it is trade value we are talking about. Maybe we can pack Cat with the trade exemption to east for a star PF and a decent PG. Then we can trade Cato for a good 3.
Just because Cuttino Mobley gets a few more ppg vs the EC doesn't make more valuable in a trade to the EC. Ask yourself which EC team needs him... DET? No...Rip Hamilton. NJN? Does NJ think Cuttino can finish with Kidd like Kittles and Harris. IMO, No. NOH? Is Cuttino overall better than David Wesley? Do you want to face a scorned Cuttino 4x next season? Would NO deal Houston a good player knowing they will be in the same division? IMO, doubtful. MIL? Mason and Redd...enough said. CLE? With the addition of McInnis, Lebron is running at SG. Bring Mobley off the bench and he'll bolt after 2004-05 because 2005-06 is a player option. BOS? Pierce, Davis and Welsch. Plus Ainge wants to uptempo. IMO, probably not. And what do they send? Remember the alleged Williams and Battie offer? NYK? Houston and Hardaway. Penny will make $31m over the next 2 full seasons so I doubt the Knicks want 3 SG's. MIA? Not unless we will take Eddie Jones 3 more seasons @ $44m. PHI? Maybe....if they can deal Iverson somewhere. TOR? Carter and Mo Pete. Even if they wanted Cat (who didn't want them, remember?) they're not sending Donyell Marshall or Chris Bosh w/o also sending Jalen Rose's huge contract. ATL? A Terry-Francis backcourt scares me more than a Mobley-Francis backcourt. And they have who else that the Rox want? Personally, I'd consider 6'9" Chris Crawford (SF), a re-signed Sura and a future 1st but the rest of you would howl and scream that's not enough. ORL? They just got DeShawn from UTA. They'd love for us to take Juwan off their hands. CHI? Do they need Cat? How much do they like Marcus Fizer? How much do we need Fizer? WAS? Some possibilities...but we'd have to take on Stackhouse or Hughes because WAS doesn't need a 3rd SG. I don't see them giving up Kwame for Cat. Cat and Cato for Stack, Jarvis Hayes and a re-signed Etan Thomas? At 6'7" Hayes would move JJax to the 2 but WAS would probably offer Jeffries. IMO, you trade for need and the vast majority of EC teams don't need a SG and/or Cat is not a significant upgrade to what they already have. Now, that dynamic changes drastically if it's Cuttino and Kelvin Cato. But that's been hammered on enough already.
hey supidmonkier, what happened when steve went out with migraines, they went straight to the lottery, and mobley was the man, lets get real here.
Speaking of getting real... Has it occured to you that the "migraine" roster consisted of: Kenny Thomas, Walt Williams, Eddie Griffin, Glen Rice, Moochie Norris, Kevin Willis, Oscar Torres, Jason Collier, Terence Morris, Tierre Brown and Dan Langhi? Or that Taylor was out the entire season? Your statement is comparing apples to oranges. Unless you have somehow convinced yourself that this years' Rockets are a 28 win team w/o Steve Francis. In which case, we can agree to disagree.
People who try to refute stats by dismissing it as "bashing" crack me up. If only my "disdain" was the reason Mobley can't shoot against the West. I'm on the fence as to which guard to move (right now I lean towards Francis for salary/trade value reasons alone), but if the Rockets keep both of those players, they better bring in a new starting one or two because, recent success aside, I don't think this team can be consistent enough in this conference with these two getting 40 minutes a night as the starting guards. Perhaps they'll prove me wrong, but I've been burned too many times by games and/or stretches where it appears that they've "turned the corner" to think they are going to make it together.
A theory: The East's lack of quality can translate to a number of areas, notably defensive ability and top-tier players. Would a drought of 'quality' big men not play a role here? No Shaq, Duncan, Yao; even some of the best PFs in the game tend to reside in the East. Therefore, the Eastern teams are sending their defense into the post against the Rockets more often than the West, freeing up our outside/perimeter players. Before Yao, Barkley and Dream. Cuttino has played with all three. Most of the Western teams can take a gamble- at least at points - to not double down on Yao. The Lakers don't at all, and the other 'good' teams tend to use screens and good movement away from the ball to flash down into the post. The fast paced play of the Kings, for example, can find ways to focus on Yao and still get back to our shooters at least partially. And then you have teams like the Spurs - who have been one of the best defenses in the league - and the Lakers, who had a strong defense during championship runs; these are teams the Rox have seen on a regular basis. In addition, the lack of overall talent means one thing: the teams just aren't that good at basic defensive assignments. Poor defensive rotation, bad matchups, bad coaching...you could run the table here as to why a SG with a scoring mentality would do well in the East. We all know Cuttino's game (primarily if he has the open shot he'll take it); would it be a stretch to say those looks are more frequent - and better - against Eastern teams because of their failings in certain areas? Perhaps a better way to study is to take a look at the stats of other Western SG's with Cuttino's 'sytle' against the East.
