Just saw somebody posted this on ESPN message board: http://www.82games.com/0304HOU5.HTM Looks like our strengths are C and SG positions.
wow! i have always wondered if someone kept up with this. notice the job cat is doing defensively! and notice the job steve is doing defensively! i'm going to go shoot myself now.
Of course, Cuttino doesn't have the worst player in NBA history as his backup...I also wonder if they count Cato as a C or PF... Oh well, let the Steve bashing continue...
of whom much is given, much is expected. also, doesn't steve play about 40mpg? does mooch get torched that badly by backup pgs to skew the #s this much? mm mm. nope.
I guess Cato is considered mainly as a PF then partially Center just by looking at the rebound numbers.
We already know the problem of the team is the PF position, and the backup PG position. How do we fix it? Patience and trade.
I kinda like this graph. It tells me something different than what it tells you guys, though. Here's what I see: our opponents shoot 4-5 shots more a game then we do our opponents shoot about 4 more FT's than we do Field goal %'s are relatively negligible. And here's a shocker: The turnover difference is the same at PG as at C!
FURTHER: If you go to the 5-man rotation page, you'll see that we get our foul shots when both MoT and Yao are on the floor at the same time. It's at its worst when MoT & Cato are on the floor at the same time. If only we didn't lose so much defensively when we put MoT in instead of Cato. If MoT would step up his D a little bit, he'd get a boost in his minutes.
Good stuff. Cat has been playing quite well this year. I think he got the message from Van Gundy. Steve is just struggling to find a consistent offensive game right now.
actually yes... as $hitty as SF has been playing there have been numerous times when Mooch came in and got torched, especially in Portland...
This comparison isn't completely applicable yet because we haven't played enough teams. Yao hasn't faced any centers that play offense yet and Mobley has only faced an injured Iverson, a horrific shooting McGrady and Flip Murray, not exactly the highest level of competition thus far. This will be a really interesting statistical comparison to follow in about a month when we've played more teams in the league. Good stuff to watch.
Another point sort of in Steve's favor, although I guess at Cat's expense... Of the top talents Cuttino faced ( T-Mac, Carter, Iverson, etc.) they were all gang tackled...McGrady was routinely doubled, Carter was almost tripled every time he put the ball on the floor, and even a gimpy Answer saw doubles most of the night. The only player who's remotely at that level ans who wasn't doubled, Finley, had an above average night. On the other hand, Nash was never doubled, Marbury wasn't, ect. If Cat was that good it wouldn;t be that routine to send a scrum against the better guys he faces, espeically in that JVG normally advocates strict one on one except in emergencies...
Yeah, who gets doubled and that kinda stuff doesn't really get addressed in this analysis. Good point.
true. and i guess i underestimated exactly how much moochie really sucks. i mean, i know he sucks, but i had no idea his suckitude had reached new levels.
Its weird isn't it? For some reason we are not sending double teams at Raul Lopez, Maurice Williams, Antonio Daniels, Mike Bibby, and Keyon Dooling. Come on, MacBeth, the fact is that Cat is at worst an above average defender while Steve needs to improve by leaps and bounds to come up to average.
The most interesting stat, from the five man units page Norris-Mobley-Nachbar-Braggs-Ming W: 4 L: 0 Win%: 100
A) According to the stats, points have been burning us, so perhaps doubling them would be wise. But that wasn't even my point...I was merely pointing out how the stats were misleading taken in isolation. B) I think there is more evidence for your comment about Steve than your comment about Mobley. Average at worst? I really don't think so. I think that our bar has been lowered so far over the years of horris guard D that Cat's ( admitted) improvement over the past year has been overestimated.
I don't think the reason the Rockets are not doubling Nash and Marbury is because they have faith in Francis' defense. It's because as soon as you double them, they will find the open man and make you pay every time. I don't know if the same could be said of Francis. Also, the Rocket's aren't doubling point guards, but it's not as if the other teams are throwing double teams at Steve either. If opposing point guards are able to get a lot of points because of single coverage, Francis should be able to do the same. Yet he's getting less points than the opposing point guards.
