Hello everyone Taylor is 23 years old!That is still younger then most of the rooks we have had on our team in the recent years,but he has 3 years of experience in this league.almost no rook will be able to play solid defense,cause of two reasons: 1.the competition is much tougher. 2.in order to succed in this league you have to show your offense first(all the fan see is the numbers). I consider some college teams better then Paperclips. So he would be a new born player under rudy. Plus he has gotten better every year. The next thing is all the talk about cats defense. Did you all forget that the rockets drafted him based on two thing,his defense& his quick first step. Rudy said; I think mobley is the best defensive gaurd in that years draft. But as I said,to be a star in this league,you have to show you offense. Or you could be Rohdes or Augman,and be out of job in no time. So please give this guys some credit,and let them do what they are suppose to. Thanks for reading. F ------------------
you can only use credit so much before it has to be paid up. ------------------ I am so exasperated that I could expectorate.
I don't have to give anyone credit and assume they will learn to play defense. Mobley may have been drafted because of his defense, but he did not show much of it last year. Mo has yet to show it. those are facts. I'm not saying they won't improve, I'm saying they both need to focus on the defensive side of the ball if they want to win games in Houston. Their "credit" has been their potential for D that has gone unfullfilled as of yet. In order to be free from bad review, they need to "pay up" by becoming more complete players. ------------------ I am so exasperated that I could expectorate.
Criscokidd Cuttino played ok defense in his first year,cause there where other defensive players on the court,and also it was a vetran team.However,he couldn't really show it last year cause everyone else on the team was new to the system. You can show off your personal defense when other players are at least playing team defense,which wasn't the case last year(new team). He will show it next year.You can mark this words. ------------------
himslef: Cuttino played PG in his rookie season - it worked out offensively becaue all he needed to do was carry the ball up every now and then and shoot 3's off the post up from Dream/ Chuck. Defensively it worked out well because Cat is 6'4 and quick! Second year he played SG - at 6'4 and 190lbs he is too small and can be "bruised" by the bigger and more physical SG's in the league - that's why his defense was suspect last year and why it will be shady again this year. He may get a good number of steals, but don't expect him to be a defensive stopper!!! ------------------
himself: very true. I hope Mobley steps up his D. I think he is very capable of becoming a good defender if he puts more effort in to it. Same for Steve. Smegs of Defense. DoD offends. ------------------ I am so exasperated that I could expectorate.
Kobe is regarded as a good defender and his steals number is not that much better than Cats' (106 v 87). When you consider Kobe can take more risks b/c Shaq had 35 more blocks than Cato, Dream & Pig combined the difference becomes even less significant. I think Cat is currently adequate but if the goal is the Finals in 3 years he will have to step it up to a higher level. The biggest problem *ALL* of the Rockets have (with the possible exception of Shandon) is they play the pick & roll horribly!! ------------------ GATER
Steals are misleading. Iverson is among the leaders (3rd or 2nd?) in steals, and is a horrible defender. Did we all "forget" that Mobley this past season was an awful defender? For whatever reason, he chose not to play good D, and we can claim he'll step it up big time next year till we're blue in the face, but that hasn't happened.....yet. Augmon has played 9 years, and has a career average of 10.3 points per game. Roderick Rhodes he is not. ------------------ The Serious Police are watching. Follow the rules or be assimilated. Shandon is underrated.
Imagine if Mobley got 2 steals per game - that still wouldn't make him a good defender! He would still get blown by/ posted up. The 2 steals would just mean that TWICE during the entire game he managed to stop his player... not so good.... ------------------
If you don't understand Good Defense Look at Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson Swoops takes more risks but is not burn that often. Ergo she has a lot of steals. Tina plays very good POSITION defense. She bodies up and keeps her player from getting to a comfortable/Sweet spot. WAll the time stayingout of foul trouble. Shandon Anderson is more like Tina. He plays position Defense. I think Francis and CUttino would be closer to Sheryl [DPOY BTW] but they have to be aware of cuts and get back to recover very quickly. Rocket River down wit' the COMETS ------------------
Stockton, he's dirty. Philadelphia, Iverson excluded is one of the best defensive teams individual wise in the league, they had 5 or 6 players get votes for one of the all defensive team. This past year, did Houston get any? If you're trying to argue that steals do count for defensive players, that's one thing. But if you're trying to argue that a few more steals would make Cuttino suddenly go from a "bad" defender, into a "good" defender, it's another story. Ironic that Kobe isn't on that list of top 10 in steals, yet he was 1st team all defense as a guard? ------------------ The Serious Police are watching. Follow the rules or be assimilated. Shandon is underrated.
Gater: It's absolutely impossible to argue with any degree of objectivity that Mobley was even an adequate defender last year. He was *horrible*. Francis got quite a few steals last year... but did anyone else notice that the opposing PG often scored more than Francis? Mobley is undersized for his position. His first year, he was protected from this, as he was playing the point, and Hakeem was under the basket to take care of his mistakes. This year, larger SG's ABUSED him. If you're not convinced, get off your computer, find a tape of Mobley playing defense this past year, and watch. ------------------ The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001. [This message has been edited by haven (edited August 19, 2000).]
For those of you not familiar with the Sixers, the reason they are so good defensively is one person. His name is Theo Ratliff. He defends the pick and roll, he picks up the guys that blow by Iverson and Snow and he also helps out on Matt Geiger's man often. He blocks shots also, so filter in the intimidation factor as well. Sounds like Dream in his prime don't it? ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
haven, Iverson is smaller than Mobley and he doesn't get lit up too often. The key is having a "Big Man" in the middle (Cato I hope) who intimidates and also making your opponent work on the defensive end as well. The Rockets need to concentrate more on the TEAM aspect of defense. Helping each other out with communication (calling out picks...etc.) and "switching when a teamate is beaten also would help. Francis and Mobley are still young, so I hope to see improvement on the defensive side of the ball this year. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Oh great... so we should excuse Mobley for his defensive problems because we have Kelvin Cato? Umm... Cato isn't that good defensively yet, he may never be. What I'm most worried about is guards like Bryant posting up on Mobley. I think a double team would be absolutely necessary-which, in turn, frees up another man. Team defense is all good and well, but it would be that much better if Mobley could play defense himself (Shandon rocks!). ------------------ The lottery sucks. Playoffs 2001.
I would gladly double-down on Kobe and let Horry fire up 3's all day. (or Fischer for that matter) ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Along the same lines, here's a thread I started discussing something similar a few weeks ago. http://bbs.clutchcity.net/ubb/Forum3/HTML/007663.html ------------------ Just shut up and post
The Fact is that Mobley IS undersized for a shootin guard. No matter how much MObes tries, he still will get posted up by the bigger guards. You can say that next year, with better communication, better effort, etc that Mobley will be a better defender... but that will only apply to guards around his size. He CANT DO ANYTHING against the bigger shootin guards, and we will be forced to double team. HIMSELF: Good point, I agree. But I dont think Taylor will become a solid defender, but just not so horrible... hopefully average. ------------------ president of the dan langhi fan club.
