Yet another very strong game for Cuttino Mobley against an Eastern Conference team (albeit a team that is going to the West next season) so this is just screaming to be posted. Has anyone noticed that Mobley's shooting/scoring numbers are <I>significantly</I> better against the East? People have claimed Francis is more of an Eastern Conference guard, but the numbers show that if any of the two are, it's Mobley. <B>Mobley This Season</B> VS. THE EAST: Averaging 16.8 points on 45% shooting and 43.4% from long range (13.29 shot attempts per game in 28 games) VS. THE WEST: Averaging 14.4 points on 39.1% shooting and 34.7% from long range (13.22 shot attempts per game in 36 games) It's not surprising that the Rockets are 16-20 against the West and 22-6 against the East. These are identical shot attempts per game, yet Cuttino's poor shooting against the West results in his scoring average dipping 2 to 3 points a night. It may not seem like a lot, but against the West this season, the Rockets have lost 4 games by 3 points or less and 4 extra wins would have them as the 4th seed. I was stunned to find out even Francis is shooting better against West teams than Mobley is. More surprisingly, you don't find this kind of difference in shooting percentage between any of the Rockets' top guys from conference to conference: Yao Ming 17 points on 53.8% shooting against the East 17.9 points on 53.5% shooting against the West Steve Francis 16.6 points 39.2% shooting against the East 16.7 points on 40.5% shooting against the West Jim Jackson 12.8 points on 42.1% shooting against the East 12.1 points on 42.0% shooting against the West Furthermore, Mobley has had much more success against the East than the West throughout his career. <B>Mobley For His Career</B> VS. THE EAST: Averaging 18.8 points on 45.1% shooting and 41.4% from long range (14.9 shot attempts per game in 149 games) VS. THE WEST: Averaging 16.1 points on 41.9% shooting and 34.5% from long range (13.6 shot attempts per game in 271 games) I tried to look at some of the Rockets top players historically for this kind of discrepancy in other players, but felt some factors could make this comparison useless (since the conferences have changed over the years). Still.... from the 90's on, Hakeem shot 51.5% for 21.2 points a night against the East and 51.1% for 22.5 points vs. the West. Barkley was 16.2 a night on 48.6% against the East and 16.6 on 48.1% against the West. Drexler had a shooting difference, but was not a liability against the West: 18.2 points on 45.9% shooting against the East and 19.4 points on 43.8% against the West. We know the teams in the East currently pale compared to those in the West. There's much stiffer competition in the Western Conference. But is there a real style of game difference between the two conferences? And if so, is that style better suited for Mobley, or is he just beating up against weak opponents? I think it has to be one of those two because I don't think you can dismiss it as just being "hot" against those teams. There's a huge difference this season and there has been one throughout Cuttino's career.
OK, it might be better for Mobley's career to be playing in the East, but what is in it for the Rockets?
You're right, that's a pretty significant difference. And one that is not easily explainable. I was initially thinking that since the East has fewer big men, they have to double down more thus freeing outside shooters for easier shots... but your Francis stat blows that theory out of the water. My next guess is that it's a mental thing... we know he gets geared up for his hometown Philly games... I wonder if he gets up for other Eastern Teams more than the West? Puzzling.
Wow, amazing stat. But one can also arrives at a different conclusion thou. We could have just play him more minutes when playing the eastern team and less minutes when playing the western team. Or could that be because he is spending more resource on defense when playing the western team and his offensive game suffers as a result? great stat.
So we look to trade him for someone who's better againstt he West than the East? Is there someone who we can prove has such value? If so, it would be very intruiging, especially since we play the West more than the East.