Really? A monumental change? You realize you're saying this at a time when the Rockets are winning 60% of their games. Things change too rapidly in this league. I remember when the Rockets panicked because they couldn't match up with the Sonics, so they trade Sam Cassell and Robert Horry (two key members of their championships) in order to obtain Charles Barkley. Only to have the Sonics trade away Kemp and fall out of the elite teams in the West. I hope CD & Co. are analyzing potential changes with other teams in the West before making a change for change sake, or a change to matchup against a particular team or teams. JVG, JJ & Yao are in their 1st and 2nd seasons with the club. How long were Rudy T, Kenny, Max, Thorpe and Dream together before they won their first championship? Of course, they didn't have a coach that harped on the negatives to such an extent that it appears anything less than a change in personnel would be malfeasance.
1) Yao, Taylor, Jim Jackson, and Piatkowski are a little bit better than Willis, Thomas, Williams, and Norris. 2) You didn't address my point at all, the Rockets have a horrible record in games minus Mobley. In fact, you use the same criteria to prove Francis' value to the Rockets, while ignoring it when their places are reversed. It is obvious from this that you are a proud junior acolyte of FAT (the Francis Apologist Triumverate). Maybe farhan or pgabreil will give you some sort of prize for your contributions.
ha ha i guess you got me on that one.i'm speechless, i will just say i not getting on the mobley bandwagon, call it what you want, i like team ball. not someone trying to prove he is an allstar(chronicle article during superbowl week).
Nice Stats Clutch... no really... great pick up My love for the Cat is not as blind as you may think....... (btw the Cut Tino calls are really just for those people who only ever see the errors and pretty much do and were calling for that) I love the improvements he has made every year, moves he has added, major improvement in his defense and this his integration with the Yao focussed offense has been quicker than his Matador back-court partner, but this stat is a blight on his game right now..... the rational reasons put forward by many are nice, maybe the perimeter D is worse in the East, maybe East teams focus on Yao more, maybe Cat gets up for the West games more.... they are all nice reasons... but don't cover it all for me..... think the blame is mostly with Cat himself other Stats you have shown (damn you should start threads more they are great... pity more poster can't analyze more and hate less) show how important Cuttino's offensive stats are to the rockets win-loss record...... at the end of the day... I will still love Cat and the Rockets and hopefully they both continue to improve, but the burden is on him to pull his finger out and start playing better against West.....
Take ease now. I might not explain myself well. What I mean is that CM personality is like spotlight or limelight (according to recently Chronicle depict CM want to be a movie star). He got extra motivated when he played road game against those eastern teams. If you check his past road games against eastern team, except Piston game with 8 points, he had double digits in each game and his average is around 15.7 points. It¡¯s not bad if you considered playing on the road. I did not judge what the status CM in NBA, or in rox team (star, all star. Role player) that is not what I mean. Players got extra motivated by variety reasons. When Yao play Shaq, he got extra motivated. When JJ played with his ex-team, he got extra motivated. Reggie Miller got extra motivated during playoff time. If I bet one person will shine in playoff (that is the average score will above regular season) in rox starters. I will put I my money on CM. You can mark my word for it.
Whoa ... Smeg, you feeling OK? Seriously, I enjoyed your response and meant to say so yesterday. I have been impressed with Cuttino in some ways this year, so maybe we're meeting in the middle. I'm more impressed with his transition to Van Gundy than I am with Steve's. The Sacramento Kings had improved dramatically over a span of 3 seasons (1998-99 to 2000-2001) and won 55 games in the final year of that span, yet still traded their point guard Jason Williams .... and got an even better fit (Bibby). They've never been as "bad" as 55 wins in a year since. I realize people can punch holes in the comparison. The Rockets don't have the depth and talent that the Kings had then and Jason Williams was struggling that final year (though so is Francis). But the Rockets have Yao Ming, and over the next 2-3 years he could be regarded as the best player in the game. The Rockets need depth ... they need guys who can defend, make the pass and, with those two prerequisites in place, knock down the jumper when open. And apparently they now need guys who can break a press.
