I think that's a great artical! Stats can be pretty misleading sometimes. The problem with Mobley is his boneheaded shot selections, not with the assist numbers as much. Although one assist a game doesn't seem to be that much, in the long run its A LOT of missed opportunities (this can be very crucial in close game situations). Cat, you forgot to mention that Szczberbiak's FG percentage last year is over 50 percent...do you think it will be as high if he throws up a 2-3 crazy shots every game like Mobley?? Mobley isn't in the Szczberbiak class YET.... Lets face it, for our team to win and go deep into the playoffs in the years to come, we need a big spark off the bench, and Mobes would be perfect off the bench because of his game...
<i>"Mobley topped five assists only twice last season, which is remarkable for a player who handles the ball so much"</i> another point I forgot to mention...Cat averaged 42 minutes a game last year...<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/statistics?stat=nbaassists&qual=true&sort=asts&league=nba&split=0&seasontype=2&avg=48&pos=sg" target='_blank'>look at mobley's rank last year for assist per 48 minutes, he's ranked 39th among SG!!!</a> Note that R. Lewis is even worst, ranking 42nd...
Am I the only one who read that and thought, "Why are they still paying Murphy to write these things when he doesn't even cover the Rockets any longer?" His main beat has been college football, the Astros and, to a lesser extent, the Texans. He hasn't covered a Rockets' story since July which happened to coincide with Jonathan Feigen's vacation I believe. He only sparingly covered them last year. WH Stickney has been covering them more than Murphy has. Just seems odd that a guy who hasn't been around the team at ALL this summer is making predictions that Griffin or Taylor will start at the three and Mobley will be a sixth man even though the guard spot is the thinnest on the team. Of course, Murph has never been a fan of Mobley and has always insisted Francis is a two guard if you listened to the call-in shows he's done on KILT, so this sounds more like an op-ed piece than a legit preview of the team.
I do admit that artical has a few statements that doesn't make sense like the Griffin or Taylor at the 3...but the moving stevie over to the two and cat to the bench with a pure starting point gaurd at the helm (Tito has the potential be this player) is not that far fetched...if you take a step back and look at what's best for the team to go all the way in the future, I'll won't have any objections if we take this route...
This part of the article displays that the guy doesn't know his ear from his a$$hole. Griffin is and always has been a PF you dumba$$. Go write about something you know about. I bet this guy had a deadline and did some research and then tried to sound all authorative like some of the people on this board. Larry Smith getting a head coaching job?! Cuttino going back to the 6?! Yao Ming having a Gasol type impact and NOT being rookie of the year?! Don't write sports articles on crack....unless you're posting here.
The article brings about some interesting points about what the Rockets need to do in order to get better.Francis is going to continue being the starting PG simply because neither can Moochie,Tito,or Tierre play as well as he can.Mobley is going to be the starting SG as well.We don't have a big shooting guard who can match up defensively and offensively with other SG's and then bring Mobley off the bench. The reason why both Francis and Mobley don't pass the ball much is because they don't trust their teammates to score. With the addition of Yao,Nachbar,and with the return of Taylor the passing must increase,and isolations plays should be brought down considerably. Both Francis and Mobley are good passers,in fact Mobley has better passing skills than most other shooting guards and that is how both of them will have to play together with the rest of the team on the court by getting the ball to other people to score and getting the ball back from Yao in the high post for open shots. This will also increase the chances for Francis and Mobley to drive and get to the basket more easily as opposing players will have to pay attention to the other scorers on the floor.
Tell me again how any of that info makes Murphy any more of an expert than anyone on this bbs? If he is such an expert then why does he make obvious mistakes like refusing to see that the lack of assists last year was a team problem that can easily be traced back to the kind of offense the Rockets run and not directly to Cat. He also referred to Griffin as a 3, when did Griff ever play the 3 last year, I watched every game and cant remember. I personally would like a little more accuracy, especially from someone that is local.
Exactly Jeff. We have one of the best backcourts in the NBA yet this guy, who doesn't even know anything about the team, wants to break it up!? And start Moochie!? Cat and Steve's assist will go up now that the supporting cast is improved. I don't know why there are reporters and Rocket fans that want Francis to move to the 2-guard so badly. This team has the offense, we need a frontcourt, and they have it. What is starting Moochie or Tito at the PG spot going to do!? Move Cat to 6th and Steve to 2-guard is stupid, and destroys a great backcourt. now keeping this backcourt intact and adding Nachbar, Ming, Griffin, KT, Mo and Rice, now that's more like it! And I bet the passing game improves greatly. When Hakeem and Mo were playing well, the Rockets won 45 games. You know why? Because Cat and Francis didn't have to shoot all time time, they could just dump the ball inside. They had open shots and they were able to slash because they didn't have players collapsing on them. Keep the team the way it is, why break up the strong point of the team.
