Ok, discounting Yao Ming, ( its hard to miss on the #1 pick in the draft), The Rockets in the last few drafts have been abominable in their talent evaluation. Take for instance Eddie Griffin. Three first round draft picks, one of which was Richard Jefferson, to get this rich, underachieving, adolescent. Without a doubt the worst trade the Rockets have ever made. Speaking of underachieviers, here are some more: Mo Taylor, Moochie Norris, and yes, Cutino Mobely. What happened? In the '94-'95 time frame when the Rockets were winning NBA championships, the ability to judge talent was right on. The same people (Carroll Dawson) are still doing the evaluating. Again what has changed? Only thing I see is Les Alexander. He wouldn't be the first owner that thinks he knows talent and uses his influence (owner) to get what he wants. What do you think?
look dawg, you are just flat wrong about the rockets and their player scouting. MoT was, is, a legit low post scorer. He is far from the perfect 4, but if he could rebound and defend he would be Tim Duncan and there aren't many of those to go around. His injury has limited his effectiveness, but when we signed him we promised a good deal and so we ponied up. Moochie had a great year and was about to sign elsewhere (GS) before we re-signed him. Bad move, but he was coming off a good year and was one of our franchise player's boys. EG was considered #1 in the draft by many, many scouts across the L and internet. Surprisingly, the reason he dropped (attitude problems) hasn't been a real big problem for Eddie. EG will develop into something, RJ has probably peaked and will not be the same without kidd feeding him the rock for dunks. So, sorry to be brutal, you are just wrong. Thank you, come again!!
Interesting how you bring up Richard Jefferson... Wait til next season and see how easy his points come without Jason Kidd... Jefferson is a good athletic SF but he's not a top player... He's had a lot of highlight reel stuff but he still has not done anything that would put him in the elite status... He dunks and dunks a lot because of JKidds assists... He hasn't done much without a pass in the open court... decent shooter and decent defender... I would probably still do the trade for EG... I will admit I didn't like Collier and Langhi(traded Eduardo Najera for him)...
I don't know how you can say this since he was a mid second-round pick. Any real success by a second-rounder is nowhere near underachieving in my book. Seriously, when we picked him did you think he was going to have the career he's had so far?
I think the same was said about Marion and all he's done is get better without Kidd. People can look at Kidd helping this player or that player, but no one can measure the sweat Jefferson and arion put in during the summer becoming better players. One thing that was said about Eddie Griffin when he was drafted was his work ethic. I for one was expecting him to make the same stat jump as Jefferson did, but didn't. Thats why as much as people, my self included bash the low basketball iq of the backcourt, no one can question their work ethic. All the talent in the world can't help a player if he or she is lazy.
Mobley was taken at #41. Who else was left ? Sean Marks, Ryan Bowen, Jahidi White, Derrick Dial....Would you take these ? I don't think so...Mobley is surely not the perfect guard, but he is by far the best second-rounder of this 98 draft class (I don't count Rashard Lewis, he was already gone when we took Mobley) The mistake was to take Bryce Drew at #16, not Mobley at #41
Shawn Marion is a different player than Jefferson. A better comparison for Richard (stats & style) is Cedric: <a HREF="http://www.nba.com/playerfile/cedric_ceballos/?nav=page">Cedric</a> <a HREF="http://www.nba.com/playerfile/richard_jefferson/?nav=page">Richard Jefferson</a> <a HREF="http://www.nba.com/playerfile/shawn_marion/?nav=page">Shawn</a>
Mo & Moochie were not drafted by Houston, so how are they relevant when discussing the team's ability to evaluate potential draft picks? Doesn't EG match up much better against Duncan than Jefferson does? How effective is Jefferson when Duncan is on the floor at the same time? What did Jefferson do in the Conference Finals when Ben Wallace was on the floor? <a HREF="http://www.nba.com/playerfile/richard_jefferson/?nav=page">Richard Jefferson Stats</a> Looks like his shooting percentage goes <b>way down</b> when there is at least one shot blocker on the floor.
The Rockets didn't draft Mo T or Moochie, and considering everything, Cuttion Mobley has been a fantastic pick for where he was drafted. And give it till the middle of next season, well all see the awesome selection that Boki was. AC
