Inside hoops: Cuttino Mobley Mini-Interview

Houston Rockets guard Cuttino Mobley runs with one of the best point guards in the league, Steve Francis, and the game's top young center, Yao Ming. Inside Hoops and Cuttino sat down in Madison Square Garden and talked.

Inside Hoops.com: Talk about the team, what you need to do to move things up to the next level.

Cuttino Mobley: We just need to gell. Just keep gelling as much as possible. I think I'm the oldest starter, and I'm only 27. We got time. The difference between last year and this year is guys are healthy. Guys are healthy, so it's big, when you're healthy, it helps you out a lot. Steve's healthy, Glen's healthy, Mo Taylor's healthy. So that kinda helps. It helps me. The rookies did a good job last year, but they were caught in a situation where they had to think a little faster. They did well. But now we have the vets back and we're starting to gell better, and we're going to be ok.

Inside Hoops.com: What's it been like playing with Yao Ming, working one of the few "true" centers into the scheme of things? How do you see him progressing?

Cuttino Mobley: It's going to take him some while to really be dominant, but he does so much more than a lot of other centers. He passes well, he can shoot the ball from outside, and he has low-post presense. He has all those things. That's the key to being great. Us gelling around him as a good thing.

Inside Hoops.com: On the one hand, you guys can run past people. On the other hand, assuming Yao keeps getting better and really controls the low post, maybe half-court might be more your strength.

Cuttino Mobley: We can mix it up. I think we should mix it up, because you don't want to waste our talents running up and down the court, so, you have to mix it up.

Inside Hoops.com: What do you think of zone defenses being allowed in the NBA, how have you felt about it?

Cuttino Mobley: I don't like it. I don't know whoever thought about it, maybe he never played basketball before. But, oh well. So be it.


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looks like inside hoops.com's name is blocked, so just delete the space between inside & hoops and that's the real URL