Hey Joe, Lesson for the day: "Anyone who calls basketball BBall instead of ball doesn't know a creamy **** about basketball."
The Lakers and Spurs didn't have a spark off the bench, neither did the Bulls. But if the Rockets do need a spark off the bench they have it in Mo or Griffin whoever doesn't start, KT, Nachbar, Oscar, Tito and Moochie. All are capable of scoring in bunches.
For someone who is not in the Rockets swim of things , I think Murphy did a decent job in his article. One point which he mentions, which I have been presenting ever since the Draft, the team must now become a Center oriented team ala the Championship years. Yao Ming is not just a piece of the puzzle,he is the headstone of the rebuilding. Francis was saying the other day how glad he was to have Yao Ming,that now he has someone who will pass the ball out to him. I still think that a lot of plain talking 'must' be done by Rudy, because if he dosen't and players are still delusional about their grandeur , then I feel sure that we are going to return to small ball and Dribble Mania. The end result could be infighting ,upset and trades. The focus of the Rox players should be humility and brotherhood, only this will give us the melding of talent to produce a Championship Team.
Love what he said about Yao, but Cat moving to 6th man? Cat just just needs to learn to trust that his teammates can score too, then there would be no complaints about him.
Tito Maddux will be lucky to make the team (seriously) and the Rockets don't have any intention of messing with their guard rotation. How in one sentence can you say this is one of the best backcourts in the NBA and in the next say that Cat should be a sixth man? Makes no sense. What's wierd is that THIS is what becomes gospel when it comes to the Rockets because it ends up in TSN. Truth is that the guy who knows the most about what's going on with the Rockets is very likely Jonathan Feigen, at least from a journalist perspective. When he goes public saying that Francis will be the two guard, Griffin/Taylor are your starting 3/4 (or 4/3) and Mobely will become a sixth man, then I'll give it some credence. Until then...
I have not seen the whole article but I think it is a reasonable stab at it and do not think that Feigen or WH would necessarily do any better. Based on what is known right now, the article is appropriate. In three weeks as things unfold it may become stale but right now it is as good as it gets. The movement of Cat does not suggest that we still do not have the best backcourt. I would say that the team could have Brown, Moochie and Tito on the roster. If that is the case then it seem probable that Wink will spend more time at SG. One way to get that done would be to consider the Cat as sixth man option. It is not rediculous to consider it.
Do you guys think that a team can bulit on 2 foundations? I mean wouldnt that make it stronger? or doesnt it take 4 walls to make a room, and when you add the ceiling thats five? The body has many memebers, but all the members still make up one body and that body being the Houston Rockets,
Or, to be more precise, thus the supposition that Mobley (to quote the article) "Might someday be more valuable as a sixth man" ... not today, based on the existing roster, but someday -- in other words, after they acquire a starter-caliber pure PG. (Am I correct in assuming the article said nothing about starting Moochie?) The difference between Francis and Mobley as subpar ballhandlers for their position is that if you move Francis to SG, he'd be one of the best ballhandlers for that position. Mobley's ballhandling, though, isn't impressive for any position. To further restore context to the article, remember that it criticizes Mobley's assists (to quote again) "for a player who handles the ball so much." I agree that it hurts the Rockets that Francis "has the lowest assists in the league for a starting point guard, and the most turnovers" ... but doesn't it also hurt them that Mobley has the worst assist/TO ratio of any starting SG, and the worst ratio of shots to assists? (Look it up, and I think you'll see that I'm right.) The cumulative effect alone is enough to justify anyone's nagging suspicion that the Rockets can't succeed consistently with a Francis-Mobley backcourt. I hope you're not betting on the stats part, because you'd lose. Over the first 29 games he played last year, Mobley averaged exactly 3.0 assists. Over the final 45 games, he averaged 2.2 assists. (Oh, and his rebounding numbers were down, too.) If you look at Mobley's splits for before and after the All-Star break, you'll see that his shots per game rose from 17.3 to 20.0, while his assists per game dropped from 2.9 to 2.0. Regardless of the surrounding circumstances, if that's happening while the team is losing, it's a formula for dissension. Which I think is where the line "The problem the entire group has is getting Mobley to give up the ball" came from.
Swopa - Give it up. Mobley is our best option at two. End of story. And your sig looks extremely pretentious in case no one ever told you. It looks really dumb when you write a long winded article trying to dissect one of the best two guards in the league who had no help last year trying to win games and then when you get to the bottom you see some random Skinner quote that has nothing to do with basketball and if it is supposed to hint at your personality well then I guess your personality is you are a substanceless windbag. Sorry mate, but someone had to tell you.
