Why is Cat playing scared?

I'd like to see him pass the ball once or twice a game. Someone needs to tell him "just because you have the ball doesn't mean you have to shoot it." Someone also needs to teach Cat and Moochie that the object of the pick and roll is to draw a double team and pass to the open man, not try to drive through the double team.
Just my observation.
j

 

I think part of it is that Stevie isn't there. When Steve is in the game the defense has to respect him, and Cat gets better opportunities. When Steve's not there the defense can collapse on Cat or shut him down more effectively. It's one of the little unseen, unoted in the stats, ways that Stevie makes the other players around him better.

 

Cat's also facing the problem this season of the new defense rules. Teams used to have a hard time throwing a double-team at him, because they'd have to completely leave their man; now they can throw a weak double-team instead, and cut off a lot of his opportunities. The rule changes were designed specifically to kill Mobley's iso plays that got him to the line so often last year. Frankly, I thought his ppg would drop significantly, but instead he has coped very well.

 

He is a shooting guard. I wouldnt expect more than 3 to 5 assists/ game.

 

Very good post.

 

Cuttino is the worst passing SG I've ever seen. He looks like he's a young child being torn from his mother whenever he gives up the ball.

But that's not his role. His role is to score and not be too much of a sieve on defense. He does that pretty good.

The only SGs who should have 5 assists or so are guys like Vince or Tracy because the whole teams runs around them.

 

Cat is more quick, than fast. He says he has the fastest first step in the NBA. That might not be true, but it's damned nice. His explosiveness after that first step is more ordinary. That makes it easier for help defense to effectively cut him off.

Stevie's more explosive than Cuttinot, and the same defender that can cut off Cat is forced to foul Francis.

Stevie also has better around-the-basket moves. Cat seems to have a jumper and a lay-up, but his stop-n-pop, floaters, etc aren't as effective as Francis'.

 

New way to diss Cat! (jk)

 

One thing I have found out this season, is that Cat is better suited as a 6th man sparkplug off the bench, as opposed to being a starter.

His offensive game is very one-dimensional, and as mentioned before, it's easy for teams to contain him.

He obviously doesn't bring much else to the table, except scoring, which makes him a perfect 6th man.

 

I have been really pleased with Cuttino's ability to "stop and pop" this season. I only wish that he would combine it more with his tendency to drive hard to the hoop in the past. He is still really effective with the defense currently knowing what he wants to do. If he could vary his shots vs. drives a little better, I think the uncertainty on the part of the defense over what he was going to do would allow him to significantly improve his ppg and %.

Michael

 

I swear Mobley will never make people happy. People are just hellbent on trashing the guy EVERY chance they get. And I don't understand why people get off building Francis up by trashing Mobley, as if it was Mobley vs Francis. Mobley's offense isn't one-dimensional, and he can do things Francis can't, that's why they compliment each other so well. And admitting that Mobley can do something doesn't mean you're trashing Francis. People seem to think praising Mobley is hurts Francis or something. You can tell people are just doing something to rip Mobley when they say Francis is better then Mobley at everything and then use some name to downgrade Mobley, as if he was a cancer, or had off-court troubles, or his teammates didn't like him. Everybody likes, people around the league consider our backcourt one of the best in the league, but the only people who don't like Mobley are the people who are afraid that if Mobley gets praise it's going to hurt Francis or something.

 

I I decided to look up Cat's stats since he constantly gets trashed and labeled with ridiculous nicknames "Jack" and "Cuttinot", and found this interesting. Mobley is obviously better then an a one-dimensional scorer, it's hard to average 20.5 ppg this year with all the injuries we suffered, and losing our franchise player to say he's one-dimensional. He's averaging 3 apg which pretty freaking good for a SG. The only guards averaging more then that are megastars like Kobe, or Jordan who is running the point a great deal and trying to get younger players involved. Mobley leads the team in steals per game with 1.43, and is getting on the glass at a pace at 4.1 rpg. He only turns the ball over at 2.6 per game. He shoots 42.8% from the field which is good considering the way others are shooting around the league. Jordan is shooting 40%. He leads the team in 3pt shooting at 42.8%, he's our best FT shooter at 83%, and takes slightly more shots then Francis (.8 per game more then Francis) which is what he's supposed to do being the shooting guard. From my view the ONLY reason I can see people trashing the guy (when I say trash I mean downgrading what he does, saying he can't do this or can't do that, especially when comparing him to Francis) is that they're threatened that he might get some credit along with Francis which is ridiculous. But I think that's it because every time I see Mobley get trashed people follow it up with "Well Mobley says he has a quick step, but Francis is better" or "People say he has a nice floater, but Francis is better" or "Mobley is nice around the basket, but Francis is better". Everybody around the league realized how good a backcourt we have except some people who are hellbent on ripping Mobley. Think about this, our backcourt is giving us a combined 43 ppg, 12 rpg, about 10 apg, almost 3 spg, shooting a combined about 37% from 3pt range, shoot over 80 from the line, and are to quick for people to stop, are fearless, attack the basket, and when healthy can win us 30 or 40 point by themselves and people are spending time trashing one of the players and wanting him to be sent to the bench or traded. And people wonder why Houston has such a crappy reputation as a sports town.

