup, so it doesn't last longer than a couple of minutes at a time.

 

It is the reason nonetheless. He isn't guarded, which places more pressure on Francis and Maurice/Yao. This is no theory; this is what the defenses are trained to do...leave a man to place pressure somewhere else.

I often see people refuse to discuss the problems of lack of shooters, or how these guys aren't liaibilities. Why? Just watch the defenses and listen to other coaches talk about how poor shooters can disrupt spacing/penetration/low post, and look at what makes bad teams bad...no depth, not enough shooters.

Saying playing two guys at the same time who routinely get left is not a liaibility, imo, is not discussing the point, it is ignoring the point. The point is, they aren't guarded, so you have to at least address the issue of the repurcussions of what advantages and flexibility that gives NBA defenses.

Like I say: isn't the make up of most all bad teams about lack of depth and lack of shooters to put pressure on defenses. Why is that?

 

Hawkins has attempted 22 three pointers this season!! 22!! Ever heard of small sample size? Hell, Steve started out the season 10-24 on three pointers...

Trust me, any player that shoots 40% on three pointers and .386 from the field is definitely NOT a good shooter...

 

It isn't going to change because Rudy runs the same rotation every game. Even in games where Mobley is 1-11 shooting, he still plays 45 minutes. If he's hot keep him in, but when he is shooting terrible, give him a rest and see if it helps.

 

He he. Yeah, couldn't help but add those comments to this thread!

I agree with your point however. The bottom line as you said, the players have to have "personal self development" for this team to take it to the next level. And this includes Eddie Griffin developing and becoming a factor in our interior defense in addition to Yao.

However, in terms of our guards, I don't see Moochie developing any. We need to add to the guards position from outside of the Rockets organization either through trade, FA or in the draft.


It just is painfully obvious that Rudy has NO FAITH in Moochie/Posey/Hawkins at the guard positions on this team. This has to be addressed in the off season.

Chris

 

I think a lot of this has to do with Moochie sucking so bad, especially defensively. When he comes in the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Cat is still in the game. Then Cat goes to the bench for Steve who plays the 2. However, unless Moochie is having a good game, which happens once a month, he is usually a very big liability on the floor, especially on the defensive end. And he has lost all faith on his jump shot. Because of this, Cat has to come right back in the game, sending Steve back at the 1. I dont think it has much to do with anything else as this situation.

 

hp -
Every team during the course of a game plays someone who is a weak link. The key is to minimize their downside and accent what they do positivley. The Mavs have no trouble starting Raja Bell and giving minutes to Adrian Griffin and Walt Williams. All three of these players have significant shortcomings.

I don't see how spelling Mobley with Hawkins and having Hawk on the floor with Steve or Moochie at PG, Taylor, Yao and Rice for 5-8 minutes destroys anything.

You make valid points but usually in a grandiose style but when it's all said and done the game is very simple - take advantage of mismatches better than your opponent. Having Hawkins matched up with the likes of Bell, Williams, Adrian Griffin, Steve Smith, Danny Ferry, Bruce Bowen, Jim Jackson, and many other weak links in playoff rotations is not that big deal for 5 to 8 minutes.

 

HP, although I respect your bball knowledge, we have a different philosophy on how this team should be used. Both Posey and Hawkins have acceptable range and consistency on their jump shot, that it is not a reason to sit those guys and bleed Mobes to death and ask him to play the kind of defense we need from that position. On the plus side, those guys flash and cut as well as Mobes which is the type of ball we want to play and less of the standing around. I like the slashing and cutting as they tend to be better opportunities for scoring and/or getting fouled. Those two players are, at least as good as Mobes defensively and on the break.

So yes, sit them if you want to play a slowed down basketball and try to rely almost exclusively on your half-court game which is not close to being complete or dominant yet. If the objective was to have someone standing around outside and shoot then let Rice play more at the 2 spot and play someone else more at the 3, like Tmo.

I believe the half court game would be less stressed if it was supplemented by an uptempo game. Dallas has a dominant half court game which clearly benefits from having the uptempo game to go with it.

We did not throw Posey and Hawkins on Rudy. He hand-picked these guys and he should put them to use. The equation is simple. In fact I have seen Rudy do more with less before so why now he has to bleed his starting backcourt, risking injury; then turn around and ask the guys on the bench to step up.