Looking forward to the season, I seriously believe Mobley often needs to get a good dosage of pine...You know the times. Bench him until he picks up his game. Remember, he almost single handedly gave the game to Chicago after the Rox were up by 10 with 2 mins left. NBA.com still has his rap sheet in the final minutes: Miss, turnover, turnover, foul. Its one thing to be a point guard and have alot of to's trying to distribute the ball, or a Big man whos being mercilessly doubled. But a shooting guard, who primarily shoots, there's almost no excuse for 6 of those bad boys. That is why HeyPee is absolutely current. Francis is the POINT GUARD period. Which leads me to why SA continuously sat through 4th quarters. His D surely would of been nice in attempting to stop all opposition from getting layups to bring the game back into hand in a matter of a nanosecond. So his shot often off. I believe he had the second highest shooting percentage on the team. He has great overall D, and brings so much more to the table. He had 7 boards without getting to play in the 4th, and typically doesnt turn the ball over as much, and typically passes much better than Mobley. So am I to believe that just because he doesn't jack idiotic shots every time down the court, he doesn't deserve time out there, because he does every thing else much, much better than Mobley. Now Im not saying theres not a place on this team for Mobley. Or that Rudy is an idiot for not thinking like me. But what exactly is the problem with SA getting more minutes?
Finally, Crisco says something bold. I agree. Mobley needs to be set straight. His "lone horseman" style of play really got out of hand last year. He just was't being a team player and I don't understand why Rudy just loves him. You don't keep your defender on their toes by shooting 18 footers when you can barely shoot 38%. His defenders allowed him to take those shots. They don't have to play him strong when he takes the long distance shot. They only time they are going to give him "respect" is when he tries to go one-on-one and take it to the hole. That is when they will double him when he takes it low trying to cause a turnover or a bad shot. As I've said before and I'll say it again, Cuttino could be one hell of a player if he would learn to make the middle distance jumper. He's too quick for 90% of the defenders in the NBA to defend when he has a shot like that in his arsenal. All he has now is the drive to the basket and the long range 2 or 3 pointer. I guarantee if he would work the rest of the summer on getting himself open and making the mid-range, 10-12 footer, he could easily score 20-25 ppg and shoot at least 40-42%.
Does this mean we're not getting Mo? ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
I beg to differ. Regarding Mobes, if his control (this includes shot selction, passes, turnovers), goes back to what it was at the start of last season then you can glue him to the bench. But if his game continues on from where he left off last season then he should be on the court more. If he continues on some of the those high 20s and 30 scoring performance's then he has to be on the floor more and if Anderson steps up his scoring (continuing his improvement) then it will be real hard for teams to decide who to put there best perimeter defender on and thus we who ever is being guarded by the weakest defender can take over and carry the scoring load. Which brings me to Anderson's minutes and i agree with you he got a poor run in 4th quarters and it probably cost us some games. The easy solution especially in Andy's case is to have both Mobes and Shandy on the floor together more, especially in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Why not give Anderson the 4th quarter minutes that bullard was getting and he always seemed to be on for at least half the 4th. Nice post Cisco Smeg ------------------ Discombobulation Imminent
"You don't keep your defender on their toes by shooting 18 footers when you can barely shoot 38%." -heypee Tell that to your power forward. I believe Shandon did play more minutes than Cat, but only by a small margin. I'm not sure often is quite right in the amount of benching. Maybe he just needs to be pulled aside every now and then to bring him back into the real world. He's still not quite a veteran, so as a team, we're probably not sure on how he reacts to situations like benching. Sometimes it can be counterproductive. Other times, like Shaq this season, it can really motivate the player, and fuel the team. partner-When you project that 20-25 ppg, would you think that with his current involvement in the offense, or a bigger role (as the presumable #2 scoring option behind Francis)? By the way, this past season, Mobley shot 43%. This is insanity. Within days, heypee pops a few blood vessels, and Crisco and Smegg have a meaningful post in the same thread. ------------------ The Serious Police are watching. Follow the rules or be assimilated. Shandon is underrated. [This message has been edited by NIKEstrad (edited August 23, 2000).]
20-25 ppg? It sounds as if the Rockets either need to all shoot above 65% or that the overall score of the games has to increase to 150 pts. for the Rockets. Don't forget how many times Mo Taylor, Shandon, Walt and Steve Francis are going to have to shoot the ball. ------------------ I've posted so much that what I say must be true. The latest on Maurice Taylor
Achebe and NIKE Good field goal %age does not necessarily translate to higher scoring. Good field percentage also means you are wise about what shots you take. His percentage will go up if he quits acting like he's on a playground. His percentage goes up, shot attempts come down a bit, his scoring may nudge up, but his team is better off. I've watched a couple of the games he's been in... his shot selection is pathetic at times.