 

Bravo, RockMillenium! Well said and close to 100% accurate. It's as people here are making a competition between Francis and Mobley, when there isn't a need for it. Like you said, we should be happy we have one of the best backcourts in the league.

 

I knew eventually the hacking of our guards would alter their mentalilty. Folks, Cat and Steve get hacked tremenodusly, and of course the refs are not so generous with the calls. The big men rip apart our guards on drives, which is actually why i have screaming for a personalized Rockets thug. This team needs one big man that can come in, play some defense, and smack around the other teams guards. Hacks on Steve or Cat would never go without revenge. This team needs at least one basher to protect our little guys on the floor.

 

True. We need an enforcer.

 

Rocks K, I think the Wink/Cat thing comes up because there are so few WINNING backcourt combinations, it sometimes seems an either/or. Phoenix was nothing special with "backcourt 2000" and frontcourt zero, and Milwaukee gets no respect with the big three. You have to go back to the bad boys for a winning backcourt, 3 guard model, and that had enforcers, defense, thuggery, quality shooting in front and back, and super super super smarts. Cat is a good, a very good sg, but the problem hatas and even posters with respect see is that Cat and Francis don't seem to make each other smarter, but rather more prone to dumb, playground basketball, relying on talent, rather than smarts, - NOT pinpointing, attacking and demoralizing weaknesses in the opponent. I don't know if it's Rudy or Cat or Wink or what, but I really prefer them not on the court together. I think they use their other teammates better alone. I think neither one plays any d. 2 holes is a sieve. God lord, what's 3 holes?

Now, let me contradict myself. I do hope we bring them both back next year, and I think they will play better with Mo T back in the mix, as they seem to like passing and playing with him. I only hope that their mins can overlap some, with more mins for Torres and Cat leading an attacking 2nd unit with Taylor, with sliding min in the rotation. Mostly, I sincerely hope they BOTH learn to use the most valuable player on the team, GRIF. The offseason will tell alot about that story. If I had any say, I would scrap everything RIGHT NOW and feature Grif on O and D every trip down the court in the rest of this lost season. He is the make-or- break for this franchise for the future, and we ARE a lottery team.
Cat and Wink both better figure out how to use this guy, cause he should play min with both, as certainly the only dependable D player, and a potentially very useful O player.

Finally, a recurring question here and elsewhere will be - do players change? Can we expect a player to be any different next year than he was this year? Sometimes yes, more often no, I think. Players show their essential tendencies, their game, by year 3-5, if they make it that long. I don't think their stats or typical play really changes alot, over the rest of their careers, unless they're in a very unique, special class of players, who improve substantially every year, and get smarter. There's not that many of those, and many of those you might name are or will be in the hall of fame. That's a lot to ask, and would require a bit more at this point.

Go Rockets.

p

 

I've always wanted Oakley on this team as our backup PF, but in light of him trying to piss Shaq off all the time, I think I'll back off. I wouldn't want Shaq coming after us. Last year, the Clippers were trying "to play mind games with me(him)". He popped 61 points on them for his birthday. Is that what we want?


Jamaal Magloire. Get him before he turns into a star.

 

RocksMillenium-

I don't think this thread started out with the intention of dissing Cat. Because it seems like the coll thing to do maybe you came into the thread set on another Cat bashing topic and didn't get the original message. I'm a Cat fan I think he's highly underrated especially at this BBS, but I agree with WoodlandsBoy. Cat isn't attacking the basket that much this year. It seems like last year he would drive and score easily. I noticed this watching the game against the Grizzlies. When he took it to the hole he usually scored and if he would drive a little more in other games he would score easier, especially since he's a lefty. In the final minutes of a close game (even more so when Steve's not playing,) what would you rather have, Cat taking a tough fade-away or driving it in?

As far as Steve goes. He has been driving regularly in games, but it seems like this year he rarely finishes.

I hope you can see that this isn't a Cat bash, it's just something I realized when we played Memphis.