Mo Taylor has the right attitude

You goons beat me to this. Its easier to be secure in your role when you dont have a contract situation hanging over your head.

My guess would be, if this question was posed to Mo during his 1st season the Rockets and he was in the same situation he is in now with regards to playing time, he might feel the same way as KT. Just a hunch. Money makes men say weird things.

 

I think it should be the opposite. If KT is smart, he should act nice the rest of the season. Be a model citizen. (If he doesn't know how, let Yao Ming teach him.) Play team ball. THAT will land him a nice contract. If you act selfish on or off the court, you are gonna be out of the door faster than. . .

KT is a role player. The coaches aren't looking for big numbers from him. They are evaluating him based on how he can fit and help the team in any ways the coaches want.

 

Its funny. A few years ago when the Rox were about to Pick up Mo, the beef was, Mo is a soft rebounder. He was coming off of a 6.5 rebound per night season and had pretty much improved each year, as he bulked up. He used to be a skinny skinny kid.

Yet in just a few less minutes a night this season KT averages less than that and is a STELLAR rebounder. HMMMM.

Mo is coming off of missing an entire season. He is only getting minimal minutes a night, has a sore achilles tendon, and some are real quick to trounce him again.

Once Mo is completely healthy, and not rusty, he is light years ahead of Kenny. Kenny only stagnates everything. Ive been watching him on D closely this season, and I have NO CLUE where people are calling him a good defender. Ok at times, yes. But if he put anywhere near the effort on D that he did on O, then Ill call him a good Defender. He doesnt even have to be a good defender for me to like him, instead he only needs to play TEAM ball. Which on O or D he does not do. NO one can watch him play and feel like he is playing with the team in mind. I dont care if he's only taking 3 shots a game. Its all a matter of how he plays the game. Francis may make a few boneheaded plays a night, but the last 6 or so games you can definately see his mentality change. He is taking way less shots per night and looking to have more people touch the ball on O. Heck before he was hurt even Mobley seemed to be buying into this concept. And if Mobes can make a push for team orientated ball then Anyone can.

 

MoT had a rough night tonight. I was glad to see him start for the first time this year but I expected his game to be farther along than it is right now.

I am still behind him, and believe that we need him to win. As they said in Top Gun, " keep sending him up, he needs time to get back in the saddle."

He sure got burned by Duncan tonight. I was at the game tonight and there weren't many moves he made that Duncan didn't cover, and there weren't many moves that he made that Duncan didn't beat on the offensive end.

 

I have to say I am disapointed of how MoT is playing soft and relying on his jump shoot to much when it is not on. In another thread some of us were talking about Steve yelling AND ONE after he shoots, well tonight it was MoT that I clearly heard say AND ONE. Bad thing is if your going to yell it then show up with some game.


Heypartner,

I stand corrected. After watching (every time down the court) Kenny vs the other teams post players on defense the last two games, he really stood out in one department. "Defense" He is our best defender when it comes to making the other guy work for position. I am not saying that he is a 6-7 Bill Ruessell but watching him especaily when he is not pissing me off on the offensive end he really worked hard tonight. He had a good solid game against SA. I hope he continues to play the way he did tonight on offense.

 

Ok, JLB. Im not trying to push your buttons or start a flame fest but which Foward did KT do a good job of defending?

Definately not T Duncan, the only person who held ground on T.D. tonight was E Griffin. But he still went off for 25 and 12. A little better than an average night for T.D.

Was it the Offensive machine Bruce Bowen who KT stiffled? He only out pointed and out rebounded KT. 12 points for Bowen must be a career high...lol. He also had 6 boards.

How about Big Kevs 12 points and 6 boards in limited action.

By the way they both shot well over 60 percent combined.

I watch KT very very closely on D. Ill stand my ground and say that the only time KT defends well is when he goes for the strip. Man to man he is alright, but he is absolutely SLOW on his rotations, almost not willing to run out on anyone.

 

JLB,

Cool. I appreciate the close look, and I will always reciprocate that with honesty. My main point was never really protecting Kenny but rather explaining my interpretations of the Rudy rotations from a full court perspective. I love Kenny's defense, but he is not the total answer, and I can part with him or bench him for better players...no sweat.

That said: It is really fun to watch how Kenny denies ground and can cover so many spots on zone defense....moving between responsibilites with perfect communication and timing. I love smart defenders as much if not more than smart offensive players.

Unfortunately he got two really cheap fouls to bench him, or we could have seen him pester Duncan even more.

Further, that was indeed sweet when he got Duncan spinning.

bottomline: We need Mo as our starter, but Kenny as a SF is just too awesome with zones. I really want to see that.

 

No problem Dreamshake,

I didn't every say that he stopped Duncan, nor did you say I did. I simply said He is our best defender when it comes to making the other guy work for position. I also said the last two games not just against SA. I was under the impression that KT sucked a$$ on the defensive side of the ball, which I wanted to point out that I was wrong. Watching KT without being mad at him because his offensive game, makes his defense stand out. If you don't like him (I didn't and still somewhat don't) then you won't see it. You have to open your mind and watch. Now one thing that did bother me was the fact that he does try and strip the ball when he is out of position. Eddie was not doing to good until 4:?? to go when the adjustment was made to front Duncan with back side help. Duncan is the most skilled PF/C in the NBA and both EG and KT played him well. He may of had good numbers but still he would tell you himself that EG & KT frustrated him out there. And that spin move up and then under Duncan was SICK. As long as KT plays TEAM ball on the offensive end than I am fine with his play.

Francis really at times looks like the worst defender on the team. He was constantly being left behind by Parker. If it weren't for the front court guys he would of shoot a lot better. I think he was 3-13, but believe me SF had almost nothing to do with that. He needs to just take steps back away from the offender and not go latterly.

 

i take it you only caught the last quarter and even then Eddie got lucky with a couple of stops on TD but that is it, TD misses his free throws which helps, but man did you see Eddie on TD in the second, think you could have played an attempt at defense better than Eddie.

dreamshake it important that you know the memo is out around the league, Eddie plays for the swat and that's it!!!!

 

I was wondering why they were playing him so much if they opted out of not signing him to a bigger contract extension. i guess that makes sense that they are showing hime off. either way, i would rather see more 5 min play 5pt score Boki.