Mobes has a player option next summer. I think he will probably opt out. Only guys that don't think they can recoup much of their salary will take that last option year. He's got one last long contract in him and he should get at least the full MLE on the open market. So the question is, should we try to sign him back? He could either play the SG and move T-Mac to SF, or he can go to the 6th man role as the backup swingman. You know even last offseason I was thinking that Cat had to go. But I think he converted a lot of people with his play this year. His outside shooting really complimented Yao's game and his defense was top notch. So what do you think, can the Rox make a run at him. Or do you think he's even going to want to come back. Or will he be out of our price range.
There was an interview with him on FSN right after the story of the "probable" McGrady trade broke. He said something to the extent of "This trade better go down, because if it doesn't I'm gonna be pretty bitter with the organization. It's like catching your wife or girlfriend cheating on you. It is, it's like I've caught the Rockets cheating on me, that's how it feels." So he probably still has hard feelings and wouldn't even sign if the Rockets somehow solved all their other issues at other positions and were somehow able to clear caproom in doing that. Because he's probably gonna command at least a little more than the MLE. Although I really like Cat and would love to move McGrady over to the 3 (at least on defense - he's big and quick enough to guard any small forward) so that we could have Mobley around. Offensively, McGrady could be the "scoring" guard, and Mobley could have the wingman responsibilities of a 3. It would be a perfect fit and Jackson's gonna need a replacement pretty soon here. EDIT: One more thing I wanted to say was, I hope we can fix the PG and backup C position in a more long-term kind of way than Ward and Mutumbo. If we could achieve that through trades during this season, our next big glaring gap is going to be small forward again. McGrady is perfectly capable of playing the 3, because like I said earlier, he wouldn't have to be a true three on offense because you can design your O around him. So, that would make our biggest hole be the 2 spot. And Mobley would be a perfect fit. Impossible to get, but a perfect fit.
see: wishful thinking see also: our non-existant need for a shooting guard I really liked Cuttino but I know he's gonna get big money when he's a FA. He may just go for the money, switch teams and forget about Steve and Orlando but that's the most that'll happen. We could see him at the tail end of his career but that's about it. MLE? Why the Cuttino hating?
Mobley is not going to come back to us for personal reasons more than anything. We will probably not use our MLE next year for luxury tax reasons anyway. Given the way contracts have gone so out of control.....couldn't he get more than the MLE?
in the words of will smith after he told carlton "man, you think everything your father does is right" and carlton asked "don't you?" hhhhhhhhhhhell no! cuttino isn't coming back to us after we shipped him out. i'd love to have him back but it's not going to happen. i wonder how much he can get. for the longest he's been said to be undervalued, but how much more will he get? he might be able to get a contract that starts at just over what he's making now (5.884M iirc). i think 6 yr/45-50M would be about right. time for cuttino to get paid (more). the sad thing is he did those things already but people felt like it would just be better to bash the hell out of him the whole time he was here even though he changed roles and improved virtually every year (though his D got even better this year because he had more energy to expend on that end with his reduced offensive role).
Plenty of people care; most would love to have him back and move T-Mac to the three, some are glad he's gone. While we're resigned to the fact that he's not going to want to return, I'm willing to bet most of the BBS has an opinion on it. Good thread.
I'm completely against T-Mac playing SF. He can play it, but he's just better at playing SG and defending SG's. Why should we put him at a disadvantage? We'll get a SF. Maybe Boki is that SF, maybe we'll just sign someone else. But don't put your franchise player out of position.
But here's the problem with that; we have an undersize 3 in Jim Jackson. Teams are generally going to use their tallest, best defensive swingman to cover McGrady, whether the depth chart lists him as a SF or SG. Accordingly, McGrady will likely guard who ever's guarding him, so that there isn't confusion in transition. Since the 2 and the 3 play fairly similar roles in the offense, and because Tracy has such an advanced post up game, I don't think it would hurt us the play him at the 3. Though Mobley definately isn't coming back, if a situation came up where we would have to slide McGrady to SF, I wouldn't have a problem with it.
No, when you have a mismatch, you exploit it. What you were saying is scratching our advantage in our SG position. Then put cat at 2 and T-mac at 3. That way, we'll have no much advantage at either position. We are solid at both position if that happened, but no much advantages. Let T-Mac play someone at his size is nonsense. We have no mismatch at SF. JJ was the most reliable player on both end of the court last season. You don't mess up our SG and SF positions just to bring back Cat at whatever cost. Cat can stay at 2 and be the 6th man off the bench. MLE for a 6th man is not too expensive if he is actually good.
We would still have a mismatch, it just would be a speed mismatch instead of a size mismatch. There are maybe 3 SFs in the league that could defend TMac well, Prince, Artest, and Kirilenko. On the other hand, TMac would be much better against the likes of Peja than Christie, George than Bryant, or Butler than Jones. Of course you offer Cat the MLE, but I don't think he will take it, not because he hates Houston (he will get over being traded, and would probably love to play with Jimmy Jack and Yao again, not to mention McGrady) but because he should get a bigger offer elsewhere. We cannot expect him to sign with us below market value again, especially when we did not show him the same loyalty. There is the chance that he could force a trade, and we could send them Taylor, but I don't think it is going to happen.
he might come back i saw hime at the fonde shooting lights out in a summer leauge game wednsday wich they lst cause james pose didnt show up fr his team .he acts like he really like it here van excel and damion jones was there as well