With all these High Scoring Non Defenders on our team the rocket will soon turn into the Golden State Warrior on the late 80s, early 90s. RUN SWMC ------------------ Discombobulation Imminent
I agree with HPee that Mobes needs to stop the playground ball and use his brain. With his quickness he can blow by his man to force the D to adjust, then dish it for an easy 2. Instead, many times last year he tried to force a shot, which hurt the team. If you've ever played ball, you know the feeling, when you have an open shot, and some guy chucks up a forced shot instead of passing to the open man, it hurts the team. The potential is there, he must learn to play within the team. After all, he's not at Rhode Island anymore. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Let there be Light in the recent Dark that is CC.net BBS, this more like it, bring on more of these threads. For a second round draft pick, learning and improving with every season is the key, just like it is with players who play very little and then have a jump up in playing time, ie Cato. I agreee that Cat needs to improve his mid range pull up jumper, which will both improve his shooting % and point production and he also need to improve his recognition of when he beats his player whether the help defender is closer to him or they player they were guarding and thus dictating whether he should shoot, drive or give it up to the player who's defender just let to help. In other words his Decision making. Which is not something that can be taught overnight, some players are just blessed with great decision making skills, but it you are not it takes alot of hard work to improve and as long as Mobley (and Ruddy) know what he has to work on and he puts in the hard work, then i think we as rockets fans will be impressed by his further improvement this season and for me if he does continue to improve will merit a starting spot sometime during the season. Smeg ------------------ Discombobulation Imminent
To be fair on Mobely, he did improve his selection towards the tailend of the season. His FG% was about 20 (warning - exaggeration) for most of the season and then in the last month or so he shot much better and hauled his overall % back to a more respectable 43. Still, I don't think he made the mid range jumper one of his shots there... would be nice to see and would give him a fairly complete arsenal. I'd like to see Mobley average more assists than turnovers this season (by a reasonable margin) while improving his FG% to (a decent) 45.... do I ask too much? ------------------
Just curious... do any of you think that Mobley might have been playing for a contract last year? he was in the last year of his rookie contract, and with all the talk of Ron Mercer & Mo Taylor possibly getting the MAX, maybe Mobley believed he had a chance as well (or close to it). HeyPee: Did Anderson play at the end of games during those nights in which he was scoring in the 20's? I do understand the need for *somebody* to score at the end of games, and Anderson (even though I do generally prefer him to Mobley) was often all-or-nothing on offense. ------------------ David Falk is a MoFo. The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
I think Mobley made it clear that he wanted to stay in Houston during the season. If he'd wanted money I'm almost certain he could've got a better deal than the one he ended up with as a rocket. ------------------
Dr: Mobley actually said that at one point he was leaning to signing with Toronto. He stayed in Houston because the Rockets organization concentrated on only him, while Toronto sort of abandoned him for a while when they thought they might sign Croshere. If Mobley had been offered anything near the Max, I think he'd be gone. It was a combination of the offers not being *that different*, a more important role, and the Rocket's intense courtship that convinced Mobley to stay a Rocket. But during his free agency, this was *not* a given. ------------------ David Falk is a MoFo. The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
I feel a writers infringement going on here. I posted those exact words (Almost down to the very letter actually) during last season... Whats up with that? Almost letter for letter. ------------------ "I have amazing, powers of observation"...Pink
Actually that is my post from way back. Theif! Come up with your own original posts. ------------------ "I have amazing, powers of observation"...Pink
haven: it was REPORTED that Mobley said he was leaning towards signing with Toronto. I'm not Mobley so I don't know just what he was thinking. Maybe "experts" assumed that because the Toronto offer was bigger then he was leaning towards that. As it stands, Mobley made up his mind and signed with the rockets almost as soon as he was allowed to! Doesn't seem like he was thinking about it that much ------------------
Dr: He did have a month to make his decision before the 1st of August (I HATED that damned month). It's not like he got a huge contract from Houston, and he's tied up long-term. It doesn't seem like he had anything to gain by courting the Raptors.... and I also doubt he did it just for kicks. I'd say that he genuinely was struggling between loyalty and cash. He made the right decision, at least! ------------------ David Falk is a MoFo. The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
I am soooooo sick of all these Rudy haters! ------------------ Miggidy Markell says: 1. Eastcoast is da sh*t 2. Rockets rule 3. Hip/Hop is dope 4. Buy the new Ruff Ryders album! Miggidy Markell is watching Stay STRAPPED & WATCH ya back or be Assimilated.
Mobley was hitting 48% of his shots over that last month and a half. ------------------ humble, but hungry.
