I'm not surprised that Steve and Cat are already banged up this early in the season. The two amount for 99.67% of this team's offense. Nearly every Rocket posession begins in their hands and they are hurting because of it. The Rockets need to take advantage of Eddie Griffin and Terrence Morris, their two "Shandon Anderson-Howard Eisley" players. They need high energy guys who can come in, hustle, do the dirty work, and score off of broken plays. These two are both extremely long and rangy, good rebounders, and both posess special weakside shotblocking instincts. This is the Rockets' forward tandem of the future. They can contribute in the present. Over the last 15 years, how many times have we seen the opposing team bring in some big oaf to guard Hakeem. This poor b*stard would come in and spend his 6 fouls wisely. He'd experience "the Dream shake" up close, but he was a fresh body to help tire out the Dream. Walt Williams is good in spots, but he isn't effective unless [Moochie,] Steve, or Cuttino is setting him up. I'm not asking for Eddie and TMO to play major minutes. I just want them to each get 15-20 mpg - enough to come in, provide some energy, and play pressure defense. We have to utilize all of our tools.
Rudy seems to be playing it extremely cautious with Eddie. He got a DNP in a game KT only played 15 minutes, meaning for over 30 minutes, we played with a non traditional 4 (Rice, Walt, Morris). In Rudy's system, you aren't given minutes, they have to be earned. At this point, Griffin hasn't played well enough to demand major minutes, nor has he been given the spotlight to prove he can earn them. It's still early, though. If KT doesn't play vs. Seattle, it'll be interesting to see how Rudy splits up minutes. A long shot blocker like Griffin is very helpful when Payton tries to go inside, and Morris has the perfect physical talents to match Lewis. Morris is playing aggressive on defense. The refs have had some questionable calls on him especially, regarding some blocks that looked pretty clean. Has anyone else noticed that Griff and Morris seem to play much better with Steve than with Mooch? Is that just me? Rudy likes both of them a lot, but stays with those that are on the inside already. As for the Steve and Cuttino issue, I agree. I'd like to see the team occassionally run through Rice. He was very effective playmaking from the low post, where he could pass (is anyone else impressed by some of his great passing skills he has displayed?) or turn around and shoot over his man. It would also be nice to run screens for a shooter. Indiana does this for Reggie, and now Jalen as well. Washington does it for MJ, and also Rip Hamilton. I could see Cuttino being very effective coming off a Cato and/or Willis screen for a nice midrange jumper. Rice can certainly light it up with this type of play set up for him. Francis and Cat take such a beating because our most effective offense has them taking it to the rim.
tha cabbage: How would playing Griffin and Morris ease the work load on Francis and Mobley? Even if you bring Griffin and Morris in the game, you still need Francis and Mobley on the floor (unless you are suggesting the rookies play the guard positions). I agree that Rudy is overusing the dynamic duo, but playing the rookies won't help lower their minutes. Oscar Torres must step up his game to help Mobley get some rest and keep Francis from playing the two guard.
All Mobley's injuries have occurred in practice--hip pointer and sprained ankle. We don't really know how those happened. We don't even know if it was even on the defensive side or not. imo, saying Mobley's drives to the hole get him injured (or his 41 minutes per game do) is founded on nothing but trying to make a logical point to justify ideas about changing the rotation. Now Francis is a different story. He does hit the court hard a lot. I'll chime in to repeat Behad...Griffin and TMo can't ease the load on Francis/Mobley anyhow. I think a "play the rookies" idea can only be based on our need for front court help. Then, we have to ask what Rudy is clearly thinking; do they actually hurt the guards by allowing defenses to clog the lane on them even more. Do they bring enough pressure defense to offset a drop on offense? I also agree that there are four rookies on this team, three active. Torres is about as high energy as they come. I don't see how we can give all three of those guys 15-20 minutes. Further, right now, I still don't see TMo doing enough to give him any real minutes...I'd just give them all to Griffin. What does TMo do that Griffin doesn't do better? The big thing that concerns me is that TMo has shown bad rotation on his jumper in practice, twice now, plus a 3rd time in a preseason game. the bottomline is: you can't say Play the Rookies without saying who you are going to sit down. Saying they help us rest the guards is strange, especially when you don't mention Torres.
What does TMo do that Griffin doesn't do better? IMO, TMo is a better passer and a better ball handler than Eddie at this point. If Kenny Thomas is out tonight, then I hope we do play the rookies at least a little bit against Rashard Lewis who tends to get alot of minutes.
I'm not sure that the call is to rest the guards by playing the rookies, rather to help the offense by playing the rookies. The statement is that the offense begins and ends through the hands of Cat and Franchise, and that they're getting a little banged up by that, putting two long armed defenders in there who hustle about might give us some easy baskets on putbacks and enable a bit of defensive pressure to see if we could get the easy turnover baskets. Not that TMo is going to play point or that Griff is going to play Sg, just that they can create a couple of 'cheap' points to ease a bit of the pressure on the stars! (Hence the Anderson/ Eisley reference). Heck I'd like to see us get a couple of free baskets every now and then!