One explanation is that the East teams double more on Yao than teams on the West conference. Last night we even saw the Hornet tripling Yao, leaving Cat and Spoon wide open for jumpers. That's the only reason that I can think of, and it is validated by Yao's lower scoring average against the East than against the West, although the difference is mininal. You can argue that JJ, SF get better looks against the East, but I guess that Cat is the most significant beneficiary.
well if clutch the mascot says this is true, then mobley must be moved a.s.a.p thank you bear paws =)
I can think of two possible reasons: 1. As mentioned above, he got more open shots opportunities. 2. Cat is the kind of player who is strong against weaker team, and not so strong against quality team. (No intention of bashing) -Littlefish
Well I'm not exactly pushing for the Rockets to get nothing in exchange for a Mobley career benefit. I would think East teams would have these kind of numbers at their disposal when considering trading for (investing in) a player like Mobley. Obviously it would be a benefit to the East team, not just Mobley, to have him playing the majority of his games against the East. I wasn't making a trade proposal (I'm sure you can find plenty of those threads around) but I don't advocate giving him away. I thought FGA would be the tell-all, but you're right, I should have posted minutes. They're virtually the same though (40.1 against the East, 39.9 against the West). In fact, stats are very similar throughout <I>except</I> shooting. Yeah, it's not a bad theory, but one would think (like you said) that others would see a huge benefit in their shots also. Also, Yao's shooting percentage is virtually constant and his scoring is only down 0.9 points -- not much really. My feeling is there are more lockdown defenders in the West that give Mobley trouble (Bowen, Finley, Kobe, Sprewell, Christie), but it's not exactly like he's not being guarded against East teams. He clearly has much more shooting success against the East.
I still think Cuttino Mobley is too valuable to move. I love Cat and SF, but if one of them had to go I'd rather it be Steve. When you look at value, I believe that Mobley is generally waaay undervalued around the league, whereas Steve is probably overvalued and you'll get a better net trade with him. I personally hope they keep both of them around this season, but if one has to go make it Steve
Clutch, obvious the double comes from the 4 of the opposing teams. And the triple usually comes from the opposing guard position, and I have seen more opposing 2 helping out than opposing 1 leaving SF for help (on D). Opposing 3 rarely leaves to help 5 on Yao. However, I guess that my explanation only works for this season since Cat plays better against the East his whole career, well before the arrival of Yao......
Well, we can probably get something good for him should we decide to move him. If he isn't part of a larger trade package, I wonder if the Pacers might want him, given their overabundance of small forwards. Then again, the Pacers act as if they never want to get rid of Harrington or Bender (and certainly not Artest). But they don't have much idea of who will replace Reggie.
cuttino mobley , rocket for life. my favorite quote was when Cat said "We just got to play Rockets basketball" in the second half. I didn't know what Rockets basketball was for the last five years, now i do, and so does cat. keep up the good work, mobley, against the East, against the West, in the playoffs, don't matter to me, you got my full support.
It's a statistical anomaly. My guess is that there is not one thing you can point out to explain it. Could be injury to eastern opponent's starting SG, or a particular defense, more minutes, more back-to-backs against the west, etc. For different reasons, on different nights, Cat has a better percentage against the East thus far in his career. Maybe, the question isn't why does Mobley shoot so well against the East, but why hasn't Francis and JJ shot better?
Great work Clutch. I had no idea we were that close to being a top 4 seed. Despite the disparity in Mobley's numbers, I do not see it as justification for him to leave this team. As SG's go he is top-norch both offensively and defensively. I have him up there with the best of them and see him as only an asset to the team under any circumstances. Of course he come at a bargain too and may be the best value on the team, when you break it down on a per dollar basis. Another consideration, Clutch, is that it is well documented that he gets up for the east as he thinks more of his friends and family are watching. It seems like Phili, Washington, Boston and NY are big games for him.
I'm not sure that's really fair. Knocking the others for not having higher numbers against the East would be conceding that Mobley improves his game against the East and is really a 39% shooter (as he is against the West) or close to it. Or if he's not really that level of shooter, then his numbers are certainly sub-par against the West. The other top Rocket players have been consistent while Mobley is very high on one and very low on the other. I don't think anyone needs to be reminded of this, but when the playoffs come around, there are no East teams until the very end. Having your starting guards and top two shotputters shooting 40% or less against that competition is not extremely encouraging.
