The Mutombo Mystery

[George O'Brien]

It looks like the deal sending Mutombo to Houston is about to be completed. In any case, this will be his fifth team in five seasons (not counting the Bulls). While some of his movement related to his big contract, it is still surprising considering his stats.

Last season Mutombo averaged 6.7 rpg, 1.89 blocks per game, and 5.6 ppg in 23.0 minutes. This would have ranked him around 12th in the NBA on a per minute basis if he had played in enough games. So why does he play so little?

It is not enough to say he is not much help on offense. He was never much help on offense and was still selected to the All Star team 8 times. He's lost some quickness, but still appeared to be able to defend the post in the games I've seen (admittedly few).

So why can't he keep a job? From what I can tell, his big problem is that he is terribly slow running the court. While it is common for fans to respond, "so what, he's not much help on offense anyway", I think the real problem is on defense. A big man that can't get back quickly creates a major defensive problem.

I tend to break down offense into four segments: fast break, early offense, regular offense, late offense (clock expiring). Centers that are slow at getting back on defense extend the period of the early offense when the offense is playing five on four. Add three or four seconds to that period and there will be too many open shots for the defense to be effective.

If my hypothesis is correct, it explains why guys like Mutombo, Ostertag, and Jahidi White get so few minutes inspite of good per minute stats. They can get minutes if they play against slow, half court teams that don't push the ball. But smart coaches know to push the ball when lumbering centers are in the lineup.

Offense oriented centers like Zydrunas Ilgauskas can be given more slack. This is because their very presence in the low block means two defenders will be near the endline. But no one has to guard Mutombo, so opponents are better positioned to run the break and get into their early offense.

I'm not sure this is exactly what is going on, but it makes the signing of Hunter over JP make more sense. Hunter has the potential to be like Camby and Ratliff in running the court.

It also opens up an interesting question about Dampier. Can he run the court and keep up with a Don Nelson style game? Patrick Ewing hated Nelson and all but drove him out of New York. Considering that the Dampier trade was Cuban's decision and not Nelson's, it might turn out very badly.

 

[baltimorer]

If Van Gundy is willing to use Mutombo, the Houston Rockets will be a much better team for it. It's as simple as that.

All the Knicks games I watched last year, when Mutombo got a lot of minutes they were a much better team. For some reason, however, Lenny Wilkins didn't like using him. Obviously, any fan could see that on the court Dikembe looked old, slow, and about as agile as that pesky rock man in that one episode of Star Trek. He seemed to think that when he got the ball on the low post that he could do something productive with the ball, even though everybody else watching the game disagreed harshly. So basically, he looked like he did when he was in Denver leading the Nuggets past the Seattle Supersonics in 1993.

Dikembe Mutombo hasn't gotten significantly slower or less agile with age because he's always been 25 going on 100. But that fact has never really stopped him from being effective. Very effective. He still has an uncanny ability to react to cutters, slashers, and anybody else who tries to come into the paint and put the ball in the hole. Somehow defying logic, his amazing lack of agility doesn't really seem to hamper his attempts to block shots, and his frame, relatively devoid of meat, doesn't make it hard to jockey and bang downlow with centers who have 20-30 pounds on him. And perhaps most mystifying of all, he is pretty effective on the block with the ball in his hands. Teams double team him when he gets low, he shoots a high percentage from the field, and the officials don't call the travel he commits when he runs across the lane and throws that unorthadox hook shot down at the rim. Hell, I'd even argue that he doesn't actually travel, he just has long legs, but this is my first post at this forum and I don't want to lose all credibility this early in the game. Anyway, his biggest problem in recent years has been the simple fact that he hasn't been able to stay on the court.

So why doesn't he get time? Honestly, I'm not totally sure. I guess I can understand why he didn't play a great deal with the New Jersey Nets. He started out the season starting, but he got injured for an extended period of time and never regained his place in the rotation. The Nets got to the NBA Finals without using him very much at all, so you can't really fault Byron Scott's decision there, and plus he didn't totally fit into the Nets' style of play. Who here has imagined hearing "Captain Kidd grabs the rebound and is off to the races, crosses left, goes right, passes to a streaking Mutombo for a wham-bam SLAM!"? Not I, certainly.

