Well if your starting 2 guards can score 50 points it means they're having a good game scoring, and playing well offensively. But you're missing the whole point of what I brought up... You've claimed that Morris being on the court is detrimental to the offensive flow for the Rockets, when compared to Taylor. If what you claim is true, how do you explain that when Morris plays 20 minutes or more a game, rather than just playing garbage time, the offense runs well, judging by the 94.2 ppg average, particularly when comparing it to Taylor and an 89.1 ppg average. How exactly is Morris hindering the Rockets offense as a whole, not a particular individual's contribution?
I too have seen Morris shooting a lot better this year than last. I'm not sure if it's his shot getting better, or him just getting a better idea of his capabilities-he doesn't shoot well behind the arc, but he looks pretty good a couple steps inside of it. However, like hp is saying, teams don't respect him as a threat like they do with MoT. Teams are willing to give him the shot, and it should be noted that when he's hitting it with consistency, those are some of the times that the Rockets rip defenses apart who get caught in between leaving a mediocre shooter like Morris and preventing the real weapons (Francis, Mobley, Yao) from getting theirs. Mo vs. TMo offensively is not close. TMo is not going to be able to carry an offense for any stretch. We saw 2 years ago, and in the Minn. game (if I'm thinking of the right game) that Mo is capable of putting the bulk of the offensive load on his shoulders for a short stretch, or even an entire game. When healthy, is midrange jumper is probably the equal of any PFs in the game except maybe CWebb. He's got the big body inside, and is capable of scoring in the post, as well as taking guys of the dribble. TMo's value is his versatility. He can truly play both forward spots with his size and physical skills, and score on a jumper or finish with a dunk in transition. On a healthy team, he's the 3rd string SF/PF. That's what he is on this team behind EG/Mo and Posey/Rice. A guy like TMo can eat up minutes and fill in when needed and we're seeing that now with the Rice/Mo injuries. He doesn't do anything well enough to be much more than that, but that's ok. PS, heyp-Did you read the Chron. today? Mo said he feels better than he has in a long time, and plans on (wants to be) playing today (though the staff may take a more cautious approach with him).
Jaybird, The reason I blew off your comments was because you can prove anything with a small sample set.. People claim that Francis and Mobley taking most of the shots is detrimental to the team, but we are 8-1 in games when they score 50 pts combined. By your 9 game sample, Morris is better than Maurice, because we went 7-2. But your stats also happen to be 7 wins at home and 2 road losses. <b>Our PPG is 94.4 at home overall</b>. In 7 outta 9 games at home, of course we are statistically better--we are also 9-3 in the other 12 home games, so it is not about TMo. Your stats are skewed to home court statistics is all. Also your stats really only include 3 games where Morris plays PF without Maurice. What worries me is the Posey/Hawkins, TMo lineups, especially with Cato. What also worries me is that our double high post set that is the best set at getting the ball to Yao has decreased in the last 3 games. That worries me. I think it is no coincidence that Boston did a gimmick defense that we've never seen before that took Yao completely out of the game on a night when Boston knew ahead of time that Rice and MoT weren't dressing. It took a 50 point effort by Cat and SF to win that, and this BBS gave them hell about it for not passing to Yao. People also gave the Rockets hell for the Nuggets game before that. That's two of the last 3 where you give credit to TMo getting 20 minutes at PF, and our motion was not there. Your stats mean nothing really.
NIKE, yeah I saw the Chronicle. Sounds very hopeful, but at the same time it sounds like Maurice really wants to play in *this* game. He crushed Fox last time, remember?
