I have been ouspoken about Steve Francis and his non existant defense. I said it all of last and this year...this team will not make the playoffs with francis playing the point. He constantly gets burned by scrub point guards who have season highs and career highs against him. He is extremely cocky and does not know when to shoot and whe n to pass. The rockets maybe 8-4 but they have 0 quality wins so far. Losing to memphis, dallas and portand are more telling then any thing else. This team will not make the playoffs without making a major change.
I agree! He plays so stupid last night when he dribbled the ball of his knee was horrible! That was a big mistake we could have scored and that could have changed the game. I am pretty sure he is happy just getting his stats and nothing else. You can tell when a player is a winner and he just is not a winner. No playoffs his whole career.
You're right, it's his offense. This is Steve's worst offensive season of his career, even worse than last year, which was his worst at the time. Will SF ever actually IMPROVE? Who knows. All we know is that he doesn't learn from his mistakes. "The Franchise". Whatever.
Steve's D isn't bad, and tell you the truth Mooch plays about 20 mins a game, and it seems most of the points come throught during that time period
stoudimire wasnt exactly a "scrub". Remeber back in the day, when people thought he was a preimere pg. Hes a pretty decent pg. When iverson had that 4-20 shooting night, Mobley was gaurding him. It was francis. Hes steped up defensivly this season, but for some reason he just does not want to penterate, instead just takes shots from the outside.
Remember the backcourt violation because he couldn't get the ball over the half court in time? Remember another pass that went out of boundary? It happened right AFTER the Van Gundy timeout. Coach probably was pulling his remaining hair off his bald eagle.
How come every Steve TO is heavily scrutinized and there's hardly a blip on the BBS radar when Yao had 7 to's?
Because Yao's turnovers are due to bad coaching and poor guard play, not the fact that he has stone hands.
Steve's defense... In the second half of the Phoenix game he helped shut All-Star Gaurd Stephon Marbury down. Last night most of Damon's points came off of Moochie defending him. Steve did have trouble fighting through the multitude of Portland picks last night, but unlike in previous years he was truly fighting through them. Steve was playing hard on defense. He didn't shoot much, but I thought people didn't want Steve to be a scorer and to let Yao do that. After all Steve's shot was off so he didn't continue to jack up shots. Last night Steve played like the 'true point guard' that so many people say they want instead of Steve. It turns out that without Steve also scoring as well as dishing the ball, the team doesn't do too well. I don't want to bash Yao, but the guy once again had more TO's than Steve and only handled the ball a fraction of the time. I think it's clear that we need both players on this team to do well for us to succeed. I wish those that don't like our entire team could join the rest of us that do.
Think we won't make the playoffs with Francis at the point? You are on! Stick it in your signature now and then you can glory in your prediction if you are right, or wear it when you're wrong!
steve's defense has actually been pretty decent this year. stoudamire is still talented and quite capable of scoring on anybody should he catch fire. damon's problem is that another game like this might not happen for another week or two.
Stoudamire scored because our team defensive rotations were awful. It wasn't like Damon was cutting through the middle of the defense hitting layups. The guy was running off multiple picks and forcing Steve to chase him around them. The problem was that Steve wasn't getting help from the guy defending the person setting the pick. In order to play effectively against the pick and roll - especially against a guy who is as quick as Stoudamire - the big man guarding the player setting the pick HAS to show on the guard giving the defender (Steve in this case) time to catch up to his man. In Portland, Steve got very little help from his teammates defensively. Granted, some of the credit goes to Stoudamire because he is so quick and difficult to defend. But, this wasn't all on Steve. As for the turnovers, no question it is part of the game Steve must improve upon. It is one of his biggest weaknesses and it comes from the fact that he tries to do too much on the floor. He tries to be spectacular when often it just isn't needed. Since you mentioned Yao's turnovers, his biggest problem is that he waits too long to make decisions. He is a step too slow in deciding what to do with the ball. He has similar problems when he gets passes from players on the run. It seems like he doesn't always see the play developing until it's too late. That is simply a matter of experience both with his teammates and with the NBA. His instincts are good. He just hasn't gotten them to react at NBA speed yet.
Ignore this guy. He gets nervous whenever you metion something bad about Steve. And the first thing that comes to him is why not Yao? Get real, man. People are talking about Francis, not Yao. What the hell does that have anything to do with Yao?
Newtons Law For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Oski was just stating how skewed people's minds are that they can critisize one players mistake ( who handles the ball the most), but then seemingly just ingnore the other.
It's a legitimate concern on this BBS. Since Yao was drafted, the site has been inundated with people who admit to being Yao-only fans. They start threads like, "Would Yao Be Better Playing for Dallas or Sacramento" and generally criticize anything to do with anyone but Yao. It also doesn't help that it seems the average Yao-only fan knows very little about the game of basketball and the history of the NBA. As a result, folks who either don't share that opinion or are Rockets-only fans are sensitive to that issue. It will continue to be a problem until more time has passed and people either get used to it or find some middle ground.
Did you even bother to watch the game? Steve was getting lit up like a christmas tree by "mighty mouse" It seems if you are just saying that Stoudamire dismantled Moochie to imply that Steve was a formitable foe. Truth is, they both suck! I am by no means glorifying Moochie by saying this. I don't even know how "he" is even in the NBA, let alone making millions of dollars! Moochie is the worst player in the NBA. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of the Rockets, but I honestly hope that they miss the playoffs again. And then maybe, just maybe, management will finally see the light and they will trade Steve Francis. What a moron!!! Hopefully Nash will opt out of his contract at the end of the season and the Rockets will dish out the cash!!! Moochie.. Mobely... Taylor.... Griffin..... and Francis..... have the combined brain capacity of squirrel. I feel sorry of Van Gundy. He has the task of trying to turn these aforementioned losers into something that is workable. Good luck Jeff!! I hope this nightmare doesn't last long!!
