Well.....I must say im pleased Cat finally made it to a good team. It is unfortunate cause now I cant root for him since we are in the same conference.
Dumb move by Orlando. Move a SG in his athletic prime for a washed up former defensive SG with shaky shooting? Piss off Francis just because you realized you wouldn't try to resign his buddy over the summer? They'll have no one to show for this - they could have S&T'ed Cat for a decent player or rookie. Helps them a little this season, hurts them long term. Evan
Maybe Weasel-brod(magic gm) was so worried about T-Mac putting 60 on them in the upcoming Rockets-Magic game, that he needed a lock-down defender to put on him. Although I always thought Cat played T-Mac pretty darn good with his quickness. If Sac-to can sign Cat after the season they win this trade big-time. At any rate, we will be able to find out once, and for all if Cat really can pass.
The Magic are in serious need of defense, while Cat is a very underrated defender, Christie is a defensive presence.
My initial reaction is that Orlando lose out more in this deal for a number of reasons. One, the Orlando magic defense will not be greatly improved by one player unless his name is Duncan, Big Ben or Artest. They stand a better chance improving their defense with a coaching change (a defensive minded coach) than a Mobley-change. Two, they will sorely missed Mobley 3-point shooting and attacking the basket ability. This will force Francis and GHill to carry much of the load. Mobley has been huge for them with so many clutch plays and his defense is not shaby either. Three, Davis. Yes changing Davis would have worked better but the chances of that was slim to nill. I trully believed Mobely could have fetched more than an aging Christie. They needed an experienced shoot first point guard but the got lesser athletic SG in his 30s? Mobley to me could have been hard for 8-10 million USD but you settle for an older Christie for 8M? Interesting. For the first time in their career, Francis and Mobley will play for a different team. This was coming but it saddens me because I know what it feels like losing a friend due to migration. Mobs will grossly help the Kings and he could resign with them. What if he resigns with the Kings for 8 or 9 million USD how will Orlando fans take it?
I am glad Cat doesn't get bashed like he used to but reading some of your posts he has gone from one of the most underrated players on this board to one of the most overrated. Mobley and Christie are about the same in terms of value. Mobley is a better scorer but Christie has him beat in just about every other phase including defense. And if Steve doesn't get down too much he will realize this is also a good move for him, having another spot up shooter and a two guard who doesn't need to create his shot. Steve and Cuttino's games just don't mesh imo. I'm surprised they had the little success they did, but I alway felt it would have been better for Steve to play with a spot up shooter and if Cuttino was still on his team, for Cat to be a sixth man. I really believe this will help Orlando's O as well as its D.
Cat is going to score alot of points with the open looks he is going to get in Sactown. I might even have to root for them.
The Kings' Princeton offense doesn't "take people off the dribble". It's back cuts and weakside player action. I for one am going to be totally and utterly amazed if Mobley can learn it. Personally, I see the trade favoring ORL since they don't play a stitch of D and Steve and Cat have redundant skills sets.
I wish Cuttino well even though he isn't a smart player like Christie. I don't think this increases our chances to get him back. I think his resigning will entirely depend on how he fits with them and not neccessarily on how many wins the Kings get.
I think Orlando can pick up the slack by playing Hedo more minutes. Hedo is an underated defender and a better rebounder. He can shoot the 3 but it seemed to disappear during the playoffs with SA last year. A combo of christie/turkyglue should do Orlando just fine. Hedo/christie gives you a bit more versatility for matchups compared to hedo/mobley. Hedo seems more of a backup SF though but I think he can play SG just fine.
i'm very glad to see that cat is still going to be on a good team. the best he's ever been on. i've always worried about him getting traded to a bad team. he gets overlooked so much as it is no one would ever pay attention to him (whereas i don't have to worry about steve b/c he gets the endorsements and all-star votes and shots no matter what) and i also know how much he wants to win and a bad team would kill him. so good for him. glad to see all the former rockets (rudy, francis, mobley) are still on winning teams. on the surface, it seems orlando downgrades talentwise. christie is a better defender, but cuttino still defends quite well, whereas cuttino is on fire from 3 land this year (about 50%) and christie sucks. cuttino also helps with their fastbreaks. however, one disturbing trend about cuttino the last few years has been his net plus/minus stat (the team's plus/minus when you're on the court minus the plus/minus when you're on the bench). last year i think he basically broke even with the rockets. this year he's at -4. christie on the other hand is 3rd on the kings with a +5.2. obviously even with his poor shooting he proves valuable. he was the catalyst to finally getting the kings to play respectable D in their glory days which got them within one dick bavetta screw job of the finals and a championship. the magic are so lazy on D you have to wonder if it'll work here though. but christie with howard and cato (if he ever stays healthy) gives them 3 good defensive pieces to put around francis and hill. but obviously the 3 ball will be in short supply outside of turkoglu now. what, lose 14 games in a row?
You mean Cat and 4 nobodies off the street can't win ballgames? Who would have thought? Oh yeah, what was Fancy's winning percentage that year in the games that Cat missed? (I'll give you a clue, it is the same as the total number of wins in the same circumstances.)
