Mo Taylor due back in February?

Rod is a stud. Go back and look at my old post about him last year. While everyone was talking about Wallace, I thought Grizzard was the best on that team.

However, I do not think we need him. We need a center. Let's see what happens with Cato. He has improved drastically. He might be a good complement to EG. It is too early to make any moves. The injuries might really be a blessing.

 

Jeff, you are right on the money with your assessment of Mo, KT and Eg's situations.

IMO Mo is locked in as a key player on this team. He plays well with Francis, Mobley, Norris and KT and has a serious role in place. Mo won't be dealt unless two things happen: he proves he can come back from his injury and his role on the team is taken by another player. There is no reason he shouldn't be able to come back strong and I don't think anyone will seriously challenge him for his role for another year or two at the least.

As for KT, he has played well, but is still no where near untouchable and as you stated with his contract being up this summer, his performance from here on out will decide what we do with him. Since the Rocks have the option, at this point I see no reason why we wouldn't keep him unless we need to let him go salary wise to pick up better free agent next year. Although there is always the possibilty of a trade. Miami???

 

lee,
one thing about Mo. His offensive game isn't just popping the 15-18 fter. Like KT, he also likes to face up and drive to the basket and is effective doing it. But the fact that he can consistently nail that shot means his defender can't give him too much room to stop him from driving around. I'm hardly sold on Mo yet, even without the injury. A key problem mentioned last year was that he just wasn't aggressive enough taking it to the hole. Naturally, rebounding's a problem and even if Rudy's like "don't worry about," that's not how I fee. I was really looking forward to this season, and seeing how Mo was going about his game.
I really hope EG and Mo are compatible on the court. I'm not sold on the idea yet. I think they could be, but I don't know about longterm, and what weaknesses an EG, Mo combo might yield. But I'm not convinced they can't both start and flourish either.
I hope we re-sign KT for a decent three-four year contract for about 4.5 mil. I'd like to see him stay, but I'd have no issues giving him up for a solid center.

 

If Taylor drove to the rack so much, why did he avg 3ft's a game. Maybe management has a super plan that could vault us into the upper tier of teams, but they haven't figured out what to do about the zone yet. Just putting jumpshooters out there doesn't mean that you'll score more. Having Taylor out there, thats basically what your doing. Just like Francis assist were suppose to go up or our guards are suppose to get better penetration against the zone.

It was mentioned in another thread, and maybe they do love Taylor, but whats love got do do with it? Its all about results and wins. Who gives us the best chance to win? I agree nothing can be done until he comes back and plays and its truea player doesn't lose his spot due to injury, but if Eddie continues to play like he does, why should anyone else play that spot?

I really don't care who plays the spot as long as they score and rebound and gives us a presence at that position. To mee, it looks like Griffin, but I could be wrong, but long term or not, a contract doesn't really mean that your planted at that spot. I could give example after example of teams signing guys to long term deals, realize they made a mistake or the player really isn't that good and then trade him or put his name out there all the time. Baker,Stoudemire,McIllvane,Al Wahad, Kittlles and Van Horn, Dampier, Travis Knight, the list can go on and on. Its just like a regular business, you have to produce . We will see soon enough.

 

Jonathan Feigan had an interesting comment about this on 610 AM which is basically what Jeff is saying. According to Feigan, Les Alexander has a very high opinion of Mo Taylor and feels that his injury is one of the key reasons for the Rockets skid.

I already placed a lot of value in what Mo can do for this team, but it became more obvious after his injury. Even at the beginning of this season, the Rockets still struggled a lot against teams they should have been able to win easily over. They did start 5-2 but were also shooting an anemic percentage from the field and lacking ball movement. A lot of fans took last season's offensive production for granted and assumed the Rockets could continue with it whether or not Mo was here. A PF that is good in pick and roll situations and can hit the mid range shot is imperative for this teams success. Mo opens up the driving lanes for the guards and helps them atleast somewhat become more focused on offense. Two big men that can shoot consistently from the outside and play the inside-outside game is a key asset for this team.

In reponse to mumu, Griffin can and will still get his minutes even with Mo on the same team. Rudy can easily play them both together at the 4/5 positions.

 

I hear that! Same thing with Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill...the list is endless.

Come on folks, give the man a chance before you want to unload him for a bag of peanuts! After all, he was working to improve his body and his game this fofseason and ended up the victim of an injury. Give him time and Mo will be back better than ever.

 

i don't belive MoT is someone we'd want over KT down the stretch.

there's a huge gap in playing levels when playoff intensity is involved, and i'd rather have KT in there than MoT.
KT can produce and keep bringing his game to a higher level to match the opposition when it counts. we've seen this in his games against duncan and the like. i can't say this about MoT down the stretch however.

ever see tracy mcgravy do nothing and dissappear for 3/4ths of a game? when it's crunch time, u know he'll turn his game up a notch.

