rockets.com: Taylor, Rice likely starters

yeah. I never take any PR release at face value. They could be trying to convince others that the team rates Mo that highly.

if Mo starts at pf on opening night, I will be surprised. If he returns to his 2000-2001 form he can start, but he has to get there first.

 

what are you Robin on speed kissing Batman's ass.

Do you really think Trevor Mitchell has anything over cc.net--or is he the real Doc Rocket!!!? Do you think the real admins at the Rockets give info to their webmaster without any right to make quotes about who is the starter, yet tell him to write a story. That's like saying DoD not in the know with Clutch's info, or is sworn to just subordinately speak about it without saying anything substantial without an OK....

like a QUOTE from the coach!!

btw: guys named Trevor never get their facts straight.

 

We're just trying to encourage Rockets.com to do anything that gives us any actual info, HP. It ain't much, but what else is going on? No one has compared it to here, silly.

Play nice.

 

Eddie and Mo shot virtually the same percentage on two pointers (42-43%). Mo shot better from the line. In every other facet of the game, Eddie is better, with the possible exception of passing.

Mo can't guard anyone who starts at PF in WEST. Eddie can guard almost all of them. Neither is going to outscore his opposing starting PF, but Eddie will do a much better job limiting the opposing PF from scoring so much and dominating. Eddie gets boards and blocks. Mo gets neither.

Mo isn't a starting PF on any team in the WEST, not even the bad ones. He performed even worse as a starter than he did off the bench. And he didn't get the job done down the stretch.

 

I don't give a **** who starts, but Mo deserves starter minutes(unless Griff really developed this offseason)

Rice doesn't.

 

that's the funniest thing I've read in a while. EG can't guard any real pf man to man.

 

We don't have any forwards, starting or not, who won't get "torched" by most forwards in the West. I am still hopeful of a move, trade, splash, anything. If Rice starts, I am calling the Rockets; I will become available. I can jump up from the dinner table and outplay either Rice or Moochie. Rice used to be great, but how did Norris become an NBA player?

 

we will have to agree to disagree about Eddie's skills on defense

I cannot imagine a single coach in league calling for Mo over Eddie if defense is what he wanted.


as to the myth that Mo played better or deserves to start, here are some stats from last season:

Mo started 9 games last season, scoring 5.8 points on .313 FG%, averaging 4.6 boards, 1.0 assists, .33 steals, and .11 blocks.

Eddie started 66 games last season, scoring 8.8 points on .397 fg%, averaging 6.2 boards, 1.2 assists, .67 steals, and 1.41 blocks.


Mo played in 6 games in April, scoring 5.7 points on .293 shooting, while Eddie played 8 games in April, scoring 8.0 points on .437 shooting.

In the last month of the season, Eddie was better than Mo in every category. That is the month when the Rockets slipped from 8th to 9th, and the fall off in Mo's game was a factor, although one of many.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that MoT was a better defender, just that EG is a joke when it comes to man d because he can't hold his position at all and gets manhandled. MoT holds his position but is not aggressive or quick enough on d. EG has the tools to be a great weakside defender though, with his shotblock instincts and long arms.

I am not going to comment much on those small sample of games you highlighted. I will say this on Mo last year: he sucked when he came back to his first real play since his injury, even after KT was traded. He didn't really start getting back into form until december or so.

But EG sucked just about all year on offense. Hovering around the 3 point linek, airballing once or twice a game like he was in the WNBA, and line-driving his open 2 point shots. The d was letting him take his jumper and he couldn't stick it. The only thing EG brought to the game that MoT couldn't do better or as good was rebounding.

Not that I don't have hope for Griff, but he really needs to work on adding some muscle and getting better form on his jumper. He also needs to stop floating on the outside and taking 3s. Maybe after he gets an inside game he can play around with adding an outside game, but he doesn't really have the handles or quickness to make a living from the outside anyway, so he should stick to what he should be good at.

 

I would love to see more Rockets features too! I do think that Dr of Dunk can write something like this easily though if he has the time. At least they finally updated their website....

 

CriscoKidd, I agree with most of your post.


Eddie was not impressive the past season, but he did show improvement in some areas. I keep his age in mind, the impact of adding Yao, the return of Mo, his fewer minutes.

In my view, there were a couple of months Mo was better than Eddie, probably Feb and March. Then he got a chance to start, and played terrible. Then he got injured somewhat, but I don't remember when it was. I recall that it kept him out of the last two games.

If Mo can play like he did two seasons ago, I'm all for him starting. When he is not so heavy, he gets elevation that is key to his shots, and he gets down the floor better, drives to the hole better, and has the legs to get up when he gets there.

