Houston Rockets: 30 Greatest players in franchise history

• Six seasons with the Houston Rockets (1998-04)


• Averaged 17.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game

Cuttino Mobley was a second-round pick by the Rockets back when many second-round picks didn’t get much of a shot to prove themselves at the NBA level.

But Mobley stepped right in during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign and appeared in 49 games, starting in 37 of them. He put up 9.9 points per game as a rookie, shooting 42.5 percent from the floor.

The next year, Mobley was the sixth-man, only starting in eight of the 81 games in which he appeared. The role suited him well, as he boosted his scoring to 15.8 points per game on 43.4 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc.

Mobley’s scoring averages continued to increase, to 19.5 points in 2000-01 to 21.7 points per game in 2001-02. The team improved, too, winning 45 games the next year. They only managed 28 wins the following season, however, which paved the way for Rick Adelman to take over as head coach.

Mobley ended up shooting an impressive 37.5 percent on 3-point attempts over his six years in Houston, which was extremely impressive then and still holds up today.

Post-Rockets, Mobley split the 2004-05 campaign between the Orlando Magic and the Sacramento Kings before spending the final four years of his career with the Los Angeles Clippers. After his rookie season, Mobley never averaged below 12.8 points per game again in his career, and that came in his second-to-last season.

Mobley’s scoring chops and the relative success of the teams that he played on are enough to get him to No. 17.