Cuttino Mobley: Defensive Player of the Year Candidate?

This is a good post.

Mobley has been by far the most improved player under Van Gundy in my opinion. His defense has been intense!

 

send that post to someone at espn.com please

 

That is pretty sick. Lot's of high profile players on there too.

 

The dude is by far one of the better defenders in the legue right now. I hope he continues to get better and stays healthy otherwise we are going to be running into problems with a lot of teams...Keep bringing it CAT!

 

Mobley won't win it because rebounds per game, blocks per game and steals per game is so important in winning this title (ben wallace/artest is favourites imo). But Mobley is without a doubt a great candidate.

 

definetly...

when anyone thinks of defensive players, i bet the first player that comes to most people's mind is Big Ben

btw, are SG's often cadidates for DPOY?

 

maybe worst breath of the year?

actually, i remember that he was in the top ten smack talkers in the NBA, right above payton. Good post, good job mobes.

 

More likely the defense will be attributed to Yao's presence.

 

The sad thing is he wasn't recognized for doing it last year. Check out Iverson's numbers against the Rox in 2002-2003.

 

I would agree that Cat's defense has greatly improved and that he is truly acting in a more team oriented fashion but much of those stats may also be because we have two of the better shotblockers in the league inside waiting if Cuttino's man gets by. Having a shotblocker truly changes the game and allows Cat to play much closer man-to-man defense.

But I will praise his defense as well though!! Keep it up Cat!

 

Yeah, you wanna know what's funny?

Mobley's defensive play will probably be attributed to the big presence in the middle denying the easy baskets inside.

Yet I'll bet real money you won't see names like Yao & Cato mentioned for defensive player of the year either. Like someone else said, they don't look at opp's shooting % and points as much as your combination of blocks, steals, forced turnovers and stuff like that.

Good solid play like defensive positioning and other fundamentals go relatively unnoticed.

 

A.I. did light it up before 2002. His bad performance afterwards
can be attributed to several factors
1) Mobley's improved defense since 2002
2) Yao came in 2002
3) coach's emphasis on defense

 

Cuttino has played monster D for us since the last third of last year. He is suffocating and up in people's face partly because we DO have such strong team defense and also because we have a couple (three if EG ever returns) of shotblockers behind him. I have also been impressed with Steve's D.

Mobley probably won't make the cut for DPOY, but what about Cato? His blocks are VERY respectable and he is also stealing 1.5 per game. He is averaging almost 10 rebounds a game and regularly steps in and takes charges. We may have three or four players on the all-defensive team this year.

 

Sorry cabbage. If you take Cato and Yao out, these numbers don't look anything like this...hell why don't you pull up Cuttino's opponents numbers from last year if you want to make a point. Not his numbers with a new defensive coach at the helm.

 

Our Defense Rocks.

Mobes
Francis
Yao
Cato
JJ

Our starting five looks quite impressive, but maybe I'm just being a homer.

 

great post Cab

not surpising at all, damn once again Cat finds a component of his game to change and improve.... not bad from the guy supposedly you can't adjust and change with a new coach.

Cab - be careful though posts like this could get you banned

 

Regardless of that, Cuttino has been an underrated defender the last few years. Forget stats, and watch him guard Kobe or Vince. He does as good a job as anyone could ask.
He's definitely not DPOY level, but possible 1st team, maybe 2nd team (if there is one?)

 

I agree. It's absolutely true that Cato and Yao are great at intimidating people, but part of being a great defensive player is knowing how to use your shotblockers, making opponents go to their lower percentage side/shot, learning tendencies, and learn complete help defense.

There's no doubt thatYao, Cato and even Steve have been wonderful in standing tall or setting up traps in Francis' case, however Cat has done a STELLAR job this season on defense, transforming last year's flashes of defensive brilliance into CONSISTENT defense.

Way to go Mobley.

 

I'm glad the Cat hating has grown to a low whisper now. The guy has changed his game every single year in the league. This year we needed a defensive minded three point shooter. People begged the Rockets to trade for Artest, but looking at it now, Cat may be better for this team after all.

To go along with his defense is his new three point shooting, his better shot selection, his team chemistry, and his heart. Those things are everything that we have ever asked for from our SG position.

Cat's kinda turned into the whole Wizard of Oz movie. He's gained a brain, he has the heart, he damn well has the courage, and he knows that there's no place like home.