KT can, MoT can't.

 

Really? Here's KT's average numbers for the season: 13.2 pts, 7.3 reb, 33 min

vs. Garnett-- 5 pts, 6 reb, 27.5 min
vs. Duncan-- 17.5 pts, 8.5 reb, 33.5 min
vs. Nowitzki-- 9 pts, 5 reb, 24 min
vs. Brand-- 9.5 pts, 4 reb, 30 min

These are the best power forwards Kenny has played against. His average is 10.4 points, 6 rebounds, 29.4 minutes. Now, let's take a look at Mo last year against these same players.

Mo averaged about 13 pts, 5.5 reb, 31 min for the season.

vs. Garnett-- 16.7 pts, 6 reb, 32.3 min
vs. Duncan-- 13 pts, 6.5 reb, 31 min
vs. Nowitzki-- 14.3 pts, 5.7 reb, 26.7 min
vs. Brand-- 12 pts, 6 reb, 30 min

* (I left out Kenny's game against Wallace and Mo's 2nd game against Brand, because each left in the first half with an injury.)

These are the same premier power forwards that Mo has played against. His average is 14.3 points, 6.1 reb, 30.1 minutes. Mo is better in each statistical category. Furthermore, Mo actually did better against this premier competition than he did against the rest of the league. That is exactly what "bringing your game to a higher level when it counts" means. Meanwhile, Kenny is doing worse than average against the premier PFs. That means that Kenny, not Mo, is the one picking up his numbers from playing weaker opponents.

And defensively, Duncan, Garnett, and Brand all had below average numbers when matched up against Mo. This year, Garnett and Brand are well above their averages, and Duncan is slightly below.

Are you sure Kenny is the one that does a better job at rising to the level of the opposition?

 

The statistics you've brought up are KT in single or two games against those PFs? Likewise, during a rockets total slump?
You don't need to pick up points to bring up your game.. could you show KT's vs Mo's offensive boards ? how about the production of the opposition's PF? just wondering

statistics aside,

the intensity and level rising i'm talking about isn't in numbers, so maybe it's not provable to you because of it's intangibility. there is something lackluster to MoT's game, while KT does will push, be there, make play that doesn't give the assist or block yet instead gets the team better involved and more hyped

if you've ever played enough bball, u'll know what a lackluster one-dimensional player does to the team. it's also about morale and reliance, and MoT doesn't provide

 

Question: How would Mo T react to coming off the bench?

Mo T attitude in Clipper town was suspect.
How will he act if he loose his spot to the Rook?

If he whines. . will we trade then?

Rocket River
Maybe Mo got the Shanderson starting clause

 

There is no reason to believe that Mo would struggle or even be "behind" Griffin. Mo and Griffin could BOTH average 30 minutes per game because every indication is that the Rockets want to see them on the floor at the same time.

 

Well i guess if we're going to pull numbers out and say the reason why we're struggling this yr is because Mo's 13pts 5 rebs are missed, then what about the 12pts 8rebs and 2 blks? Wouldn't that be a reason also. Wasn't it true this team played like a contender with Hakeem and a pretender without? If you look solely at Mo's numbers , you might as well throw Hakeems out there too. Anyone that watches the Rockets know the hybrid zone, lack of movement, both ball and people has as much to do with our poor offensive numbers as anything else. How come the Kings can lose 25pts 12rebs and 4 asst in Webber and score the same amount of points as they did last yr? Its more in the system than anything. I hope we have more nights like we did against the bucks, but %'s say 3 pt games like that are few and far between unless you have Dell Curry, Glen Rice, Dale Elliss and Reggie Miller in their prime shooting the 3. To expect our players to consistently hit those 3's no matter how open at a high rate (40% or better) is asking a lot.

 

Yeah,

What Clutch Said.

DaDakota

 

Mo was one of the biggest reasons last year that we went from 34 wins to 45. If you saw just about every game like I did you'll remember he was instrumental in some of our biggest wins last year. His loss was evident even in beginning of the season when our shooting just sucked. While I like Kenny's ability to drive occasionally I think Mo complemented our guards more. And he did have some post up game, especially his jumphook which was pretty effective.

 

I do remember Mo and Kenny getting torched by Webber,Garnett and Wallace. Hopefully this is where Griffin steps in. However I remember Mo playing well against Garnett on the offensive end. I especially remember that game in January when we finally beat them. The play that really impressed me was when Mo backed Garnett all the way under the basket and just dropped the ball in the hole.Also I remember Mo playing well vs Garnett in the season opener.