Starting line up with ....?

You should expect the following players to get the nod as the starters...at least at first:

C - Cato
PF - Thomas
SF - Rice
SG - Mobley
PG - Francis

Bench:

Willis
Griffin
Williams
Langhi
Morris
Tores
Norris

Inactive Reserve:

Taylor
Collier
Brown

Collier currently has what is described as a severe case of shin splints so he should start the season on IR. Depending on how Griffin and Thomas handles the PNR plays along with the health of Cato and Willis he could be on IR most of the year or be replaced by Langhi when he gets healthy.

Brown is the real wild card on I.R. He could just as easily start the season on the active roster in place of Langhi, Walt or someone else that might be a little nicked up. I just don't see him getting any playing time with our current back court unless someone gets hurt.

Taylor of course will miss the year with an achilles tendon injury.

 

I think against the Hawks on opening day we should go with a really small lineup.
PG- Mooch against Vaughn
SG- Stevie Franchise against Terry
SF- Cat- against Kukoc (big height advantage but Cat will prevail)
PF- Rice against Abdur-Rahim
C- KT against Ratliff
THE ROCKETS SHOULD *ONLY* GO SMALL LIKE THAT AGAINST TEAMS THAT AREN'T BIG.

 

themoandfroshow

The Hawks can take the ball to the basket. Having KT at center is inviting trouble. I expect to see that line up some but with Cato and/or Griffin in the frontcourt to strengthen the defense.

I don't like going small for the sake of going small. I like playing Mobley at the 3 because he usually wins the mismatch there. Francis gets to work on only scoring at the two. Moochie brings in another ballhandler in the offense. Moochie, in my opinion, makes the rockets more smooth...if that's the right word for it.

I still prefer to be big at the 4 and 5 so the opponent can't take advantage of the height advantage at the 3 as easily since a shotblocker will be present. Willis might not be the best choice for small ball as he isn't the intimidator and isn't the uptempo type. But alas, I could be wrong as Willis's rebounding could really help initiate the fastbreak, but I still would think Cato, Griffin, and KT bring more to a three guard set.

 

Could point about the Hawks driving ability. Maybe they could go with the lineup I thought of, but have Cato at center instead of KT and play a 2-3 zone.

 

Francis will start at point... that's why he is here...
mobes will start at two..unless he is injured that is why he is here
rice at the three... maybe he won't get the minutes cause we don't need him all that much right now. Too early to get him injured or tired. Get him acquainted with our offence but they'll try to keep him healthy. Come crunch time as in playoffs or end of the season we'll need his leadership. but he will start unless we get something in the chronicle saying he's injured or needs a restin'. He'll wanna start. I gotta feeling he is here with something to prove.
kt-as much as i would love to see griffin start i think rudy wants kt to start. griffin will work harder and harder and eventually overthrow this guy but til then kt has got this spot cause well he's just been here flat out longer.
cato-well it is toss up between willis and cato. i like what i saw in the preseason from cato. i think rudy might give him a try for this night and if the sucks well " we'll be seein some changin ehh..."

no matter what the lineup is I say we just sit and let Rudy run the show. Trust in him and he won't let us down. If not, I know where he lives. My house is still in houston and 'when i go back there he'll still be my neighbor.

 

Actually it makes more sense for Atlanta to start a front court of Nazr Mohamad - C
Theo Ratliff - PF
Shareef - SF

 

Isn't Ratliff hurt?