Mo's problems can be addressed by conditioning.

Eddie's problems can be addressed by training.

I'm good with a 50-50 split for them at PF minutes if they both bring their "A" game.

 

I took a quick look at Mo and Eddie's monthly performances and here's what I got:

Mo outscored Eddie in March and April, and shot a better FG% in January, February, and March.


I may have to rethink my position. Mo was clearly playing better ball than Eddie in March. That was when he was so money on that little hook shot of his, shot 50% and got 11 points a game. I don't remember his injury, but it's obvious he had one. He may have had an excuse for April's falloff.

Let me say that if he had closed out the season with 8 games like those in March, he would probably be my choice over Eddie to start. 50% shooting and 11 points means a stretched defense and a guy who delivers when the team gets him an open shot.

 

I agree with most of your last 2 posts as well, FriendlyFan.

I'll say a few more things about the MoT- EG "debate".

- after Mo seemed to work off his rust, he started getting more and more minutes over EG, even though EG was the starter(which I don't mind too much, give EG the title, but Mo the work)

- Mo can create on offense in a variety of ways. His lil perimeter j can be money at times as well as his hookshot. He can bang people around with his weight. He has great handles for a big guy. He's decent at reading defenses and knowing when to try to split through a double team or wait for a good pass. Griff has none of that. He relies on the guards to feed him for wide open js, and his weak face up jumper(I can only hope that someday he can make that turnaround j money).

- At a certain stretch in the season Mo was given the ball when the game was on the line and several times he was more productive than the rest of the team at creating high percentage shots. It says a lot about his game when he can produce better than Ming or SF with the offense running through him, even if only for little spurts in the season.

In conclusion, I kinda agree with heypee. Griff was coddled last season and given an opportunity to log in more minutes than he was ready for. The rox took a gamble and lost. If they would've kept KT I think they would've made the playoffs, even though they should've anyways.

 

why are people saying rice will break down by starting? it's not like starting means you automatically have to log 35 minutes or something. he'll play pretty much the 20-24 minutes a game he did last year, starting or not most likely. i like him starting simply b/c it gives our offense a better chance to come out clicking, which was majorly lacking last year. watching JPo and eg brick their way through the first 10 minutes as we would often fall behind by 6-10 points in the first quarter sucked. i'd rather see rice get us off on the right foot, then let AG come in to play some D. it also lets us know if rice has it that game or not and whether or not to keep him in longer that game so that we can keep feeding the hot hand.

as for mo t or eg, if we've got rice in there, i feel better about having eg in there for D and then having mo be good 2nd Q offense and being around to finish the games so we can score at the end. i'd probably give him slightly more minutes than EG, too.

neither situation is perfect, as we essentially have to make a D or O choice each time, but i like rice and eg starting and AG/mo t coming off the bench.

 

point is, speedball is Robin....and I'd rather have more pictures, with background stories, of cheerleaders.

!!THAT!! is what rockets.com is for.

oh, and getting quotes from the coach.

btw: when is someone going to actually get a quote from JVG, aside from his first press conferences and the obligatory statements after a pickup. The guy won't come up for air or something?

<font size="1">hey Trevor, good job, don't mind me...just razzing the boys here. cheers!</font>

Batman Jones,

It is a good write up. I actually read a lot of nba.com team sites for the quotes (best quote sources in media), and you're right, it is rare that any teams does a piece like that. However, that leads me to believe it was purely a business side decision about making it more op-ed. I still don't see quotes that they didn't already have. I guess you can say that he was given access to JVG or the assistants but told not to use quotes...but I think that is thinking too hard about the issue.

btw: those quotes used seem to be from the filing cabinet.

I don't think I've seen this one, though

Man, JVG would not have traded Kenny Thomas...lol!

Trevor used that quote under Nachbar, but I wonder if it had more general context when said. Seems to me the quote refers more to people who got minutes before, and didn't deserve them...like Eddie....leading credence to the idea that Maurice will start. I think Mo should start, too....just to send Eddie a message. Until Eddie can stop Mo from scoring in practice...Mo should start, imo, because Eddie's offense is not that good to use him if he can't even hold down a MoT type PF.

<i>If Feigen says he thinks Mo will start, it's likely pure conjecture. When it's on the Rockets site, it's slightly more credible. </i>

Come on, though. *pure conjecture* Dude! The guy covers the Rockets as a job. He travels with them. This beat writer has been correct about PT and background player mgmt issues on several occassions.