I think people lost faith in Dikembe after the series against the Lakers in 2000 when he was a member of the Sixers squad. For some reason, everybody made such a big deal about that one game where he held Shaq to 9 points in a regular season game, and when he didn't do that in the Finals, people thought Dikembe was falling off. Since then, the Nets didn't like him and the Knicks didn't play him. The Knicks thought they were going to trade for Stephon and all of the sudden become a faster version of the Nets, so you can see why they wouldn't like him. Obviously, us Suns fans know that Stephon Marbury isn't as much an up-tempo point guard as some think, but that's another story for another post. Moreover, Isiah Thomas had to justify his statement that "Nazr Muhammed is the key to the Tim Thomas/Keith Van Horn trade," so his b*tch (Lenny Wilkins) gave Nazr more time at the expense of Dikembe's minutes and the Knicks overall level of play.

My verdict? The Rockets don't have to expect superstar numbers from Dikembe to give him minutes, because they already have their "superstar" in Yao Ming. So Dikembe will get 15-20 minutes a night in which he blocks 2 shots, changes 8 others, and Tracy McGrady shoots 20 times. Van Gundy seems to like to slow the game down, so Dikembe will fit well into that scheme. They won't miss Piatkostky's 4.1 ppg as much as some critics of this move will argue, and as far as good shooters are concerned, TMac, Jim Jackson, and Yao all satisfy that area. Bottom line is they significantly better with this deal, and even if Mutombo doesn't give them a whole lot, they didn't give up a whole lot to get him, either.

RB

 

[George O'Brien]

I agree that the Rockets with Van Gundy is the ideal destination for Mutombo. "Nobody does it slower".

 

[The Commish]

Even if Mutombo plays well and often, it still wont matter because the Rockets bench is paper thin and wont last an entire regular season, much less be able to handle the postseason.

 

[Joe Mama]

Even if Mutombo plays well and often, it still wont matter because the Rockets bench is paper thin and wont last an entire regular season, much less be able to handle the postseason.

I agree, but this trade is still a good one for the Rockets. Chicago is only trading him because he has said he doesn't want to play there on a young team with absolutely no shot to go deep in the playoffs. Otherwise they would not have made this trade. Piatowski, Wilkes, and Griffin are hardly big losses.

RB, welcome to the message board. You're off to a great start since I agree with virtually everything in your first post.

Joe Mama

 

[Dylan]

I've read that even tho Mutombo is a great shotblocker, his team defense is lacking. They can be too different things, as a guy can block everything that comes his way, but in the concept of how the team is defending, and each person has a job in that defense, he lacks.

I don't know, I haven't watched him that much, really, but that is what I've read a couple times.

 

[George O'Brien]

I've read that even tho Mutombo is a great shotblocker, his team defense is lacking. They can be too different things, as a guy can block everything that comes his way, but in the concept of how the team is defending, and each person has a job in that defense, he lacks.

I don't know, I haven't watched him that much, really, but that is what I've read a couple times.

At one time Mutombo was considered an outstanding defender. According to HoopsHype.com:

4 times named Defensive Player of the Year.
3 times named to the NBA All-Defensive 1st Team.
3 times named to the NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team.
Led the NBA in total blocked shots from 1993 to 1998.
Led the NBA in total rebounds in 1994-95 and 1996-97 and 2000-01.
8 times selected to the NBA All-Star Game.
Named to the All-NBA 2nd Team in 2000-01.
Voted to the All-NBA 3rd Team in 2001-02.
Voted to the HoopsHype.com All-NBA 3rd Team in 2001-02.
Voted to the HoopsHype.com All-NBA 2nd Defensive Team in 2001-02.
Ranks fourth in the blocked shots NBA's all-time list.

 

[Bada0Bing]

4 times named Defensive Player of the Year. Yet only
3 times named to the NBA All-Defensive 1st Team? How can you be defensive player of the year and not make the all-defensive first team? Strange.

 

[coloradosun]

I'm not sure this is exactly what is going on, but it makes the signing of Hunter over JP make more sense. Hunter has the potential to be like Camby and Ratliff in running the court.

Since my conspiracy theory of acquiring Ratliff did not pan out I've gone underground. I will agree with the prospects of Stephen Hunter, at least he is studying to be the next Theo Ratliff or Dennis Rodman, hopefully the former. We did acquire a center who was selected in the first round and did not have to use our own pick, fortunately for the Suns, Orlando volunteered to become his developmental league team.